Day 155: 2000 miles!

Hiked 15.3 miles, tenting at a Little Bigelow Lean-to.

The weather forecast for today was similarly uninspiring, chance of rain in the morning, thunderstorms in the afternoon.  I decided that I really wanted to get up and over Bigelow Mountain before the thunderstorms hit since the peak was reputed to be pretty exposed.  With this in mind I arranged for a 6 am shuttle back to the trailhead and Why Not decided to join me.

Red in the morning, sailors take warning

Early morning view of The Horns as I climb towards them

To the right of the above photo

Looking across Horns Pond up at The Horns

 The skies were fairly clear when I woke at 5 and I was feeling pretty hopeful that maybe I might get a little clearer weather for the crossing.  The climb over Bigelow today marks the last major peak between here and Katahdin.  In fact for the next 80 miles or so it is very flat looking on the elevation profile.  Having nice weather for this last mountain would be really nice.

9 AM photo

Climbing The Horns, looking back the way I came

On top South Horn, looking towards Bigelow

Looking back from South Horn towards Horn Pond

As I started up the mountain I passed a huge milestone.  I have now walked a total of over 2000 miles of trail!  Some people don't even put that many miles on their car in a summer.

On top of Bigelow, looking towards Sugarloaf

Looking back towards the Horns from Bigelow

Looking down at Flagstaff Lake

Looking ahead towards Avery peak with Little Bigelow behind it

The rain managed to hold off for the entire morning and there were a number of marked side trails to views over the course of the day.  It was pretty hazy, but I could see enough to enjoy these spots quite a bit.  The Bigelows is a fairly long ridge line and it is flanked on one side by Flagstaff Lake, an immense body of water.  Along the ridge are a number of mountains that I had to cross today including The Horns, Bigelow, Avery and Little Bigelow.

On top of Avery looking down at Little Bigelow

Left of the above photo looking down at Flagstaff Lake

I managed to get all the way up and over Avery before the rain started.  It was unfortunate I had to cross Little Bigelow in the rain, but I can't complain because I wasn't expecting to cross the rest of them in moderately sunny conditions.  Little Bigelow had a few exposed sections but for the most part it was in the trees so it was not a horrible hike in the rain.  The hard part was going down the other side.

Panorama from the top of Avery

It was basically a multi mile long slab that I had to walk down to get to the shelter.  Typical Maine.  The new twist for the day is that up until this point I've been extremely lucky and haven't had to do this in the rain.  The water makes this descent far more challenging and it took a lot of concentration and careful foot placement to get down without wiping out.  The tree roots that criss cross the trail and normally are very helpful in this situation became even more hazardous than the rock when wet.

Looking back at Avery during a momentary lapse in the rain, partway up Little Bigelow

Descending towards the shelter, I got a rainbow during a momentary lapse in the rain!

All afternoon there was thunder rumbling nearby, but other than a near constant drizzle the thunderstorm still hadn't hit by the time I got to the shelter.  I decided fifteen miles was a reasonable day and I should set up camp before the storm really hit.  This meant more free time in camp than normal.  I didn't really know what to do with myself.  It is tough to stop early for the day.  Why Not, Fig and Wrangler are all here tonight as well as a couple section hikers and two flip-floppers.  Now that the main bubble of southbounders has passed I feel like I am running into more and more flip-floppers heading south.  This becomes pretty common this time of year as northbounders further south realize that they are not going to finish before Katahdin closes and have to flip up and head south to finish their hike.