High Water

Because of Hurricane Irene, the brooks and rivers we needed to cross on Tuesday (8-30) were flooded.  We changed our plans around a bit so we were shuttled 52 miles into the 100-mile wilderness and dropped off on the trail at a logging road called Jo-Mary Rd.  We started hiking south back to Shaw's Lodging in Monson.  By doing this we could avoid some of the high water until it had a chance to recede a little bit.  It took 1 hr and 45 minutes to reach Jo-Mary Rd.  We started hiking at 10 AM.  There was only one mountain to climb--Little Boardman Mountain.  We forded the East Branch Pleasant River which was waist-deep with a fairly strong current.  The water came up to the bottom of my backpack so my gear got a little wet.  We hiked until 7:15 PM in order to maximize our miles since we got a late start due to the almost two hour shuttle ride.  We were able to go 15.4 miles.  Wednesday (8-31) was a cool and dry day.  We were back out on the trail at 6:45 AM and we immediately climbed 1,100 feet to the top of White Cap Mountain (elev. 3,650).  Then we tackled Hay Mountain and Gulf Hagas Mountain.  We forded the West Branch Pleasant River and it was about waist-high too.  We finished at 6 PM and went 14.4 miles.  Thursday (9-1) could have been called "Mountain Climbing Day" as we started by climbing Chairback Mountain.  This was the correct path going up if you want to call it a path!

Next was Columbus Mountain, then Monument Cliff at the top of Third Mountain, then Fourth Mountain (it is actually called that), and finally Barren Mountain.  Each time there was a steep descent before climbing again.  We finished at 6:15 PM.  It was a very tough day.  We were able to go 13.6 miles because there weren't any streams to cross.  Friday (9-2) was another beauty of a day.  There weren't any major mountains to climb but there were plenty of ups and downs of hundreds of feet at a time.  We forded three streams--Long Pond Stream (thigh-high), Big Wilson Stream (knee-high), and Little Wilson Stream (calf-high).  It is refreshing to ford a stream with cold water but it is time consuming.  You have to take off your boots and socks, secure them on your backpack, get your Crocs out, ford the stream, dry your feet off, put the boots and socks back on and then put your Crocs away.  It is a production and it takes at least 15 minutes just to go a very short distance.  A hostel representative met us at 2 PM at a road access and took us back to Monson.  After a quick resupply, we are now ready to hike north on Saturday from Jo-Mary Rd which is 56.1 miles from Mt. Katahdin.  We hiked 8.5 miles.  It is hard to believe we are almost there!