Tripod on the AT in Maine

Fall foliage starting in Rangeley Maine

This was a re-supply trip and my last chance to camp out in the woods with Spoon and friends. I arrived at the trailhead at 2pm on Sunday to find Spoon a bit muddy, waiting with friends. We passed out some home made cookies and loaded up for the trip into Rangeley. The original plan was to do a grocery shop to augment the supplies I brought up and then head out to the shelter, but Timothy was ready for a night off, so we found a motel in Rangeley for the night. As it turned out one of his hiking friends, Zamboni, was also staying in the same place having taken a couple of days off to recover from a bout of the flu. Then we drove back out to the trailhead and picked up his 2 other friends, Joker and Watermelon, who we took to a hostel. I did a lot of shuffling on this trip, moving 4 guys around with gear, from our motel, their hostel, which was outside of town, and the town of Rangeley.

Rangeley Maine

 When we headed out for dinner that evening at a Thai restaurant  we added another hiker Connecticut Bob, who actually was from Boston and we had mutual friends from the Blue Hills. On Monday morning Tim did laundry in the morning and we packed up, did some gear shopping, picked up more food at the local IGA and headed to the trailhead with Zamboni for our 1.8 mile hike to the Piazza Rock leanto. Watermelon, who was waiting for a mail drop at the Post Office, and Joker who was waiting for a FedEx from his bank, were to join up with us later on.

Bridge on Trail

Spoon under Piazza Rock

At the trail head we ran into the Barbarian Utopia, whom I have been hearing stories about for a while and who were headed into the IGA for a quick re-supply. The Barbarian Utopia consists of a father, Tecolote and his 8 year old son, Venado, who Tim has run into on a number of occasions as they have been working their way north. Passed out some more much appreciated cookies and then it was an easy hike for the 3 of us out to the shelter. Just one small hill and then a nice stroll thru the woods. We set up our hammocks, got a fire started, and waited for the others to show up and then went up to explore Piazza Rock.We were on the top of the rock, where I took some pictures that really did not show anything. Afterwards we discovered this view and I tried to convince Spoon & Zamboni to climb back up and sit on the edge, but I couldn't get any takers. Back in camp Watermelon came in first followed by Joker and a little while later the Barbarian Utopia. Set up the grill for some Bratwurst which Joker had brought out, and washed them down with some peppermint Schnaps which Spoon lugged out.

Venado and Tecolote logging their stay

The Piazza Rock shelter had a caretaker who was paid by the Maine Appalachian Mountain Club. He worked 40 hours per week, 10 days on 4 days off and was responsible for the trail from RT 17 to the top of Saddleback. He recorded visitors to the shelter, did trail maintenance, gave us information on the local wildlife, ( he expected a moose and her 2 calves to show up), made sure the privy was clean, walked the trail daily and slept in a large tent up in the woods. His term of stay was coming to a close. Caretakers are not in residence in the winter.

Exactly as listed in the Guide Book

The privy is listed in the Guide Book as a 2 seater with a cribbage board in between. We all agreed that it would be hard to find someone to play cribbage with. No cards and missing one peg,( which would be easy to find). I have some friends who are really big into cribbage and whom I would be happy to give directions to find this location.

We got up around 7 am after a cold night in the woods, ( the temperature dropped into the low thirties), and discovered that the Barbarian Utopia had already been up,  had breakfast and left. They walk slow, they leave early, I was told. After breakfast and packing up, I was off for home and they for 17 miles to the next shelter on the other side of Saddleback Mountain.   They are having a hard time coming to the realization that this adventure is going to be over in 2 weeks. We wish them the best of luck and that the weather improves for them for the rest of their journey. Too much rain, mud, cold, slippery rocks so far in Maine. Looks like we will be heading to Katahdin in early October for the final climb.

Watermelon, Joker, Spoon, Zamboni

AT Profiles

Profile of our Hike

When we started planning our hike with Tim and projecting where along the trail we might join up with him, based on an average speed of 14 miles per day, I came up with Daleville, VA. Tim and I are both using  "The A.T Guide" by David "AWOL" Miller as our way of following his north bound progress. One of the nice things about this guide is the trail profile that runs from page to page. So looking at the elevation profile for the section in Virginia from Daleville to the James River, it did not look too bad. A few bumps to start off with, but nothing over 2,700 feet, until we passed Buchanan. Then there was a climb up to Apple Orchard Mountain, but it was stretched out over 12 miles, and then down hill to the James River. I figured that the 12 mile lead up to Apple Orchard should not be too strenuous.  Tim put on some extra miles and so instead of Daleville we met up with him in Buchanan 20 miles further up the road. So when we started out on the hike, it would be nice to say that we got on the trail at Jennings Creek and just followed the profile line up to the top of Fork Mtn. and then Floyd and on, but that was not really the case. In New Hampshire I have found that most of the trails do that. The mountain is up there and we hike up to it in a direct line. When we hiked in Montana, we found more slabs, trails that zig zagged their way to the top. Made it a bit easier and probably a little longer. In Virginia I found combination's of both. We were heading from the south to north and as I remember there was more slabbing going up the hills and then followed by trails that went straight down, with the exception of High Cock Knob which nearly did me in. Straight up High Cock and straight down the other side. Steep downs are just as hard as steep ups. Different muscles in use. The next three images were taken from Google Earth with a gps track overlayed in red to show our path. I did not carry my own gps on this hike because I did not want to have carry the weight of the extra batteries, so I found  this  track on the web. This track also listed all the shelters from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katadhin in Maine. If you click on the pictures they will enlarge for a better view.

 Fork Mountain trail starts on the bottom left goes up to the top of Fork Mountain and down to the plush shelter at Bryant ridge. Then up over Floyd and at the top of the picture the other yellow push pin is Cornelius Creek Shelter, where we spent the first night.

This picture is looking East with Apple Orchard Mountain on the right and moving to the left Thunder Hill Shelter, where we spent the second night. Then the next day continuing up over High Cock Knob and down to Marble Spring where  we spent the third night.

James River

Looking  West with the James river on the right and the trail descending from the mountains past Matts Creek Shelter on the way to the river. That was our hike, a few twists and turns and some long ups and downs.

Hiking with Tim

"Buchanan, VA"

On June 28, Ellen, Sean & I in Marion got up early  and 11 hours later we arrived in Buchanan, VA where Tim, who had to walk 4 1/2 miles from the trail, had already checked into our motel. Out for dinner that evening and breakfast the following morning and we were at the trailhead on Jennings Creek Rd at Panther Ford by 10:30 am, packs on and ready to go.Panther Ford was so named because supposedly a young woman and her son were killed there by a mountain lion in the early 1800's. There aren't any mountain lions around here any more so we felt safe to go.

We have hiked together on a number of occasions and usually the boys start off at a faster pace, then stop  up the trail and wait for me to catch up. The trail started right up the hill, without any easy, level,  warm up section. It was hot and very humid , it took me a while to get going and I was completely drenched in sweat in less than 15 minutes. Fork Mountain was our first climb going up from 951 feet elevation at the road to 2042 feet at the top in about 1.5 miles. Then down the other side to an elevation of about 1,100 and then up 250 feet to the shelter at Bryant Ridge. Fork Mountain was relatively easy, in that we hiked to the top and then hiked down. The next mountain, Floyd, was not as easy. There were more ups and downs on the way to the top. Tim calls them PUDS, (Pointless up and downs). Bryant Ridge Shelter below Fork Mountain was a 3 decker capable of sleeping 16 people, complete with pegs for stuff and hooks for packs. It was really some nice, especially for someone who had never seen a shelter before. Our leader also confirmed that it was one of the nicest he had seen.

We arrived at the shelter separately, with Sean the first in. When I came up the small hill to the shelter Sean was bandaging up some cuts. He had spotted the shelter as he was coming down the trail and took a shortcut up to it, but in doing so he walked into a Black snake on a ledge and while attempting to avoid the snake had fallen back down the hill. I am not afraid of snakes, but this one was really huge, at least 4" in diameter and probably close to 6 feet long. It must have just had a meal and was resting in the sun. We laid our wet clothes out on the picnic table and had lunch inside in the shade. Then around 2 pm off again and up Floyd Mountain which was 3,560 feet high and 4+ miles away. There were times going up Floyd when I wondered why I thought that this was a good idea, but eventually with some help from Tim, who came back and carried my pack for a while, I made it to the top. There are not a lot of views at the top of these hills. The only way you can tell you are there is by looking around and making sure that the sky is not blocked by trees. False summits are a pain. A number of times we arrived at what seemed to be the top of the hill only to realize that we could only see 3 quarters of the way around. Then you go down into a little notch and start back up again. From the top of Floyd we descended 400 feet to the Cornelius Creek Shelter, arriving after 7:30 pm having hiked about 8 miles. . This was a much smaller shelter than the Bryant Ridge and it only slept 8. There was one other hiker there who called himself "Tabasco" . Tim allowed how this was about the third person with this trail name, but he did not know him. Tabasco slept in a hammock like Tim's, and because it was late and no one else was there Tim and Sean elected to sleep in the shelter. I however set up my hammock in the woods behind the shelter. Tim uses a Hennessey which you climb into thru a slit in the bottom, that closes up with Velcro after you get in. I bought a Clark Jungle Hammock that allows you to get in conventionally and with bug net that zips up. The bug net on the Hennessey is attached directly to the hammock, always in place. I went the hammock way, because I did not want to sleep on the hard ground in a tent or on the boards of a shelter. There aren't any beds in the shelters.

"Packing up at Cornelius Creek Shelter"

The shelters are 3 sided affairs, with wooden floors. Lay down your pad to mark your space and put down your sleeping bag. Too hard for my old bones. If we had, had rain I probably would have changed my mind, but the weather stayed dry, so I slept out for 3 nights. We cooked up dinners and then packed it in for the evening.

The next morning we were up around 8, breakfasted and packed and ready to go around 10 am. This was the earliest we got off in the next couple of days. Thursday and Friday we were back to 10:30 departure times. We only did 5 miles on Wednesday, up and over the highest peak between Virginia and New Hampshire, Apple Orchard Mountain.There were no apples on the mountain just a radar dome for FAA flight control. The early settlers thought that the stunted Red Oak trees were Apple trees. The Oak trees are still there. After a rest and lunch on the grass in front of the Radar dome we started down hill towards Petites Gap. After the trail entered the woods it descended over 100 stone steps to the Guillotine, a suspended boulder and then continued on to Thunder Hill Shelter were we spent the night camped out behind it, Sean in his tent and Tim & I in our hammocks. For dinner Sean made Salmon cakes that were absolutely delicious.

"I thought it was an Apple Tree"

"Sean setting up his tent at Thunder Hill. Bear bag can be seen hanging in tree upper left"

"Looking at Tim's Hammock from mine"

Thursday we hiked around 7 miles. Apple Orchard Mountain was the highest point on our hike and from there it was down hill to the James River foot bridge. However in between there were few more of those PUDS, the worst being High Cock Knob at 3073 feet, with 3 false summits. Sean & Tim stayed and read their books on Thunder Ridge and I got to head off first for a while. I was making good time down hill, across Petites Gap road and had just started up High Cock Knob when they caught up with me and passed. They were surprised how far along I had gotten. I tried to keep up with them,but was not able to and went back to my slow uphill pace. Tim came back and helped me up over the second false summit and told me that the top was just a short climb away. we first had to go down to a notch before resuming our climb. This notch is called Archie's Notch after Archibald "Bear" Tolley, who was a bear hunter in the 1800's and had a cabin nearby. He had 2 pet roosters who crowed from a tall oak on the top of the promontory.  We found Sean wedged between a couple of rocks at the top reading and resting.and left him there as we headed down to Marble Springs Campground where we made camp for the evening.

Tim told us the following morning that a huge bear walked around the campground, but I never saw or heard him. I did keep everyone up for a while trying to get my hammock adjusted. The next day, although long, it was all down hill with plenty of good views and a nice stop for lunch before we crossed the James River on the longest footbridge on the AT.

We had planned on spending one more night camping, but decided after crossing the bridge that we had done enough and then ran into a little problem of calling Ellen for a pick up. Even with 3 separate carriers none of us had cell phone coverage. Tim managed to get a ride headed for a phone at a gas station in Big Island, and on top of a hill on the way they picked up reception and he made contact with Ellen and we were headed for dinner and beds with air conditioning. Tim slackpacked,(Ellen dropped him off where she had picked us up on Friday with just water and snacks), Saturday for 12 miles. We picked him up around 1pm,  came back to the motel for some more rest and then Sunday morning we set him off again on the trail, before we drove home.