Mad Townie
New member
No one took me up on a last-minute offer to hike the Crockers on July 25, so Boulderdash and I made it a father-daughter duet. After a healthy road breakfast courtesy of Dunkin Donuts, we made the 2hr, 45 min. trek to the trailhead on the Caribou Valley Road. I always thought of it as the Caribou Bog Road, but I guess times change. The bridges are a little sketchy, with big holes often found on one end or the other. One bridge in particular has a couple wash-out holes that probably would have swallowed the tires of my Explorer. With care you can drive a car in about 4 miles, leaving a 3/10 mile walk to the AT, but our SUV made it all the way (which is why I drive the thing!).
It was a nice day, with temps in the 60s and a high overcast. The sun shone through on occasion, but not enough to make us sweat too much. That weather continued throughout the day. Very little wind.
The contours on the AT map look daunting, but we found the actual trail to be much more reasonable and cooperative. Shortly after the Crocker Cirque campsite, which we didn't visit, the trail emerges onto an old slide which gives excellent views of the entire Bigelow Range. There, during a view break, we were passed by 3 NOBOs who were headed to Avery Col that day. They were the only NOBOs we saw.
The trail continues uphill at a decent but not difficult angle, crossing another old slide. The dead moose everyone talks about is down to a few ribs and a large pile of hair. I suspect its condition results from predators of the 4 legged variety as well as the feared souveniris hunteris humanis!
The summit of South Crocker is actually a few yards off the AT on a side trail, with good views to the south and west. With the clouds so high we had no trouble seeing Sugarloaf, Spaulding and the various Saddleback peaks, which we hiked last summer.
The dip between the Crockers and the ascent to North Crocker were again pretty reasonable. When northbound, the North summit is the last uphill part of the hike. As they say, it's all downhill from here! Oh, there's a fairly new side trail at the summit of North that goes out and down to the west and gives some views of Reddington and the lakes. Pretty.
Our walk down the mountain was uneventful in spite of my right knee (must get into the gym for rehab!). We met a couple SOBOs, a guy about my age from Tennessee and a guy in his 20s from Connecticut. The Tennessean was trying to average 10 miles a day and he's already been on the trail for 20 days, so I'm not sure how far he'll get. He also seemed to be carrying quite a large pack for a through hiker. Good luck to both of them, as it's getting late in the season.
We got to Rte. 27 with the prospect of a 6+ mile hike back to the truck, but once again trail magic struck. A pickup truck picked us up (that's why they're called that, I guess ). We asked only for a ride to the CV Road, but when the driver heard we were going to walk over 4 miles in he decided to help out and drove us all the way to the iron bridge just before the road gets real bad. It was a brand new truck, and we tried to move as little as possible so as not to get mud from our boots on the new carpet! A very nice man, which is not a surprise up in the Maine woods.
Boulderdash is finally old enough to drive, and she was kind enough to drive all the way home from Kingfield. She now has only 2 pieces left to finish the AT in Maine: one from the Kennebec to Avery Peak, and the second from Speck Pond to the NH border. We're hoping to do the northern one in August so that we can finish up during Labor Day weekend at the border. Somehow it seems a fitting place.
The Pierce Pond stretch seems awkward from a planning point of view, given the ferry schedule and the fact that Pierce Pond Shelter is only about 3 miles from the river. Since I'm not up for 20 mile days with a full pack, we'll probably take 4 days to do the whole thing. The southern piece is an easy 2-day, with the added attraction of Mahoosuc Notch.
Anyone want to join us for either?
It was a nice day, with temps in the 60s and a high overcast. The sun shone through on occasion, but not enough to make us sweat too much. That weather continued throughout the day. Very little wind.
The contours on the AT map look daunting, but we found the actual trail to be much more reasonable and cooperative. Shortly after the Crocker Cirque campsite, which we didn't visit, the trail emerges onto an old slide which gives excellent views of the entire Bigelow Range. There, during a view break, we were passed by 3 NOBOs who were headed to Avery Col that day. They were the only NOBOs we saw.
The trail continues uphill at a decent but not difficult angle, crossing another old slide. The dead moose everyone talks about is down to a few ribs and a large pile of hair. I suspect its condition results from predators of the 4 legged variety as well as the feared souveniris hunteris humanis!
The summit of South Crocker is actually a few yards off the AT on a side trail, with good views to the south and west. With the clouds so high we had no trouble seeing Sugarloaf, Spaulding and the various Saddleback peaks, which we hiked last summer.
The dip between the Crockers and the ascent to North Crocker were again pretty reasonable. When northbound, the North summit is the last uphill part of the hike. As they say, it's all downhill from here! Oh, there's a fairly new side trail at the summit of North that goes out and down to the west and gives some views of Reddington and the lakes. Pretty.
Our walk down the mountain was uneventful in spite of my right knee (must get into the gym for rehab!). We met a couple SOBOs, a guy about my age from Tennessee and a guy in his 20s from Connecticut. The Tennessean was trying to average 10 miles a day and he's already been on the trail for 20 days, so I'm not sure how far he'll get. He also seemed to be carrying quite a large pack for a through hiker. Good luck to both of them, as it's getting late in the season.
We got to Rte. 27 with the prospect of a 6+ mile hike back to the truck, but once again trail magic struck. A pickup truck picked us up (that's why they're called that, I guess
). We asked only for a ride to the CV Road, but when the driver heard we were going to walk over 4 miles in he decided to help out and drove us all the way to the iron bridge just before the road gets real bad. It was a brand new truck, and we tried to move as little as possible so as not to get mud from our boots on the new carpet! A very nice man, which is not a surprise up in the Maine woods. Boulderdash is finally old enough to drive, and she was kind enough to drive all the way home from Kingfield. She now has only 2 pieces left to finish the AT in Maine: one from the Kennebec to Avery Peak, and the second from Speck Pond to the NH border. We're hoping to do the northern one in August so that we can finish up during Labor Day weekend at the border. Somehow it seems a fitting place.
The Pierce Pond stretch seems awkward from a planning point of view, given the ferry schedule and the fact that Pierce Pond Shelter is only about 3 miles from the river. Since I'm not up for 20 mile days with a full pack, we'll probably take 4 days to do the whole thing. The southern piece is an easy 2-day, with the added attraction of Mahoosuc Notch.
Anyone want to join us for either?
