Baldpate

Managed to get 15 in today, so kind of back to normal. My muscles benefited from the early stop yesterday but the ankle is feeling the effects of the last few days. Last few weeks really, the intensity has really ratcheted up.

Started from Speck pond and climbed up Old Speck. From the summit a mile away the pond looked both small but larger than I thought it was. No moose yet, but I’m still looking. It was a long descent from there, though not as treacherous as things have been. Than up to the twin summits of Bald Pate, which where surprisingly different. The west peak is green but the east peak, which is only slightly taller, is exposed bedrock. I got my first sweeping vista in Maine and it was pretty damn good. It’s funny, the view would have been one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen six months ago, but on the AT it might not make the top 10. It’s a shame really. I made sure to stop and soak in the scene.

Made it to Frye Notch Lean-to (a shelter is called a lean-to in Maine) around 3:30. Too early to stop most days, though these days are not most days. I was not going to make it another 10 miles to the next shelter, but I could take my chances and try to find a stealth spot. I haven’t done that in a while, as campsites have been few, plus I’m way less prone to take chances when my confidence is at a low ebb. You might think I can just pitch my tent anywhere but I need a patch of relatively flat clear ground large enough to set up on, and that’s a rare thing in densely forested mountains. There were several streams coming up, which were likely spots to look, so I went for it.

Dunn falls was a crazy cataract that fell between a cleft in the stone and dropped steeply so I couldn’t see how far. I would have loved to sleep beside the road in water so I searched around awhile but found nothing. My spirits low and my body tired, I started talking to the trail, asking for a spot at the next stream. Boom, a bench, fire ring, and everything, on the other side of a brook. It’s a great feeling, simple and strange, like winning something and coming home at the same time. I’m about 257 from Katahdin. Tomorrow I’m doing 10 miles to Andover, I was hoping to get farther on this last food bag but I’ve got a breakfast and a day’s snacks left, so it’s time for town.