Morale, improved
For those of you wondering, my morale seems to be better than it was. What you come to discover is that this can feel like a job from time to time. Whether you want to or not, you must get up and complete the task in front of you for the day. This trail is a roller coaster of emotions. An ideological struggle against one's self.
The first task for the day was to ascend, or so I thought, to the summit of Spaulding Mountain. It turns out the trail comes within 150 yards, then cuts off to the side. You need to walk a 150 yard side trail trail to reach the actual summit. No thank you. After a little more walking I came to the 6/10ths of a mile side trail to the summit of Sugarloaf, I've already climbed it so no thank you. Cookie was having none of this nonsense either.
It never has been, nor will it ever be, a good thing when I descend to a river crossing, it only means there is a mountain to be conquered on the other side. This river crossing, by the way, involved walking across a narrow and slick wooden plank being held up by two boulders, then rock hopping the rest.
Upward I went. The ascent to the Crocker Cirque campsite was very gradual, the rest of it was anything but gradual. This was a death defying ascent that involved scrambling up rock faces and bear hugging trees for dear life. I cursed the Maine Appalachian Trail Club quite a few times for sending me up this beast. Both south Crocker and north Crocker have no views, but at least I can now say I've climbed the three tallest mountains in Maine(Katahdin, Sugarloaf, Crocker).
After a long and never ending descent that involved walking along the side of a ridge for too long I rolled into Maine route 27, where I hitched a ride with Cookie into Stratton. In Stratton I resupplied and bought a 64 ounce carton of orange juice that I proceeded to chug over the course of an hour or so. It was quite delicious.
Over the course of a couple hours I checked my email and ate some ice cream.
My pack once again weighed 4.4 tons coming out of town. Both Cookie and I are horrible at mastering the art of carry small amounts of food, we always carry extra. However, we never run out of food. While other hikers complain to us that they have no food left with one day until the next town, Cookie and I have to spend sometime each night deciding what we want for dinner because we always have at least two options left. It's really a great feeling.
Once we were walking north again, it was cake walk. The trail leading to the campsite was easy, which is nice with a heavy pack.
On the docket for tomorrow is the Bigelow Range, which will be an all day affair. I've already hiked the section of trail as well, I did it last August with a friend of mine.
In 189.5 miles I will stand on the summit of Mount Katahdin.
Good night, and good luck.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
