Thursday, August 14, 2025. Up at 6:45. Cold and breezy after the rain last night.
Packed up and headed out (mile 199.6) at 7:55.
Summited Spaulding mountain about 8:45. Tough climb but easier than the past few days. Ran into a few dozen blowdowns over the next 2 miles. Ranged from easy to difficult. Had to crawl under 2 of them.
Some nice views up here. Nothing spectacular, but nice.
We took a snack break at the side trail to Sugarloaf Ski Lodge at 10:10. If you need to bail out of this section, that is one of only two bailouts. It’s a .5 mile hike up to the top of the ski lift from here then 3 miles down the ski lift trails.
Water is challenging. We refilled water at 10:50. Barely a trickle using the leaf trick, but it works.
Began the nasty descent for today. This is in the to 4 hardest descents on the trail in my opinion. Photos don’t do it justice.
Completed the very challenging descent off of Sugarloaf down to the South Branch of the Carrabassett River at 12:30. Five miles down and 1.2 more miles to go on this short day. There is good water at camp so we do t have to carry a couple of liters uphill like the other night. Yey!
Hung out, filled water, had lunch, and generally chilled for a while in the shade.
Did the last 1.2 miles to Crocker Cirque Campsite (mile 2002.8) by 2:30. Nice place with privy, stream, tent pads, but terrible trees for making our bear hangs. Got setup and settled in for a long afternoon by 3:30. One or two bars ATT service depending on the wind.
It was a short day. We could have knocked out 4 or 6 more miles, but there are no more campsites for 8.5 miles and very questionable water. We are not on a hard schedule and our bodies are still getting used to these big verticals, so we are good with where we ended up. Tomorrow we get picked up at Rt 27 and get showers and beds and real food! And laundry…very important.
Had a long conversation with Mary-Beth. Solo NOBO section hiker. She was at Virginia Tech from 1986 to 1991 and partied at Theat Xi her freshman and sophomore year. Small world.
In bed at 7:30. Blogged and read for a few hours.
Technical Notes:
- Pop tarts x 2 360
- Fig bar 200
- Fatty sausage 300
- Payday 250
- Peak Refuel chicken chili 760
- Crackers 190
- Fritos 300
- Water liters 4
- Miles 6.5
- Time 6:30
- Elevation gain 1890 feet
- Calories consumed 2360
- Calories burned 2600
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