June 11
End: Poplar Ridge Lean-to
Miles: 28.4
Total: 3835.2
I slept right through my alarm. In many cases five in the morning is just too early to get up, but I didn’t want to consciously set it back for fear of acknowledging my own laziness. Besides, sunrise was at four thirty! What a change from my time in South Florida.
I crossed the road to Oquossoc and moved on. These towns were far from the trail and had little to offer. I spent the early part of the day walking along at lower elevations than the previous mountains. With that came many more mosquitoes and a few black flies.
I tried to stop for a break at Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to, but the bugs were totally out of control. I just reapplied the ninety-eight percent DEET I had picked up in Rutland and kept going.
There wasn’t much to do but keep on walking. I think I was starting to get tired of hiking in the woods, because even the easier terrain was not improving my mood as much as I had expected.
The road to Rangeley came and went, meaning I would have to go on to Stratton as originally planned. I was glad and disturbed at the same time at my ability to carry enough food from New Hampshire to make it so far. I learned from a trail maintainer that Iceman, Viking, and Samus had been there a day before.
I encountered signs highlighting the difficulty of Saddleback Mountain. They said not to attempt to start the mountains after noon, and it was after two in the afternoon. A little discouraged but figuring that the signs were meant for day hikers, I hurried on past a lean-to (Piazza Rock Lean-to) to start the ascent up the daunting mountain.
The climb didn’t present itself for awhile, but I found it soon enough. It was quite steep and I took occasional breaks while still watching the clock closely. As I reached what I thought was the summit I realized why it was called Saddleback Mountain. I proceeded to dip down a bit and then reclimb up to where I was and then go higher.
Finally I reached the breezy summit above four thousand feet. I continued on, counting down the number of times I would be climbing so high. The Horn was one of those times, and it was just after Saddleback. I did the annoying and in-clouds descent, then started climbing upwards again. I summited The Horn and headed down once again. I had to do Saddleback Junior, and then I would be done with my challenges for the day.
I was annoyed at how far down I had to go just to go back up again. Saddleback Junior didn’t sound so bad, but after going down perhaps a thousand feet I wasn’t looking forward to a third mountain in less than five miles. Thankfully I was able to get it over with quickly, and descended down slowly, looking for my destination.
I arrived at Poplar Ridge Lean-to before dark and met Achilles. I had known of him for awhile because of his online journal and his consistent pace near the front of the Northbound pack. He had been off of the trail for a week due to a knee injury, but was back and ready to finish his thru-hike.
Despite the silly “baseball bat” floors I enjoyed the lean-to for its name since I grew up at a different Poplar Ridge. I got some lovely water, yellowed by minerals, for cooking my dinner. Achilles generously gave me some bars to eat when he saw that I was a tad low on food. After that it was time to sleep.
