| September 15, 2005 |
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It's raining! I got up and everything
all packed up and at 7:30am I thought it was going to let up, I'm
stuck in the tent. I'm going to wait here and wail for a
little while and if it doesn't let up I'll have to move.
I can
hear the rain drops on the tent. Kathy Today is
my sister's birthday, she is 9 years older than I am. |
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Back out on the AT 8:35am and getting ready
to go through boulders. Some of those large bounders are
probably a 100 feet or more above my head. There is big caves
that you can hike in and out of them. Coming up through the
big rocks. A little on the scary side, they're very closed in,
big boulders on both sides and moss and fern covered. It's a
little on the spooks coming through by yourself. I met a young
couple on the trail and they were heading north. Getting
closer to the top now. |
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I've been coming straight up rock boulders for
quite some time, here the corridor is fairly narrow up through
Avery. Some big and sets boulders that are all slick this
morning. Still sprinkling just a tad. I'm at Old Man's Head
viewpoint where I turn off. The wind has picked up. and the
air is cool, plus it's raining, and I'm still climbing straight up. |
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The ground is all moss covered, and spruces
with all kinds of liken on them. A lot of them look like
they're pretty well dead. I can't climb and look around to
much because I to be real careful with these rocks today. It's
pretty up, but it would be much prettier on a nice day. Right
now I'm clouded in! |
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I got some good views of fog out into the distance
and I can just barely make out the blue of the closest mountain
range. I just passes Uncle Dog on his way north; just over the
summit of Avery Peak. I haven't seen him since Harper's Ferry.
It was good seeing him again. I'm within 50 yards of the top.
Standing on the Avery Peak of Mt. Bigelow plaque in the honor of the
Myron Avery. I can see all the way done in the valley and all
of Flagstaff Lake. I can look down on top of the clouds, and I
can just barely see the closed mountains and a few that are off into
the distance. There is some type of a building on top here,
but I don't know what it is. Going to check it out.
This building is locked, stone structure on the bottom and wood on
the top, it look like it used to be an old fire tower.
I can't
here the tape here because of the real high winds. Kathy |
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I'm standing right on the Avery Peak. The
elevation is 4,088 feet. West Peak is 4,150 feet and is 7
tenths of a mile. High way 27 is 8.7 miles.
More
wind. Beautiful, all rocks. Going to get out of
here now, it's getting chilly |
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The boulders are terrible to come down.
I have to be extremely careful that I don't fall, there's a big step
off and I'm right on the top. I'm basically boulder hopping.
Nothing but rocks straight down. It's leveling off right now,
but I'll probably be going up and back down again. This is
nothing but rock roller coasters. Even the little rocks are
dangerous from being wet. This is defiantly a climbing
experience. |
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I just came by the caretaker's cabin. There
wasn't anybody there. I'm at the Avery Memorial Lean-to.
I'm just about to reach West Summit Peak. This hasn't been an
easy climb either. I have about 100 yards still to go straight
up. It's clearer up here, but it's still sprinkling and the
clouds are still in the valley, so I don't have much of a view.
The fog is really moving up a notch between West Peak and Avery.
I'm not at the top yet, but I'm standing out on the edge of West
Peak. I'm on top of the West Peak.
High
fierce winds. Getting off this peak isn't going to be any
picnic. Straight down big boulders. It's one of those
things that's going to be step by step and be very careful. |
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Hopefully it's quite raining for the day.
My pants, shirt and shoes are soaking wet. Well I made it up
South Horn, the elevation is 3,879 feet. It was like a roller
coaster coming through there. Straight up and straight down,
the flatten out a little bit and do it all over again. The
clouds have gotten heaver in the valleys. Everything all
blends together. I can see the top of West Peak and almost
Avery. Horns Pond is 6 tenths. North Horn is 3,820 feet
and 3 tenths miles, so I have another up to do yet. |
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It has not been a very long day in mileage,
but it sure had been a challenging day. I'd like to get into
Stratton, but I don't know if I'm going to make it or not. I'm
at the turn off to go to North Horn, but I'm not going to go, I
can't see anything anyway. This hill is rocks and it is
straight down. Very slippery. |
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I'm at the CC Historic Lean-to that is used
for days only. I'm going to head off 5.3 more miles to Rt. 27.
It's starting to rain again. I just got through putting my
rain coat back on. I was hoping it would let while I was here,
but I'm going just keep on trucking. Time now is 2:37pm.
I'm hoping it doesn't take me to long to hike the 5 miles, because
when I get there I still have to hitch a 5 mile ride into town. |
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I was hoping this would be easy. I
just climbed up over boulders hand over hand, I don't know how long
this will last, but I didn't expect to go up hill again. Here
comes another boulder, I think I can get up this one pretty easy.
This woods is dark already and pretty foggy, so I'm going to try and
get through this as fast as I can. I just met Easty going
north bound. I just met Mule Skinner and Wood Rose going north
with their dog Bella. Bella is a yellow lab. She fell at
Pinker Notch. They took her to the Vet and she was OK.
They had to lift her up and over some big rocks. I'm certainly
glad that I made the decision that I did to keep Simon out of the
Whites. |
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It's 4:05pm and I've only done 2 miles.
I still have three miles to go. That's how steep those rocks
are, and how slick they are. I'm hoping I can make a little
bit more time now. I'm going down hill, small rocks at this
point. |
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Here is a huge big bunch of white coral
fungus, the biggest bunch together that I've ever seen together.
Really pretty, kind of a cream color. I'm still going down
hill slowly, but surely, still a lot of roots and rocks. |
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Coming across a large foot bridge, I think I'm probably
close to the road now. A whole serious of log steps straight
up the hill. When I got to the road I started hiking and
hitch-hiking as the cars would go by. There must have been
about 50 cars that went by and wouldn't stop and pick me up.
After I hiked a couple of miles or more a Ford truck stopped and
picked me up. A man and his wife and brought me into the
Stratton Hotel. From there they brought me 4 miles to a bunk
house out of town. They converted an old barn into rooms with
living room and a kitchen down stairs. A wonderful place.
I have this whole top of this barn bunk house to myself. TV,
also free telephone service. I'm going to spend the night and
and zero the next day. |
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Swing'n Jane |
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