| September 14, 2005 |
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It's 7:50am and I'm leaving West Carry Pond
Lean-to. Little Bigelow Lean-to is 7.1 miles. Long Falls
Dam Road is 3.4 miles. A lot of clouds over the water and the
air is really cool this morning. When I go to West Carry Pond
Lean-to, ??, Snowman, Avalon, and his father Godspeed and another
white headed man that I didn't know were there. I met Vision
Quest last night for the first time. I've seen her registers
before. |
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Starting up the big mountain chain.
It has rained in this area. The sun is popping out through the
trees. This a gradual climb, a few big rocks mixed in here and
there. The ash and the birch trees have turned and are
starting to fall to the ground. You can really smell the dew
fall leaves as your hiking through. The trail in a hardwood
forest is a lot easier hiking through than in the dense pine woods.
The pines have so many roots. |
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I've come 2.7 miles and it hasn't been to
bad. Now I'll be starting up the Bigelow. Little Bigelow
Mountain is 5.3 miles. The trail has a lot of green curtains
since I've left the pond. No views at all. I can hear
the sawmills sawing logs today. I'm finally getting some good
views of Flagstaff Lake. I'm going around the north side I
guess. It's a rocky shore line and occasionally you will see
sandbars. I can see the Bigelow where I'll be going over;
I can those old rocks popping out on the hill sides. I know
what I'm in for. |
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Once I get through this swamp that is on
the edge of this lake I'll be getting into the Little Bigelow
Lean-to. Where I'm standing the water is real clear. It
would be a real nice swimming area. It's starting to get real
hazy and the humidity is building up. I can see some thunder
clouds brewing. |
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This is a deciduous forest with a lot
of spruce interspersed in and out. The spruce trees are right
on me, I'm rubbing right up against them as I go through the trail.
I've just crossed over the first aluminum bridge that I have seen on
the trail. The water has washed around it so badly that it was
slanted. |
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Crossing a dirt logging road. Avery
Peak is 7.9 miles. I don't know if I'll make it that far.
I'm hiking down the Flagstaff East Rd. for quite a little distance.
I see a white blaze and a sign. The little white flowers are
pretty along side of the road. They get all the sun out here.
Looks like I'm getting into the woods and starting up the big stuff.
I will reached the Bigelow Mountain in 3 miles. Avery Peak is
7.6. The Flagstaff Lake is 20 thousand acres. I'm
starting to get some red maple leaves in the trail now. This
is real pretty area through here. Hardwoods still mixed with
spruce trees. This an easy dirt trail. If it stays like
this I can make some pretty decent time. You should see the
size of the rocks in this little creek bed that I hiking beside of.
The water is pretty well down now. The rocks are monsters. |
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I'm going steady up hill and still a good
path, but I'm running into a little bigger rocks. I see some
good size boulders now on switch backs. It makes it a little
easier going up. I'm at Little Bigelow Lean-to and I going
down to get some lunch. These Maine people really do
believe in putting their Privies away from the shelters! This
happened to be a real nice one. Nice and green on the outside
and 2 windows in it and little curtains and a 2 seater incase you
wanted to take a friend with you. |
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It's 1:15pm and leaving Little Bigelow
Shelter. A really nice shelter. I liked the tubs.
I would have taken a bath if I staying. It's really hazy
today. So far I've been coming up the Little Bigelow gradually
with big rounded rocks that I'm hiking on. Back into Pine
trees, pine needle dust, root covered trail. Some decent views
from the mountain. Now I'm getting into some really big
boulders. I don't think I at the climax yet. It's
getting hazy so that you can't see very well. It's getting
very humid. Coming up the hill the perspiration was just
running of me. The clouds are building up over the mountains. |
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Going up a real steep, rooty area right
now, Almost straight up on large rounded boulders. I'm glad
I'm from WV on this side of the trail. You should see it, it's
slanted. I'm hiking on large faces of rocks on the side of the
trail. Now I'm going straight up again. I must be
getting really close to the peak. Here I go to slants again.
The opposite direction now. A nice view of the hazy mountain.
You can tell where they cut out big section of pine logging woods.
You can see the small pines growing back in the area has a lighter
green in color. I wish there was enough moisture in my front
yard at to home to grow this beautiful dear moss. |
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I'm looking at a big old mountain in
front of me. You can really see those big huge rounded rocks
on the side of the mountain. I can tell exactly which way
they're taking us. It's going to be a tough climb. From
up here it's getting cloudier and cloudier. This climb is
straight up now through big rocks that had been washed out.
It's a good thing that there's 2 trees growing right on top of this
rock, or I wouldn't have been able to get on top of this one.
From here I can see the outline of the whole Flagstaff Lake. I
can see the top of the two peaks on top of the Bigelow. This
is a beautiful view from up here. I'm on top of big rounded
rocks and I'm going to just sit here for a little while and catch my
breath, drink some lemonade and take it all in. I can
definitely see where I'm headed. The breeze certainly feel
good from up here. No hardwoods up here. All pines. |
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Well it looks like I'm going to get to wear
the seat of these pant right now. A big slick rock that I have
to go down over. I managed to save the seat of my pants, after
I go to looking there was a little bit of a dirt place and enough
area that I was able to go between the dire and rough stone straight
down the rock. I out on those big rocks that I told you I could see
from a distance, the trail is right on the edge of them. I was
able to look down over the top of then and look exactly where I've
been. To be honest with you, it's a little bit on the scary
side. These rocks are all metaphoric rocks, with a lot of
quartz in them. They are dark in color and every now I can see
a seam of coal. |
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I going straight up one of these big
rocks again and I don't know how far it goes up. I don't think
it's quite the peak though. I have to forget the poles on this
one. I have to pull myself up by this big tree on the side of
these rocks. It's so hazy now that I can't see down into the
valley. This might be one of the peaks. This one has to
be one of the peaks because I'm up higher and I can see out into the
lake area. Nope I guess I'm not yet where I thought I was,
unless the clouds are fooling me. This must be the ridge that
connect the Bigelows. I met a north bounder that has black
curly hair and his name is Captain America. He said he was
just about of water. I'm about of water too even though I
filled up at the last steam. I put the water in the back of my
pack and I knew that I has closed down the push top lid. I was
pretty sure I did. I put it on in my pack and I kept feeling
this water and I must haven't gotten it tight and here I'd forgotten
to screw the cap on. So I lost half of my water. I still
have a cup or more. Hope I can get to water before long.
I found a little hole that was running. It wasn't very deep,
but I pulled some water out of it. |
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I'm now at Stanford Notch Campsite.
I think I'm going in here now, it's 5:25pm and I'm going in to set
up camp. I met 3 northbound hikers. I met Thrifty, a
lady probably my age and her trail name was Hairball, and the person
she was hiking with; his name was Mess. Mess had hog rings on
the end of his nose. That looked a little on the stupid side,
but par for the course out here. This trail going to Stanford
sure is muddy and not marked very well. I can't believe this
trail, went through and under a big huge rock and got up
underneath it and it's all dark and all these little rocks up
underneath it. It was short lived, but I'm still on the
path. |
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If it wasn't getting dark, I wouldn't have
not stopped in here. It certainly is a long way back in here.
I don't like to travel after it's gets dark. I finally found a
tent site, it's on tent platform out in the middle of nowhere.
I got another bottle of water, so I'm at least Ok for the night,
except I'm just out here by myself. I'll talk to you in the
morning. |
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Swing'n Jane |
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