The rain ended last night around nine, but this morning the rivers were still very high and the trail was flooded. We walked out anyway, from the Otter Pond parking lot, which is fifteen miles north of Monson. Our shoes got wet pretty quickly. It was a hard slog all day, up and down with slick rocks and roots. And lots of puddles. It took until four to make the shelter, only ten miles in. A couple miles before the shelter we had to cross a creek that normally is an easy dry rock hop. Not today, today we had to ford shin deep!
And it's cold tonight, very windy. Tomorrow we'll have another ten mile day. There's a major river ford tomorrow, I hope we can safely cross it.
10/2/15 - Carl Newhall shelter
Today was a tough day, even though I only covered 9.9 miles. It was cold this morning, Fall is definitely here. I started a bit after seven thirty, and as usual was the first on trail. And the trail was swampy. And rooty and rocky. One has to work hard under those trail conditions and despite the chill I started sweating. So I had to keep my windbreaker on just to stay warm.
Chairback Mountain was a pain. The trail meandered around on top and finally started down a rockslide. A steep rockslide! And it wasn't blazed as well as it could be. I got off trail and had to backtrack about thirty yards. Shortly afterwards, I met Pringles, who was self slacking south. He had come in at Katahdin Ironworks road and had gone north to look at the ford across the Pleasant River. He warned me it was still high and had no rope across it. We've heard reports of hikers stuck in the woods between the fords I crossed on the 28th. Supposedly Flynn and Raindrop were airlifted out yesterday. Others struggled through and got soaked or hit roads and walked out.
I got to the ford in time to see a hiker leave the water on the opposite side. I yelled and pantomimed the water depth. He motioned it to be thigh high. I decided to try it. It took a bit to take off my pants, roll my shorts up and put on my water shoes. The water was very cold, and the rocks were slick. The current was strong and wanted to wash my poles downstream. The ford would have been impossible yesterday. It took a bit to cross the one hundred or so feet of river. The north side had a bit of a beach in the sun, so I decided to eat lunch while I was drying. A Southbounder, Stash, showed up and crossed over as the rest of my group arrived on the south shore. None of us had any trouble, a good thing as there is no cell service there.
The trail improved on the north side, the AT intersects with a popular loop trail through Gulf Hagas gorge. Can't have the day hikers walking on crappy trail. If it hadn't been so swampy, the trail would have been very pleasant as it parallels Gulf Hagas Brook for about three miles. As it was I had to pay more attention to small bogs, streams and ponds on the trail caused by the rain. I was able to stay out of them, allowing my shoes to dry out. Unfortunately, the trail crosses the creek just before the shelter and I slipped and got my shoes wet anyway. Although I tried to dry out at the shelter with a campfire, most of the available wood was wet and I wasn't very successful.
I'm tenting tonight, it's probably going to freeze and the tent will be marginally warmer than the shelter, if only by blocking the wind.
Five more nights of camping out, then I summit. One extra day to slack the missing fifteen miles and my thruhike is finished.
10/3/15 - Trail Camp, Pleasant River
It was pretty chilly most of last night, although there was a warmer period in the middle of the night. I finally rolled out about six, although I didn't get out of my tent until almost seven.
The day was spent doing the last major mountain section, up and over Gulf Hagas Mountain, West Peak, Hay Mountain and White Cap Mountain for eleven miles. We left camp about seven thirty and made Gulf Hagas in forty five minutes, Hay just after ten and White Cap at eleven. White Cap was our last peak over 3000ft before Katahdin. We could see Katahdin clearly in the distance, it's peak shrouded in cloud. It was very cold on White Cap and we noticed the trees in the north side were coated in rime ice. We ate an early lunch in a lee spot on the south side and the beat it for lower elevations.
After leaving Logan Brook shelter, the trail improved and became nearly flat and the rocks and roots decreased. We were able to make better time and reached our intended camp, East Branch shelter, before three. Mike and Jade decided to try and reach our food drop off area tonight, and Mac and Pace and I decided to cross the East branch of the Pleasant River and camp on the north shore. We found a spot just off the trail big enough (barely) for two tents and settled in.
TMI, Fox and Treebeard, and a couple other northbounders we've never seen before came through. Fox and Treebeard had a bad experience on the section we skipped out of Monson. They left during our zero in the rain, managed to cross one of the fords, but got nearly washed downstream on the second one. If Treebeard hadn't been there, it's quite possible Fox would wave been swept off the rope. The water was supposedly chest deep on her (she's about five two). Kyley had tried that same ford upstream and nearly went over a twenty foot drop. The third ford they couldn't do and had to tent zero a day.
White Cap marked the probable last time for Internet cell service until Millinocket.
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