Rangeley Lake

August 26-28. I headed out on my own Wednesday from Rangeley. It was a tough hike up Saddleback Mountain, then The Horn, then Saddleback Jr. All climbs and descents were pretty hard. Everything was wet and slippery due to the rain last night. The rain today held off until about 1-1/2 miles before I got to the shelter. When I got to the shelter, there was a whole family there. They are “The Family”. They have hiked from Georgia. There are 4 boys and 1 girl and the mom and dad. They said they have 10 children and are thru-hiking with the youngest 5. The kids hiking range in age from 8 yrs. old to 17 yrs. old. They are all loving it. They are home-schooled. Nature is their classroom right now. I’m very impressed with them. They are all very well spoken and polite. Their family took up the whole shelter so I had to set up my tent in the rain. I got to sleep by the creek which is always a good night’s sleep for me. After I laid down, I heard about 5 more people come in and set up for the night. Everybody was talking about how close to the end we all are and how ready to be done we all are. Everyone is tired. Everyone stinks. Everyone is frail. Everyone, even the young ones, are hobbling like old folks. Why do we do this? I don’t think I’ll ever know the answer to that. I’ve asked myself many times over why I don’t just quit and go home—it’s just a stupid trail after all. Yet, here I am in my tent all wet, smelly and tired, looking forward to another grueling day tomorrow. Go figure.

The next day I got up and packed up before sunrise and headed up to the summit of Poplar Ridge to have breakfast and watch the sun come up. Man, it was spectacular. I took pictures, but they never do it justice. The air was crisp (I had to put on a long sleeve shirt). The rain had stopped, but left its muddy pools along the trail. I thought about Inchworm all day. She was the lady, Geraldine Largay, who disappeared along this stretch of the trail in 2013. Despite several searches, she’s still missing, presumed to be dead. I’ve often thought that she might have gotten taken on one of the forest service roads she would have crossed. However, after hiking this stretch alone, I’m now convinced she probably fell to her death from one of the ridges the trail follows. Specifically one that drops basically to the bottom of the mountain that is covered with very, very steep and thick forest. I don’t see how anyone could even get in there to search that area. It is, though, a beautiful part of the trail. It turned out to be one of my favorite days. The weather was perfect and cool. I hiked alone and it was very quiet. After climbing Lone Mountain and Spaulding Mtns, the trail followed the creek, stream or brook (not sure which one) a lot of the day. It traversed high up on the ridge line and wove its way back down many boulder obstacles to the Carrabasett River which could be rock-hopped. What a great day. By the way, it’s my dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday, daddy. I love you! And oh yeah, I saw a moose and her baby.

Then, the next day, on to climb South and North Crocker Mountains and walk into Stratton. Picked up my car, got a shower and excitedly headed out toward Portland to pick up Danny.

Again, I’ll be jumping around on the trail. I had to write my schedule out so as not to miss a mile. I’m crossing them off as I complete them. I think I have close to 90 miles to go. Woohoo—less than 100 miles to complete the 2,189.2 miles of the AT.

While I’m still loving it, I do make note to myself that every step I take is a step I never have to take again if I choose not to. (Like I HAVE to now!)