It was challenging, gruelling, wet, muddy, buggy and overgrown. And it was lots of fun.
When we left White House Landing after another great breakfast our first stop was to pick up our next five days of food at Jo Mary road. It was dropped off their by Kathy Preble, and was very heavy. We are very glad we hadn't tried to carry all our food all the way. We saw our first moose today, a yearling that wasn't quite sure what to make of us. Then, despite the blue skies and sunshine we had had for most of the day, it ended in a downpour before we made it to Cooper Brook Falls.
Surprisingly the next day first day that I kept my feet dry. Especially as there was a ford crossing right before the shelter. We were lucky enough that we could pick a way across on rocks, though I had a very close call with some mud just after the crossing. At East Branch shelter there were only 2 hikers sleeping in it, Chris and Wes who have been hiking at the same pace as us. I decided to try shelter life. For the record, I slept OK but it was rather buggy.
To contiue with "fisrts" trend, I took my first potentially hike ending fall. It was just after summitting Whitecap Mtn. Going up was steep and hot, but the view from the top was extensive and impressive: we could see back all the way we had already come and forward to what was still to be hiked. On the way down I took a fall on the ravine like trail of microwave sized boulders. It could easily have ended my hike, or worse, but somehow I managed to flip over when I saw the jagged point of a rock coming straight at my face and I landed hard but on my pack and cushioned from any harm. Amazingly I didn't even get a scratch or a bruise. Talk about luck! The day after that we both attempted another first - Heatstroke. This time ascending Chairback mountain on another hot humid afternoon. Fortunately. just as we were both really starting to collapse we crossed a crystal clear cold mountain spring. We sat in the cool shade and filled up on cold fresh water and snacks. Just in the nick of time. The ascent up Chairback was like reliving Mt Katahdin, scrambling over huge boulders. I'm glad we were both cooled down and thinking strainght before we reached that.
We passed through Gulf Hagas on this section. I nice loop hike round the "Grand Canyon" of Maine. We didn't have time to hike the entire loop, but did wander as far down as the first waterfall. It's a pretty area, and very popular with day hikers. We saw more people and familes today than we have since leaving Baxter State Park.After our close call with the heat our old enemy, the rain, resurfaced. We had entire days of rain and cold. This time, rather than just being inconvenienced and wet, we were concerned about the large and frequent rivers that we have to cross before we reach Monson. The ford at Big Wilson stream concerned us most as it is a wide and fast flowing river. We crossed it in pouring rain, after a full day and two nights of pouring rain, but we were concerned that it would rise even higher and swifter if we waited another night to ford it. It turned out that it was waist deep on me, and took me a couple of attempts to cross it: My first was aborted about a third of the distance across because the current was too swift for me. My hiking pole was vibrating and hyperextended in the swift water. I backed out and finally made it across on the second attempt.
After all that, it was the second ford, at Thompson Brook that caused my worst problem of the day. It was just upstream of a 20 foot waterfall. The trail crosses this brook at a narrow point which is probably great at low water, but in high water it was a deep torrent. I decided to go upstream to a wider shallower point and successfully crossed there with water only up to my knees. After I had crossed, refastened my hip belt and sternum strap (always undone for fording in case I need to get out of the pack quickly) and was making my way back along the bank to the trail crossing, I slipped on the muddy bank and slid all the way down some slickrock totally out of control and back into the deep water. I managed to wedge myself into a rock before I was totally under water, but I and my pack were submerged up to my chest. I don't think l'd have had any chance to get myself and the pack out up the slickrock if I had been alone, in fact I had already unbuckled my straps and was prepared to jettison it if necessary. Fortunately though, Brian was almost across and managed to finish crossing, shuck his pack and scramble across the slickrock to my rescue. He provided the steady hand to hoist myself up on and boost me back up onto terra firma. This time when I gained the bank I bushwacked my way a couple of feet in from the edge before attempting to get back to the trail.
The last ford of this day was below the Little Wilson falls and this time was mercifully incident free. On the bank on the other side was a nice little campsite that we set up in for the night. We were glad to be through all the big fords, and evne more so when the rain continue heavily all night. The next morning we ascended the cliff next to Little Wilson Falls. It was an awesome sight with all the storm water flowing over the high falls.
And then we reached Monson; tired, dirty, wet and stinky, and very happy to be close to civilization. A very nice young man in a pickup stopped to pick us up at the trailhead. He was a volunteer fireman, and river rafting guide. He was on the way back from a river trip and it took him quite an effort to move all his gear around to make room for us and our packs. We were very grateful for the effort and the short ride. We arrived in Monson in time to pick up mail at the post office, get a nice greasy philly cheese steak sandwich to tide us over to dinner time, and a long hot shower. Ahhhh town!
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