Sunday, August 17, 2025. Up at 6:00. Clear cool morning, rain on and off afternoon and evening.
Hopefully we will get to camp after the afternoon rain and before the evening rain so that we can pitch our tents in dry conditions. Fingers crossed.
Got shuttled to trail at ME Rt 27 (mile 2010.1) by the hostel at 7:50. On trail at 8:05. I am carrying 4 liters of water as there is only one good place to get water the entire hike today.
Easy flat first 2 miles followed by steep dirt uphill for 1.4 miles. The next 1.5 miles was one big rock scramble. Not as bad as Saddleback on day 1, but a good workout.
Stopped at a nice overlook at 11:00 to swap water and have lunch. We have .7 to the next lean-to where there is a pond where we can get water. Then a big steep climb 🙁
Stopped at an amazing overlook. That is the pond where we will get water shortly. Horns Pond. The 2 peaks in the background are South Horn and North Horn.
Reached Horns pond at 12:10. Lovely alpine pond. We got 2 liters of extra water as there is none for the next 6 miles and we have also some tough climbing to do.
The weather finally turned to clouds and rain and strong winds right as we ascended above tree line on Bigelow Mountain West. Summiting a 4100 foot rock pile in that weather is not fun.
The rain and wind picked up as we went down from Bigelow West, crossed the saddle between peaks and ascended Bigelow Avery at 4062 feet. Visibility was about 50 feet and the winds were way over 25 mph.
After that peak, we had a 2.3 mile steep rocky slippery descent almost 2000 feet to camp. Rain and wind for 3 hours. We were soaked and cold when we finally reached camp.
Got to Sanford Notch Campsite (mile 2020.5) about 5:00. Set up in drizzle by 5:30. Cold and windy and rain evening. At least we climbed down about 1500 feet unlike some of our friends from last night such as Lady Bug and Limo Bean. They are camping much higher up and it’s very cold and very windy up there. They are not happy based on their texts.
I’m dry and have a good tent pitch, so I’ll be good for the night. Surprisingly we have 2 bars of cell service.
An older couple, Flash and Crash, arrived just after we setup. They are section hiking to Monson.
Made a hot dinner in the tent vestibule. Hot food is very welcome at this point. Tried Good to Go dehydrated meals for the first time. Vegan but darn tasty. Added jalapeño tuna to fix that vegan issue.
All ready for bed and blog entries written by 8:00. Will read for a bit and hopefully fall asleep soon.
Technical Notes:
- Blueberry bread pudding 500
- Coffee w creamer 80
- Fatty beef stock 300
- Trail mix 180
- Fig bar 200
- Good to Go Cuban rice bowl 570
- Tina creations jalapeño 70
- Fritos 300
- Water liters 5
- Miles 11.28
- Time 9:00
- Up 4541
- Down 3776
- Calories consumed 2300
- Calories burned 4275
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