From Hazard’s notes:
Day 113: August 30, 2009
Travel:
From: Stratton, ME
To: Little Bigelow Lean-to, ME
Beginning: 8:00am
Ending: 5:15pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 15.3
b) other -
c) AT Mile Marker – 2005.7 cumulative.
Weather:
AM: Cold when we woke up, but warmed to upper 60s by noon.
PM: Clouds rolled across the saddle between Avery Peak and Little Bigelow. Cold night as sun went down.
People: Braid, Our hitch, Horns Pond caretaker, Katie & Sara? with dog Max, Crazy college group. Crocstar & UCOC
Animals: Dogs, Birds, Frogs, Squirrels, and a Butterfly. Flies, which surprised me this far north at this time of year.
Money: $5 for breakfast. $2024 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: When I woke up I scarfed the last bit of my bananas and orange juice and then went back to sleep. I wasn’t feeling very well gastrointestinal-wise probably from all of the town food I had eaten the past two days. When the other guys finally woke up we walked down to the Stratton Diner again for another breakfast. I tried the “diner muffin” and it was phenomenal. I think it must have been the way they fried it up on the grill but all I knew was that I wanted another one badly but we needed to get going. I got up to use the restroom before we left and found once I was getting to business that there was no toilet paper anywhere. I had to make do with paper towels. When I came back and related my adventure to the guys, Spoon said there wasn’t any toilet paper in there yesterday and he had told someone to replace it. I guess people just move a lot slower in these small towns. As we were paying for our checks Spoon spent some time talking to Braid who had come in to eat breakfast. We walked back to the Inn but found checkout to be a lot more difficult than we anticipated. No one was there to take our key and it looked like no one else would be there until at least 11:00 am. Another couple was having the same problem in searching for the responsible persons to complete the checkout process. I posed the solution to just leave the key in our locked rooms and Spoon asked the couple if they were headed toward the trail. They were headed our way and offered to give us a lift granted we weren’t opposed to cramming in the back which for a hiker is never a problem. Once on the trail I found myself taking many, many breaks to relieve my gastrointestinal situation falling far behind the rest of the guys. At least the trail was a little kinder to me in the morning only rising gradually up to Horns Pond Lean-to. When I got to the junction for the lean-to, Crocstar, UCOC, and Spoon were sitting around talking to the pony-tailed caretaker for the site. They wondered how I had fallen so far behind so I told them it was because of the five or so stops to “decorate” the woods. We all had a good laugh about the whole thing which is the only thing you can do in that situation. I was however a little worried that I might be showing signs of giardia, but I knew I had been diligent about keeping my water safe to drink. I hoped the whole thing would blow over soon. We left for South Horn climbing up and up to its 3,831′ peak where I could see the North Horn to my left and the ridge continue in front of me to the west peak of Bigelow Mtn.
PM: I traversed the saddle between the Horn and Bigelow, taking an excessive number of breaks to relieve myself than any normal person should. This was really dragging me down on a such a beautiful day that had so many breathtaking views along the Bigelow Range. You could see how glaciers cut through the land leaving these rugged mountain ranges flanked by immense lakes and ponds. After the scramble up to Bigelow Mtn. (West Peak) I could see the tower sitting on Avery Peak which marked my next big climb. Coming down West Peak it looked like a group of people making a lot of noise were on their way down Avery Peak in either really lightly colored jumpsuits or their birthday suits. Between the peaks is the Bigelow Col/Avery Memorial Campsite which is where I ran into a girl who called out that a thru-hiker was coming to her group I assumed was up the trail. She warned me that there were some crazy naked people who were hiking sans clothes as a “team building” exercise. I told her not to worry as I had seen crazier things on the trail and proceeded onward. I was paying more attention to the large boulders I had to climb up rather than the naked girls trying to get some clothes on as I got closer. The last thing I needed was to slip and fall with an audience making an already awkward situation worse. All of the straight ups and downs were really killing my knees. Today I would be able to say I officially have hiked over 2000 miles and it was really starting to wear on my body. At the sign signifying I had reached Avery Peak two girls, Katie and (Sara?) were sitting with their dog Max. I walked up and said “Hello” and then I think I turned my head too fast or something because my foot slipped off one of the rocks and I couldn’t recover and ended up falling backwards off the peak, bouncing off the sharp rocks and rolling to a stop in a lot of pain. I had injured my knee, butt, and my pride so I sat there for a minute before I could pull myself up. The two girls immediately asked me “Did you hit your head?” and I told them I was pretty good about avoiding damage to the important parts of my body and that this was typical for a guy named “Hazard”. I left to head down the mountain with a bruised body and bruised ego. I had to descend almost 2000′ down to Safford Notch before beginning my final climb up to Little Bigelow Mtn. What really kills hikers on this section is that you go over six or more false peaks before finally reaching the top. Along the way I made sure to get a self picture at the sign for the Old Man’s Head side trail which now marks the new location where hikers have completed 2000 miles on the AT. No time was wasted at the top of Little Bigelow as I just wanted to be done with the day and get to the shelter. At the shelter I asked Crocstar for his earbuds and sat on a log near the campfire with the loudest music I had on my iPod preparing dinner for Spoon and myself. I had made another 5-6 stops since the last time I saw the group and it had no signs of getting any better. The older couple who shared the shelter with us had met Annie and told her she couldn’t do 20+ miles through the Whites and we told them that she was still trucking hard and fast. There was an extra register at the shelter that was used for hikers to give their “2000-mile awards”, where hikers could list the greatest moments on the trail. It was fun to look at other hiker’s lists and say that we had done this and that or not and reflect on all of the awesome things we had done so far.
