07/26-07/29 Caratunk to Carrabasset Valley

Day 16

Monday 7/26

Kennebec River to West Carry Pond Lean-To

151.2-165.2 = 14 miles 

Breakfast at the lodge is fairly vegan friendly. I make a mixed bowl of cereals, frosted mini wheats, Honey Nut Cheerios, Raisin Bran clusters and cascadian farm granola. These are all more sugary than I’d ever eat at home. I top it with orange juice since there is no non-dairy milk. It’s surprisingly good. I also have a banana and a cinnamon raisin bagel with poison (Jif) peanut butter and grape jelly. It’s a sugar bomb. I have a love hate relationship with free hotel breakfast. It’s never healthy, but I always feel the need to get my money’s worth out of it! After breakfast 7 of us pile into the van and get driven the 2 miles back down the highway to the trail. Today we are crossing the Kennebec River. The nearest bridge across the river is 20 miles to the South, so the M.A.T.C and other sponsors pay some local guy to ferry hikers across in a canoe, two at a time. I guess hikers used to just have to ford the river, but with the addition of a lake and dam upstream and unnatural and irregularly scheduled releases of water coming from it, it became unsafe to ford. Across we go, two at a time. The canoe operator has a cute doggie named Maggie Grace, she’s an orange colored, long haired golden retriever and she gives me a thorough bath to the face. I have come along way in my tolerance of dogs. When I first met Jeff I was both afraid of and disliked most dogs. Now with his help I am slowly enjoying more and more of them. Maggie Grace goes along for the first ride of the day, but sadly doesn’t come with us on our trip!

Once across the river we follow the outlet stream of Pierce Pond. It has many cascades. After about 4 miles we pass a fishing camp called Harrison’s. It’s a popular overnight stay for many hikers because you can get a giant pancake breakfast there. We keep going and just after is the first lean to of the day, right on the pond. We stop for lunch. We’re hiking with Kay and Peter and a new girl named Chelsea. 

Today’s forecast called for wide spread haze, and that it is. We flew several thousand miles to escape wildfire smoke and here it is, blowing in from Canada and the Western US. It would otherwise be a sunny day, but instead the sun is filtered through the smoke, casting an eerie orange glow. 

After lunch I have a major energy crash from the sugary breakfast and trudge along until it eventually wears off. We have a pretty easy day with minimal elevation gain, but there are always stretches of rocks and roots that require our undivided attention. We are in the forest most of the day. It’s amazing how much it varies through the day. Sometimes it’s bright green and lush with ground cover and leafy tree varieties. Other items it’s overgrown, dark and dense. We go through dry sections consisting of mostly conifers and a ground cover of just needles and sometimes it’s even just plain ugly and boring. 

We pass one pond in the afternoon for a break in the monotony and a few hours and 14 miles later we stop for the night at West Carry Pond. It’s late in the day, almost 7, and the sun is low, making the smoke look the worst it’s looked all day. If we breath in deep, we can smell it. There are probably already a dozen tents set up around the shelter when we get in, probably the most we’ve seen in one place so far. 

We are quick to set up our tent and get down to the water to cook dinner. Everyone else gathers around the shelter, but we prefer a view when we can get it. There’s a nice dock out over the water and the water is clear with views down to its river rock covered floor. There is a pontoon boat out on the water and we can see what looks like a dock or a house across the way. It is strange that this is the wilderness for us, but others have vacation houses nearby and have had the luxury of driving in. 

Dinner is brown rice ramen noodles with sun dried tomatoes, dried shiitake mushrooms, wakame seaweed, true lemon packets, crushed red pepper from a pizza place, mustard packets, broth cubes and peanut butter. It is delicious and pretty nutritious as well. After dinner I am unable to resist swimming, even though the heat of the day is wearing off. I last about 15 minutes before it’s time to get out and go off to bed. By the time we walk back up to camp at 8:30, the lean to has been vacated and everyone is in there tents, even though it doesn’t get fully dark until after 9. 

I snapped a quick photo of the Sterling Inn as we drove away. It’s one of the oldest buildings in the county, dating back to the 1800s.

Jeff in the canoe “ferry” across the Kennebec River 

View across the Kennebec River 

Just one set of the many cascades along Pierce Pond Stream  

A little bit of a smoky view across Piece Pond from the lean-to. The boats must belong to day users who rode over to visit the Harrison’s fishing camp. Maybe for pancake breakfast.

Pierce Pond Lean-To 

A bit of dense, ugly forest 
Eastern White Pines, viewed across East Carry Pond. 

Boardwalk trail through a bog 

A change for the better in the forest, lovely birches and lots of leafy green ground cover

Dinner time on the dock at West Carry Pond 

West Carry Pond through the smoke 

A fine lounge chair rock for eating dinner at West Carry Pond and soaking feet at the same time 


Day 17

Tuesday 7/27

West Carry Pond Lean-To to Safford Notch Camp

165.2-177.8 = 12.6

It rains in the night, helping to clear the air. We wake up at 6:30 to find the campground totally vacated except for Kay, Peter and Chelsea. We are last out of our tents and last to breakfast at the lean-to. Chelsea sets of first, then us and finally Peter and Kay. But before we go, we are all sure to use the outhouse or “privvy” as they are called on the AT. All of the lean-tos and official camps have outhouses, which just like the lean-tos, are built and maintained by volunteers. The trail is also maintained by volunteers. Anyway, this outhouse is pretty full, up to the floorboards, which we have seen often, and the quote from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation always comes to mind, “Shitters full!”

I am slow and lethargic, so Peter and Kay catch up to us quickly. We make it a little over 3 miles before we stop for our first snack and water filtering break of the day. We are at a stream just down from the paved Long Falls Dam Road. We sit there awhile watching the hiker traffic come and go. We eventually get up and continue on the trail to where it crosses the road. We find a small cardboard box labeled trail magic. We assume there’s nothing in it, as it is a common site at road crossing to find a box full of trash from past trail magic. We look inside anyway, and neatly tucked into the bottom is a fresh bag of ice and on top, 4 ice cold pint size beer cans (from a local Maine Brewery) and 2 packages of Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies. We can’t believe our luck! So many hikers went past while we sat, the box must have just arrived. There are 4 of us and there are 4 beers and 4 cookies, it’s meant to be! We quickly tuck away our loot and practically run down the trail to the next suitable resting area. It’s just the boost we needed, we’re all dragging today. 

We stop about an hour later at a campsite on Flagstaff Lake. We find a nice big rock overlooking the lake and savor our beers and chocolate chip cookies. Wow are we lucky! And happy too!

After our trail magic snack, we continue on, crossing another road, Flagstaff road. This road leads out to Carrabasset Valley. We think it’s at this road that some of the hostels bring hikers gear or take it away (depending on which way they are traveling), so that they can “slack pack” the Bigelows. This means hiking with just a day pack and leaving the heavy pack behind. This was offered to us by our next hostel, but we declined. 

We’ve had pretty easy terrain up to this point, but now we begin climbing again into the Bigelow Range. Shortly after the climb begins, we stop for lunch at the Little Bigelow Lean-To. From there it’s 2 more miles up Little Bigelow Peak. It’s steep and rocky and rooty, but definitely not the worst we’ve seen. From the top we can see into Carrabasset Valley and across to the Sugarloaf Ski Mountain. It’s cool and cloudy, but not rainy and the visibility is so much better than yesterday. We feel lucky to be up here today.

From the peak it’s another couple miles to a saddle below the main peak where we stop for the night at Safford Notch Camp. We have completed the first and smallest Bigelow and tomorrow we will tackle the rest of the ridge. There will be a lot of up and down, so we’re planning for a short day mileage wise.

Trail magic! Allagash White beer from Portland, Maine and Grandma’s Chocolate Chip cookies 

Along the shores of Flagstaff Lake 

Hiking up steep rock slabs and roots on the way up Little Bigelow. Luckily it’s not wet!

Me taking photos of the view from the ledges on Little Bigelow 

View of Carrabasset Valley from near the top of Little Bigelow 

View towards the rest of the ridge line of the Bigelows

The view at the top is nothing, the ledges are everything to us!

Looking down into Safford Notch, the saddle between the little and big Bigelows 


Day 18

Wednesday 07/28

Safford Notch to Cranberry Stream

177.8-186.3 = 8.5 miles  

We sleep in until 6:45, which means we slept well over 9 hours. I needed it! My energy is back and just into for the “big” climb out of Safford Notch and up to Avery Peak. It’s about 2 miles of up in about 2,000 miles, but it’s not as bad as we thought it would be. There are definitely some steep chutes, but it’s not awful. It’s a sunny and clear day and pleasantly cool and breezy for the climb. 

There are several side trails today to views today and we stop at all of them. Something a NOBO wouldn’t dream of doing, but we’ve decided to only go 8.5 miles today, and we have all day. This is our first 4,000 foot mountain since White Cap, and before that it was Katahdin. Once above tree line, we have views back down to Little Bigelow and we can finally see all of the massive Flagstaff Lake. We can also see the rest of the ridge, which we will be following today, 4 peaks in total. The views are glorious and endless as work our way up and down. We see lots of day hikers with dogs who have come up a side trail called the fire wardens trail. There used to be a fire lookout stationed up here, but that is long gone. We have such good visibility that we can spot all of the mountains from which we have come, including Katahdin. We can also see ahead, all the way South to Mt Washington. We could have asked for better weather. 

Late in the day we stop for our final rest at Horns Pond, an alpine tarn. We also take our final side trail of the day down to the lake and on a loop through the forest around it. Then it is time to drop down off the ridge and back into the deciduous forest. The down is a little more steep than we’d like, and drags on a little longer than we’d like, but it’s been a great day. Today is definitely top 3 of the trip so far, along with Katahdin and North Peak of Bald Mountain. 

By 7:30 we’re at camp and we see all the same tents we’ve been seeing every night. They’re all on the old man schedule, up and 5 and done by 4:30. They’re all already in their tents and we feel like noisy jerks cooking dinner and setting up our tent. We feel this way even though we are done and quiet inside the tent at 8:30, before it’s even dark. 

The view of the Old Man’s Head rock formation on the ascent up to Avery Peak 

View back to Little Bigelow

View of Flagstaff Lake from the top of Old Man’s Head 

Profile of the ridge we climb to get to Avery Peak

In the alpine zone, almost up Avery Peak 

Labrador Tea near the top 

Plaque atop Avery Peak for Myron Avery, the “architect” of the AT and also the guy who suggested the trail continue through Maine, instead of ending at Mt Washington 

Looking South from Avery Peak to West Bigelow Peak. 

A spring in a box!

West Bigelow Peak, looking back at Avery Peak, Little Bigelow and Flagstaff Lake 

Looking South to the Horns from West Bigelow Peak 

View of Sugarloaf Mountain above the Carrabasset Valley 

Panorama of the Carrabasset Valley. It’s so forested it’s hard to believe our hostel from tomorrow night is down there.

View of Horn Pond from the South Horn 

With of the full Bigelow Ridge from North Horn

More views of Flagstaff lake, it’s massive. At this end is the town of Stratton. 

Another spring in a box! We scoop water from the pool inside of it and filter it.

Horns Pond 

Alpine ground cover around Horns Pond 

View back to Horns Pond and the Horns, just before we descend off the mountain. 

White blazes mark the trail. Somehow that mess behind the blaze is the trail. We just came down that.

Birch trees, I love the leaf structure 

Day 19

Monday 07/29

Cranberry Stream Camp to ME Route 27

186.3-188.2 = 1.9

By the time we wake up at 6:15, our entire campsite has cleared out, except for Kay and Peter. There were 4 other tents and we didn’t hear a sound as they packed up and left! We have just two miles to go to get to the highway and we are in no hurry. Our shuttle is scheduled to come get us and take us to H.O.M.E (Hostel of Maine), a popular winter time ski are bed and  breakfast that caters to hiker in the summer. It’s an easy two miles and we end up having an hour to kill at the highway parking lot. Someone has left a hiker box of food under an awning and we acquire some new coffee and tea bags, oatmeal, a tube of peanut butter and some random canned goods.

Our hostel is a fairly new and beautifully built log cabin. They don’t let hikers inside until they are clean and changed into loaner clothes. They also have us store our backpacks in a locker outside. I don’t blame them, but we sit outside on the porch for a long while before we realize what’s going on. Eventually we understand and decide to walk 0.6 miles down the road to the grocery store, the only thing around, and find something to make for lunch. I find whole wheat pita breads, salad, hummus, fresh fruits and veggies. We also buy ourselves more hiker snacks for the next leg. Back on the porch at the hostel we eat delicious hummus and veggie pitas and then it’s check in time. 

We opted to share a room with Peter and Kay. One at a time we go up to our room and shower and change into loaner clothes. The selection of loaner clothes is great. I get a pair of comfy Patagonia shorts, a soft t-shirt and a plush red sweater that feels like a blanket!

The rest of the afternoon we lounge in the comfortable furniture, refill our food bags and catch up on internet usage. The hostel arranges for a large takeout order for anyone who wants to participate. We get to pick from a place called Rolling Fatties in Kingfield. It’s a burrito place that only sources local. As a result of their strict local sourcing, they make their own tortillas and use oat groats instead of rice! Pretty neat! Sadly Peter and Kay’s order is missed and they are forced to make a frozen pizza. We feel really bad having to eat in front of them! 

The lodge has some very nice amenities for us to use, a cooking area, tea and coffee available all the time, a self serve hiker resupply food area, board games, books, and a freezer full of Ben and Jerry’s (even the non-dairy kind!!), DiGiornio Pizza and some prepared meals from a local catering company. It’s a huge log cabin that is very clean and peaceful with lots of comfy arm chairs and couches. Many hikers that we saw going north bound tried to convince us that this place was way too strict and that we should go to a place down the road in Stratton called the Roadhouse. We were a little worried about our decision after having so many people tell us this, but obviously none of them came here, so they don’t really know. We are very happy with our decision.