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View Full Version : Finally got back out there! Trip to the bigelows.



Tankerhoosen
09-03-2006, 23:23
Well after to many years I finally got back out backpacking. I did a section of the AT in the bigelow range in Maine, it was great! I got up there late thursday, around 7pm. I decided to hike up to the Horns Pond shelter/campsite in the dark. What a night for a nighthike, it was chilly, bright bright stars, and about a 1/2 mile into my hike the coyotes started howling! It was cool! It took me about 4 hours to get to the site (it was a four mile hike uphill), I took the fire wardens trail to the horns pond trail. I took my time because I was by myself, and out of shape. :D I got to the site around 11pm, I didnt head to the shelters because I didnt want to wake anyone up that was staying there. so I found a tentsite right by the trail (a sanctioned site) and set up, crawled in and read for a while before passing out for the night.
Since I got in so late I decided not to get up early, I rolled out of the bag at about 9ish. I took a walk around the site, its a really nicely laid out site. I stopped down to the shelters to flip through the register and put my own little bit down. After that I took a walk to the privy, only reason I mention it is because its the coolest composting privy, with a great view of sugarloaf area. I headed back to my tent to start breakfast, while getting the supplies out the caretaker came by and chatted for a bit, turns out there was no one in the shelter the night before so I could have just crashed in there! Oh well, it was nice to use a new tent. I boiled up some water and had oatmeal with real maple sugar sprinkled in, and a PBJ on pita bread with a clif bar for desert. Packed up my gear, then went and filtered some water at the spring. I then took one last walk around the site. I stopped in at the site where I camped seven years ago with my college group as part of our orientation. It was weird to be back there, trying to remember peoples names, where the tents were, who I tented with etc.
I slung the pack on and headed out, my goal was to make it to Avery Memorial campsite, about two and some miles away. I started at 11am walking, heading up to the summit of south horn, hmm it was a bit steeper than I remembered it, and hell that pack got heavy! It was a nice hike up though, great sites to see, and a lot of quality trail work had been done on the steep sections. It took me about an hour to get to the top, and sadly it was only a 1/2 a mile, but damn was it steep! I plopped down on South horn and had lunch, while there I met a section hiker, didnt catch his name but he was a helluva nice guy, hooked him up with a clif bar while he took a break. He headed out and I took my time with lunch, warming in the sun and enjoying the view, I pulled out the map, looked at the route to come and then looking at the landscape. I decided, I was done. Not in a whining I am tired, being done. But the, I am enjoying this hike, and well I got to the top of the south horn. I decided to hike back down to the horns pond trail and head back towards where I parked. It was going to be from south horn a 4.5 miler back. I was actually looking forward to seeing what I missed on the hike up in the night before. It was a nice hike down, my quads were definately pumped. on the way down I met two more section hikers, trashman and mulligan. Nice guys too but I didnt want to slow them down much. I met a nice french canadian couple on the way down the fire wardens trail, the conversation was interesting his wife didnt speak english and he was very animated! Well I finally dragged my tired butt off the mountain, and I had the perfect campsite in mind. It was right by the stratton brook pond, but as I got there, there was already two guys set up, with boom blox blaring :rolleyes:. I asked if they would mind if I cooked my dinner there, and they didnt. So I set up and they wandered off with their sling shots (seriosuly) I had a nice dinner of chili Mac and beef while watching them launch rocks across the pond, seeing how far or how high they could get them. It was amusing to watch. They were nice guys though, up for the weekend. I finished dinner and thanked them for letting me stop there and I marched on. It was only about a 1/2 mile farther to my truck, I was going to sleep int he back of it and in the morning head out to where my dad grew up on the coast. Depending on how long it took me to get back to Waterville. The weather sunday was supposed to be lousy so I didnt want to be out if it was. So I get back to my truck, open the bacl and dump my pack in, sit on the tail gate and take the boots off, man did that feel good! I chatted with people that were getting back to their cars or heading out. I finally got around to setting up my mat and back in the back and crawled in, I read till about 9pm and passed out. Weird dreams about fighting columbian/korean terrorists aside I slept good until about midnight when I woke up as a car was pulling in with music bumping. Since there was talk of vandalism in the area I decided to see if these might be hooligans. Turns out they were just kids from Lewiston, I popped my head out of the truck to A. let them know I was there and to help them out, they were talking about hiking out to the campsites, so i told them they had filled up. So they set up camp next to their car, and started a campfire..... in the middle of the parking lot. (I didnt know till the next morning)
Next day I got up, packed up and headed out. Took me longer than I expexted to get back to I-95 so I just headed home. A 6 hour drive, pulled into the driveway and my tire promptly went flat! How sthat for timing!~

So I guess the point of this rambling story was, I was glad to be back out there. Sure I didnt hike as many miles as I wanted, And now looking back I kind of wish I did, but I had fun. But I didnt like being along, the silence was seriously deafening (sp?) I missed the pointless chatter, and having someone along to push me on. But I had a great time. I think I might hit a section of the AT in CT this weekend if I can. Sorry for it being so long, but I was in a chatty mood.

-Tankerhoosen:banana

Footslogger
09-04-2006, 08:50
We'll be there next year. Last section my wife has to hike to complete the AT. We'll be hiking Rangeley to Monson. I'm looking forward to seeing the area without snow. I hiked out of Stratton in 2003 with freezing rain falling and the weather went down hill from there.

'Slogger