Sept 23

2K, eh?

I got some breakfast across the street at the diner.  Pricey for diner food, but it was prepared by a skilled chef, with fresh ingredients.  I had some really good coffee, pancakes, and a veggie omelette.  After checking out, the motel owner gave us a ride back up to the trail.  Pretty sweet.  The first couple of miles were flat.  I walked by several ponds, and crossed footbridges over multiple streams.  I stopped for a privy break at the Cranberry Spring campsite.  That's been another nice thing about Maine.  In some of the camp areas, there might not be a shelter, but there is a privy.  The following section of the trail immediately started back to an uphill assault, as we entered the famed Bigelow range.  We came to the top of the ridge, where a small side trail led to a rocky outcropping.  We stopped for a break and took in the views to the north, spying what the upcoming terrain would look like.  What we saw were several pyramid shaped mountains.  Yep, I bet that's where we're headed, hehe.  There were some day hikers up there too, speaking French.  Up here, we are really close to the French speaking region of Canada.  I opened my book, to try to put some names to the peaks that we could see ahead of us.  Then I realized something.  We were at mile 2000.3!  That's exciting.  The French-Canadians must have thought these Americans were mentally disturbed, as we whooped and hollered, high-fiving and dancing around.  The ridge line looped around, still increasing in elevation, as we made our way to the lean-tos at Horns Pond.  This was a beautifully maintained shelter area, but we kept on moving.  The trail pitched up sharply, climbing to the tip-top of South Horn.  We were now up on top of a long exposed ridge line that traveled along the peaks of the Bigelow Range.  Looking to the west, the massive Flagstaff Lake was below in the valley.  To the south we could make out the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and could clearly see Mount Washington.  Mountains stretched as far as we could see to the north as well.  We had no way to tell, but we imagined one of those peaks in the distance must be Katahdin.  To the east, the mountains dissipated into the flat lands along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.  After two more miles walking along the ridge, we climbed up the west peak of Bigelow Mountain, at 4145 feet.  A short slope down, followed by another pitch up, put us on top of Avery Peak.  The mountains were soaked in the soft glow of afternoon light.  Cool, breezy, and clear.  Long shadows were starting to creep up the slopes.  It's hard to pick a favorite section of trail, but this was definitely at the top.  Much like Franconia Ridge in the Whites, but so much more remote and isolated.  From this perch, there were absolutely no signs of civilization.  No roads in the distance, no power lines, no shimmer of windows on buildings.  Actually, this entire middle portion of Maine has been incredible.  I could have stayed up here in the Bigelows forever.  Daylight was fading quickly, and it was certainly chilly, so I begrudgingly hiked down from Avery.  The trail was ridiculously steep in places.  We lost about 1800 feet of elevation over the next two miles, on the way down to Safford Brook.  It was just about dark, and there was no way were were going to make it to the shelter at Little Bigelow, 5 miles away.  There was a campsite at Safford Brook, but it was 0.3 miles off trail.  Usually, this would have been right on the threshold of being too far to hike just to get to a campsite, but we were tired, hungry, and needed to fill up on water, so down to the campsite we went.  I set up on one of the tent pads, just before dark, and filled up my water bladder at the spring, using my head lamp to guide the way.  As I cooked my dinner, a mouse scurried around my tent site.  I scared him away.  I think he ran off down to the next tent pad to pester Rainbow Eyes.  Leaving town today, we only managed a 10 mile day, but it was one of the best days on trail so far.

A contemplative view from West Peak of Bigelow Mountain.