| September 07, 2005 |
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Leaving at 8:00am to Carl A Newhall
Lean-to. Well I made it across Hagas Creek without mishap.
It was still rushing pretty good, but I was able to walk across it
on stones. The pines are growing right beside the trail and
have a wonderful smell and I've seen 2 small maple trees that have
already turned color. The trail is level through a pine
forest, but I'm doing rock and root hopping. It's really
rooty. The trail follows Hagas Brook down river for most of
the day. That is the same creek I just crossed just after I
left camp. There's 2 waterfalls together, one is several feet
high and the one on down is probably 5 or 6 feet high. I have
a feeling it'll be like this all the way down the stream today. |
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I'm at the Golf Hagas cutoff, the first
cutoff. I'll be going into Screw Auger Falls.
Note: The gulf was formed by water
eroding the slate walls of a narrow canyon. The result of
sculpting is many spectacular waterfalls nestled in a chasm about
500 feet deep. |
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A lot of birches, maples, beeches and some
pine in this area. This is a mature area for the most part.
There is no camping in this area at all. Running into a lot of
blue slate in this area. I'm also seeing some sand stone in
the area. There is still a lot of boulders along side the
trail covered with green moss like there has been all along. |
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Now I'm really getting into some really
large white pines. Probably 24 inches in diameter. It's
easy hiking through all of these pine needles. Soft on
your feet, a couple of swamp areas close by the trail. A lot
of mud from the rain and a lot stream crossings today. Like
hiking on a wide 6 foot road. |
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I can see the west branches of west river
from here. This is the one the people coming north had
difficulty crossing. |
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From here Katahdin is 83.9 miles. So
here I am at the Pleasant River, it looks like it is walk-able, I
just have to change my shoes. I have to put my camera and
recorder in my backpack so if I do fall they won't get soaked.
I'm going to sit here and have a snack before I start out. |
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I made it across safely, the water was
swift and half way up my to my knee and ice cold. The only
thing that happened was that I froze my feet. I've go a big
mud puddle to go through here. The footing in the river was a
lot of small stones with the big ones mixed in so it was easier
walking than I though it was going to be. |
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I'm hiking up water in the trail now and I
can imagine what this was like 3 days ago. East
Chairback Pond is 1.2 miles and Chairback Gap is 4 miles. I'll
try to eat my lunch at East Chairback Pond area. |
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That little climb fro the river was
extremely steep. Right now I'm hiking what looks like to be
the side of the mountain. It's kind of level right through
here. I took me one hour to come 1.2 miles. That's how
steep it was coming straight up the hill. I'm sitting on a
large slab just as you go back down to East Chairback Pond.
It's was 2 tenths of a mile down there and decided this was a nice
sunny spot and a nice big rock where I could cook myself some
noodles. |
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These boulders are blue slate and straight
up and I'm hiking across the point of them. They are rough
where they weathered and they're no so hard to hike on. Very
ridged though. I finally reached the peak of Chairback
Mountain. It's absolutely beautiful! I'm hiking on top
of large boulders surrounded by blue berry bushes, scrubby pines,
tall pines, clear blue skies and I can barely see the mountain rages
through the trees. I need to go a little higher. I got a
360 view of the mountains now and I can definitely tell where they
are heading me. I can also see Chairback Pond. The wind
is blowing up in here and feels a little cool. I can't believe
some of these mountains that I've been over. You can tell that
they're getting more rugged. |
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I've also come up on a rock wall that's
probably 100 feet higher than my head. And sure enough the
trail is taking me right along the side of them where it's one big
pile of boulders after another. All piled on top of each
other. I don't know who in the world put a trail over these
rocks piles. Definitely somebody that wasn't in their right
mind. I don't know anybody who would hike them except somebody
that wasn't in their right mind. Maybe Old Joe Bailey was
right when he told my husband that I was so far out in left field
that the white coats can't even find me. |
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It's a little scary up on this rock pile
looking back down the top of the trees and see the rounded rocks
that I was hiking on coming up through here. I will definitely
receive the rock climbing ward this year of the Central Ohio Hiking
Club because by the time I done with these I'll be rock climbing
fool. |
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I must be over looking West Chairback Pond.
These mountains aren't getting any smaller. I'm not quit to
the summit yet, almost. If I was a beer drinking fool I'd have
to sit down now and drink to the fool who put this trail on top of
this hill. Instead I think I'll sit down and drink lemonade to
the fool who climbed it. |
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I just met 4 north bound through hikers.
They used to work at Baxter State Park. U also passed two this
morning. So that is only 6 that I've seen today.
The going down hasn't been much easier than the going up. |
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I'm coming into Chairback Lean-to.
It's already 4:05pm. There are a lot of mountain ahead of me
and I think I'm going to call it a day. I hear some people up
there already. Hopefully there's room for me. There
wasn't any room in the shelter so I put up my tent at the tent
campsite. Had to go back down over the hill to get my water.
It's about 7:00pm now so I'm just about ready to turn in. |
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Swing'n Jane |
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