After nearly 18 hours of rain, the clouds parted and I felt ready to venture into the Maine woods. Fortunately, we’d spent the night near the AT Trailhead on East Flagstaff Road (Somerset). We were both up by 0500 and got the RV packed up for the drive. My dad drove me farther up East Flagstaff Road, dropping me off at the Safford Brook Trailhead (0700), and I got started hiking early! Just as I did last Fall, I used this trail (2.2 miles) to reach the AT in the middle of the Bigelow Range. This time, however, I started my AT hike NOBO (east on the compass). Everything was drenched - and it didn’t help that I’d worn pants that weren’t the better, wicking kind... I was also in/out of clouds - end result: I was soaked for most of the hike. When the clouds moved with the high winds, I got amazing views of Flagstaff Lake and Sugarloaf. Otherwise, I spent my day concentrating on the ground - there were plenty of treacherous rocks, roots and muddy spots. Oh - and I stepped over green snake at one point; that sure broke up the monotony! White blazes were rather scarce and I kept having trouble following the trail. Eventually, I missed a turn and, by the time I realized it, had wasted some valuable time going the wrong way... Oh well! On the plus side, I was excited to encounter a SOBO Thru along the way and, later, a young couple who had their NOBO Thru tags. I also passed 10 other hikers during the 6+ miles on the ridge - this was a nice change of pace after so many hikes without meeting people lately. Following a long climb to the summit of Little Bigelow (3K’), I started a long descent to the Lake. At times, I was afraid I’d fall because the trail was essentially a series of wet granite slabs laying on strange angles. Every step felt like I was walking on a frozen lake. Somehow, I avoided a nasty spill and reached the famous Bigelow Lean-To, which has some natural water “tubs” and an interesting privy. But, by then, I was growing concerned that the hike was taking much longer to finish than I’d expected. As a result, I didn’t end up stopping at all. We could chalk this perception up to a trail reroute that might have been done since 2014 (my AT Guide said hike should be 8.5 miles but my pedometer showed almost 11) but I don’t know. Regardless, I did feel pretty good to be finishing when I reached my dad again (1200) - he was waiting on East Flagstaff at the parking lot where we spent the night. After I got cleaned up, we drove south to New Portland and used a parking lot I've stopped at before to access the internet for the first time in 18 hours. While there, I found a campsite near Sugarloaf Mountain that seemed like a nice place to stay and so we continued west on ME-16 until we reached Kingfield. We then got on ME-27 and drove to Carrabassett Valley. The campground didn't end up being where I expected so we stopped at the Ski Resort on the way so I could get information about whether they'd be running the gondola during the coming weekend. They told me they planned to open in July ("after the black flies stop getting in our faces during the ride"). This meant that it would be hard to get a hike in the area the next day. Since my dad had already tole me he didn't want to use his RV to climb the Caribou Pond Road, that also ruled out an easy climb of the mountain... We continued north on ME-27 until we reached the Mountain View Motel and Campground, where we'd planned to stop for the night. The owner said our little RV was too big for the sites but recommended we try getting a spot at the Cathedral Pines Campground north of Eustis. Taking his advice, we drove there and found a wonderful set up in amazingly tall pine trees and on the western end of Flagstaff Lake. I got us a spot (1500) and we then drove back into town to get lunch. We wanted to get a pizza at one of the restaurants but figured out that it didn't open until 1600. Instead, we "settled" for the Backstrap Bar and Grill, which had an amazingly varied menu. My dad got some pizza (he really enjoyed it) and I had a delicious Reuben - once again, we had leftovers. At 1700, we drove back to the campground and I got a shower for the first time in three days. We also explored the grounds and found a lot of nice amenities - as well as more amazing scenery. I was feeling tired and, after resisting for quite a while, went to sleep at 2030! With some extra sleep, I’ll hopefully be ready to get some more AT miles tomorrow! AT Today = 6.3 miles / Grand Total AT = 1943.1 miles
