START LOCATION: Horns Pond Lean-tos
FINISH LOCATION: Little Bigelow Lean-to
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 10.2
TRIP MILEAGE: 2,006.6
MILES TO GO: 172.5
The rain pounded the shelter's metal roof last night. I still slept great even though it woke me up a few times. Starting at 5AM, I began a cycle of waking up to check the weather, then going back to sleep when I'd realize it was still raining. I ran this cycle a few times until 10AM when the caretaker woke Two Rings and I up a last time. Then we just sat and watched the rain. My phone had service and I saw it was supposed to break by noon... If it did, I would blast my way to Lil Bigelow Shelter. Well, by 11 I decided to go for it. Two Rings was planning on staying but when he saw me getting ready, he opted to leave too. After some trail info updates from the caretaker, we were at it by noon.
The weather broke nicely. We summitted South Horn and Bigelow's West Peak under blue skies, fast moving puffy clouds and lots of wind. I had to remove my hat for the 3rd time on the hike as we reached West Peak. The gusts were easily 50 mph since they were nearly knocking me over. Thankfully it wasn't too chilly. The views of Sugarloaf, Flagstaff Lake and the Crockers was fantastic as we made our way to our last 4,000' summit of the hike... Avery Peak. Two Rings and I spent a little time there trying to find Katahdin on the horizon. He thinks he saw it, but I had no idea.
As we descended Avery Peak we reached another cool milestone... The 2,000 mile marker. We took our pictures and moved on quickly. The sun was hanging low and we still had 6 miles and one more moderate climb before our day was finished. I blasted the rest of the way to Lil Bigelow Shelter, just to find it invaded by the other Colby College orientation group. They were cool though... They offered Two Rings and I their leftover dinner. As we ate Michael J. came cruising in. He had left Stratton at 10AM and made a well timed 15.5 mile push to catch us.
I'd planned on pushing 21 miles to Caratunk, ME tomorrow. But, I forgot that required catching the Kennebec River ferry service before it discontinued service for the day at 4PM. My food supply is in good shape, so I might shoot past Caratunk and head straight to Monson, ME by Tuesday. A giant breakfast at Harrison Camps on Monday morning will help my cause. Still on track for the 17th to complete the hike!
-natedog
No comments:
Post a Comment