.August 12, 2006
Last month I hiked Bigelow Mountain for the first time. When I raved about how beautiful it was, Brent and Jason (co-workers) wanted to see for themselves. We have planned a weekend hike including an overnight stay at Avery Campsite. Because of problems I have with my back and stomach, I don't sleep well on the ground. I found a fairly light air matress that will give me about 3 inches of cushion so I decided to give an overnighter a try. We left Brent's truck on the other side of Little Bigelow and took Carriage Road around to Route 27. While driving up Route 27 we had a good view of Bigelow.
"That's where we are going," I said to Jason.
"Way up there," he said with a look that expressed awe, disbelief, and 'what have I gotten myself into.'
After parking my truck on Route 27 we headed off. After about a mile we came across a dirt road where there were a few vehicles parked.
"You mean we could have parked here and saved a mile," said Brent.
"Why didn't we park here?" asked Jason.
"That mile was an easy mile. Consider it our warm up." I said.
Jason (left) and Brent (right) cross Dick Brown's Bridge.
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Brent on bog bridging
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Jason is still smiling, but we are about to begin the steep part of the hike.
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We met a southbound thru hiker named 'Rambo Ron'. The name was given to him because a lot if his gear is in camouflage.
"That's quite a heavy pack you have there, " we said.
"It was a lot heavier when I started," said Rambo Ron.
"I stopped at a restaurant a while back where they serve one pound hamburgers. The woman there is familiar with thru hikers coming through. She went through my stuff and picked out everything that I didn't 'need'. She boxed it all up and said she would ship it back to my house for me. I took her word for it that I wouldn't need any of it. She helped reduce my pack by seventeen pounds."
"Have you missed anything that she took out?" I asked.
"Last night I sure could have used my gloves."
This weekend we are supposed to have record lows. On the mountains last night it dropped into the 30's. Tonight is supposed to be the same. I thought going in August we would be all right. It looks like we will have a chilly night. We said bye to 'Rambo Ron' and continued the climb up.
I checked the weather before we left this morning. There was a 0% chance of rain. Yeah right!! You guessed it, it started to rain. Fortunately it didn't rain too hard. We stepped off the trail to enjoy a scenic view of the Horns and Horns Pond. Here's a picture that I took from last month.
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We took a long break here and decided to eat our lunch. As we finished, the rain started again. This time a little harder. We got back on the trail and headed towards the pond. Here's Jason negotiating a tricky section of the trail. I don't think he is smiling anymore.
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Horns Pond
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As we explored the campsite it began raining even harder. There are 3 lean-tos here. Two are for sleeping. The third is actually right on the trail and has a rocky bottom and benches. It was a perfect place to get out of the rain. The caretaker also stepped into the lean-to with us and we talked while waiting for the rain to stop. One thought went through my mind, "If it is raining this hard with a 0% chance of rain, what will we be in for tomorrow when there is a 20% chance of rain."
The rain stopped and we headed up to South Horn. On the way we crossed the side trail for North Horn. My last stop here I thought it was unusual that there was no sign at this intersection. This time I noticed there was a sign. It is up high and much easier to see if you are coming down. The weather looked like it was clearing so we took the side trail over to North Horn for the first truly awesome view of the day. Here I am with Bigelow behind me.
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We headed back to the Appalchian Trail and continued to the summit of South Horn
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Here's Brent on the summit with Sugarloaf in the background. Both Brent and Jason have gone skiing there.
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We began the descent into the col between South Horn and the West Peak of Bigelow. The trail goes up and down over about 2 miles. The rain started up again, but cleared as we got above treeline. Although it rained quite a bit today we lucked out. The hardest rain was when we could wait it out in the lean-to and it cleared whenever we had a scenic view. We made it to the summit of West Bigelow. Here's Jason on the top. Jason has gone with me on a few hikes, but this was his first Appalachian Trail hike and first 4,000 footer. Way to go, Jason.
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Here's a look back at the Horns
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Brent suggested we climb down the edge of the cliff a little to get a cool picture.
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For those who think Brent was only willing to risk our lives and not his own, he took his turn climbing down.
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We didn't stay long at the summit. The plan is to hike another 3/10s of a mile down to the campsite, set up camp, and come back up for the sunset. Being a weekend, we were a little worried that the campsite would be full but there were still a couple of tent platforms left. Here's my tent.
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Brent and Jason shared a two man tent.
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We hiked back to the top a little too early. We had about an hour to wait before sunset. We enjoyed the views. Looking ahead to Avery Peak (left) and Little Bigelow (right).
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Here's a view of Flagstaff Lake. Jason read that it covers 20,000 acres.
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It came out faint in the picture, but we caught part of a rainbow.
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As we waited for the sun to set we stepped down a few yards to sit behind some rocks. It was extremely windy up there and the temperature was dropping fast. We talked about how we were going to keep warm that night.
"I am wearing my sweatshirt and pants when I get inside my sleeping bag tonight," said Brent.
"My sleeping bag is good down to 15 degrees," I said, "so I will probably just where my t-shirt and shorts. How about you Jason?"
"I think I'll wear ... (pause) ... everything I have." We all laughed.
The sun finally set and I got these photos.
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The sunset probably would have gotten even more impressive but we were freezing and wanted to get down to camp before it got too dark. I slept fairly well considering. Again it did dip down into the 30's. The wind was fierce and my tent shook, but I was warm as could be inside my sleeping bag.
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