| September 08, 2005 |
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Leaving Chairback Shelter area at 7:25am.
It's 7 miles to Cloud Pond Lean-to. It's 10.9 miles Long Pond
Stream Lean-to. Long Pond stream is where people are having
difficulty getting across. |
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In 4 tenths of a mile I'll be going up
Columbus Mountain. First off the bat I have boulders that I
have to cross over. Columbus Mountain is exactly like the
Chairback Mountain. I've got to go straight up piles of
rocks. What I can see right now it's all covered with mosses,
mostly solid rock. The trail looks like it has pieces broken
off. |
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It isn't any wonder that this moss is so
lush and these pinewoods; I'm standing right beside here beside of
some and was feeling and it's almost to the point where it's
sopping. If you push down you can get water, it's that wet.
Real spongy like. |
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One thing about going up these roots that
you have to make sure that you're shoe string doesn't get caught in
these roots. I did that the other day and got my shoestring
caught in a little tiny piece of a root and couldn't get it and I
couldn't go forward or backwards. There is always danger of
being thrown backward because of your pack. I finally
got it lose and was able to go on up without incident. I can
be a very serious citation. |
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Columbus Mountain was less difficult than I
though it was going to be, however it would have been very tricky
going down. I made the best choice going south on that one.
I should be running the ridge for about a mile until I hit the West
Chairback Pond. Then I have another mountain to cross. |
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Sun is out early this morning, but it sure
is hazy. I'm at the peak of Columbus Mt and I can off into the
distance. I can also see West Chairback Pond. That's
quite a distance away. |
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The woods is open and I can see a good
distance on the trail. The trail is decent, but wet and soggy
in places where streams have come out and flooded the trail. A
lot of the pines are right on the trail and the brush and
bushes rub up against you all the time. Under the tree canopy
there's just a jillion of little pine trees coming up. I
looking down on what appear to me as a fairly good size swamp.
However I'm hearing water falls in the distance. That might be
the head water for the pond that's coming up. |
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I lost the trail coming up and had to
backtrack and find my blazes again. Everybody else has been
making that same mistake too because the way they've been going up
through here it looks like the trail. I had to go straight up
over the boulders. This Monument Third Mountain is very
rough. Lots and lots of boulders in the trail and all around,
moss covered boulders. I must be close to the top because I'm
hiking on big rounded metaphoric rocks. I saw a neat looking
plant growing on a big boulder with some moss and deer moss.
I've seen if before. I don't know what it is, it looks like a chive
except shorter and more knobbier to touch it. It's not very
long in length and they are probably a couple of inches if that.
There seems to be a lot of hawks in this area. There's a
jillion of these little red squirrels in among the pines and it
would probably be easy pickings for the hawks. There goes my
little friend the guarder snake. This is a little brown one.
I'm not quite at the peak. It looks like one more big rock to
go over. From this point here I can see the east and the west
pond together. Way off in the distance I see extremely high
ridges. |
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It's interesting to see where I've come
from. I can the long slope of the mountain that I came down
yesterday that was so steep and so rugged. I can see the coned
shaped mountain that I was on. I can also see the top of White
Cap. |
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I just met a north bound hiker. He's
69 years old and his name is O'Lee. He said he had been doing
the trail for three years and he was going to finish up the last 400
miles this year. I'm coming around Baron Mountain and I think
it's setting me up to go steep. It's been really rugged and
lot of rocks. A lot of roots to climb up over, but above me is
nothing but sheer rocks. I think that this is about where I'm
headed right now. It's now taking me around on switch backs.
Switchbacks do give you a little breather. Baron Mountain is
just that. Nothing but bare rocks, I'm talking large massive
stones that I'm hiking on. Big flat ones. This mountain
is going to be just as tough to go down as it was to go down.
This one is steep, rocky and rooty, which must be Fourth Mountain,
so I haven't been over Baron Mountain yet. I've got another
big climb of boulders. These boulders must be a 100 feet high.
Some caves underneath these rocks. This thing is straight up!
I am at the top of Fourth Mountain now. I looking over at a
beautiful lake in the valley. It must be 10 or 12 miles long. |
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The Fourth Mountain get it's name because
it's the Fourth Mountain of the Baron Range. I'm hiking on a
long board walk across a swampy area. A lot of cinnamon ferns
in this area. The water is on the board walk making it muddy
and difficult to get through. This is the second board walk
I've been through like this. |
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I got to the stream between the
mountains and had some lunch and stuff. I'm heading up this
mountain now and it's just one big boulder after another and wet
which is not going to help things any. These areas become rock
climbing skills. Putting your hand into this moss is like
putting your hand into a wet wash rag. I made it to the top
without mishap. I slipped a couple of times and my shoe lace
got caught just about made me fall. |
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I'm finally at the Cloud Pond Lean-to. I've
been all day doing 7 miles. I'm going to try to get to Long
Pond if I can. I'm on a ridge top now. I saw some coal
steps just a few seconds ago. There's a big tower anchored in
on top of Baron Mountain. Probably a fire tower at tone time.
Baron Mountain is 2,670 feet. It is baron, just big rocks,
short scrubby pines along the side of the rocks. |
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This has been really rugged getting down
the over these boulders that the AT Maine Club has put in steps in
this section which makes it a little bit easier to go down.
They are plenty slick when they are wet, if you get your foot caught
like I just did. The can be dangerous. |
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I'm standing on an open rock cliff with a tremendous
view in front of me of two large lakes. The one in the fore
ground is extremely large and the one behind it is the same way.
Looking back I can the fire tower on top of Baron Mountain. |
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I've been hearing thunder rumbling off in the distance
for a while. Hopefully I can get to the shelter just in time.
I have this terrible rocky down right before I get to the shelter.
This slows me down because I was making good time until I got to
here. May be I'll make it before the storm. The roaring
thunder is getting closer and closer. From here it looks like
the storm is the next mountain over. I hope I can get through
these rocks before that storm comes. |
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I've lost the blazes. Someone has put red tape on
the trees up here, so that must be the trail. This is not a
good time to lose the trail! I've come out on a logging road
and I don't know if I'm on the AT or not. I don't see any more
red tap, sometimes when you're on the logging roads they don't mark
them. I've come out on a logging clearing, now what do I do?
I was just about to go back and somebody had put a big arrow in the
middle of the road, so I'm hoping it one of the AT crew. I see
some foot prints in muddy spots, but I don't know if that is hiker
or not. I've come to a Y in the road an no signs telling me
what's what. |
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I never did find the AT blazes again. I kept
hiking on the log road came out to a grassy area and started
hiking on hiking on the gravel road. I came to another that
said Thompson and I figured that they were private properties.
I went on the road the way the arrow were pointed and kept going and
going. I kept thinking if it got to much later I need to set
my tent up. I kept watching the water supply. I knew I
needed that and I just kept hiking. All I had was one
day supply of food left and I needed to be in an area where
there was water. This is quite a crucial situation. I
found another sign with another name on it and came to this gate and
I was watching the tire tracks on the road and it looked like a new
car that had gone in. I followed those tire tracks in through
this gate and I was never so glad to see a propane tank in all my
life. It turned out to be a big fancy log house. I
knocked on the door, couldn't get anybody to come to the door so I
glance over to the car that was sitting there and there was a dog in
the car so I knew somebody had to be around. I went around to
the back of the house yelling Hello and finally a lady answered me.
They offered to bring me into Monson. |
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It turned out that Pat and Clowse lived close to the
area of the log house. I was very thankful that they brought
me into Monson where I got a room at Shaws Hostel. I will
spend a zero day in town. I'll talk to you later. |
|
Swing'n Jane |
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