I pack up my food for the next two nights and 32 miles of hiking until the next road crossing and give Dad a hug goodbye at 6:45.
The climb up Saddleback starts off relatively easy with only 500 feet of gain and the first couple miles are in the bag within an hour.
I stop at the Piazza Lean-to which is right off the trail. The tramily that I hiked up and over Madison is at the shelter. There is a gaggle of very active boys with their dads camped in front of the shelter. I ask how they slept last night and they said the kids went to bed rather early but they made a mess of the fire pit.
I hit the privy which is a two-seater with a cribbage board mounted between the seats. I don't play cribbage, but I can't imagine shutting in a stinky privy for any longer than is necessary to play a game. Anyone who has that kind of time on their hands needs to carry a pack of playing cards and do it at camp, IMHO.
Leaving the shelter the trail the elevation for the trail looks much different than what I've just covered. I'm going to gain over 2,000 ft the next four miles. My pack right now isn't too heavy even though I have three days of food because I'm only carrying a small amount of water. I know that's going to change when I have to camel up at a stream further up the trail. As soon as I leave the shelter, the trail starts ascending steeply on some rocks for 500 ft before I pass a pretty pond and eventually reach Saddleback Stream.
The stream is very low but it is flowing (barely) and two other hikers are gathering water. It's going to take me a little while because I'm going to fill up my water bladder; the water next water source isn't for seven and a half miles and over 3,000 feet of elevation gain. The process of filling my bladder consumes over 30 minutes with the dribble coming off the moss.
Leaving the stream the first mile isn't too terrible; it's rocky and rooty but the elevation gain is about 500 feet. The next two miles is a different story. The trail gets really steep and I start climbing up stone steps mixed with giant rock slabs. The weight of my pack is ridiculous, more than 30 pounds, and I have to crawl up a couple of rocks in a rather ungainly manner keeping from falling backwards. The trail is so steep and my pack is so heavy that the two combined slows my pace to a crawl.
The trail mellows a little bit as I get above tree line. Warnings on the FarOut app mention that the next two and a half miles will be exposed and to exercise caution in poor weather. I'm very thankful that today is clear and fairly sunny.
The rocks continue up to the summit of Saddleback (4,120). The views are gorgeous but a little hazy in the distance. I can see Mounts Washington and Lafayette, 120 miles away! I also get a good look at the mountains that I will be hiking over the next few days, and they are going to be hard. It's still so crazy to believe that I am hiking in the Maine wilderness and that in a few more weeks this journey will come to an end.
But before I can think about what's to come I need to take care of what's at hand. The elevation looks like it goes straight down and it does. The rocks are crazy steep in places and I have to boot scoot frequently down from Saddleback most of the 500 foot descent.
The hike up The Horn, the second Saddleback peak, is about as hard as the descent from the first Saddleback peak, with another 500 feet of gain over some tough and huge rocks. I am making a mile in a whopping 50 minutes, but I'm pretty happy with it, given the terrain.
I stop a short way from the peak sit and eat the sandwich that Dad packed for me. It's mushed and doesn't look anything like it did this morning when I put it in my pack, but it's tasty.
I go up and over The Horn and can look down onto the next two mountains I need to climb today. My feet are already sore, and my knees are zinging, but I need to keep going to get down the mountain.
The descent from The Horn is ridiculously steep and difficult. At least my pack is a little less unwieldy now that I have lightened the load by drinking most of the water I had to carry over Saddleback.
Once down The Horn, I get about 100 feet of level ground before climbing the third, and last, mountain of the day. Saddleback Junior is 600 feet of more challenging rocks. I swear I've been transported back to New Hampshire!
By 2:30 I have hiked 10 miles, gained 3,800 feet, and summited three peaks, two of which are over 4,000 feet. I am only a mile and a half from where I was planning on stopping tonight, and even though I'm tired and I would love to call it a night at the next shelter, I feel like it's too early to stop for the day.
Rain is in the forecast for the day after tomorrow. If I hike a little further today then I can get a little further tomorrow, and that will leave me with only seven miles to hike in the rain on Monday.
I arrive at the Poplar Lean-to at 3:15. There are a few gentlemen here filtering water. I am almost out of water at this point, so I drop my pack to do the same. While I'm filtering water I think of a woman named Inchworm who disappeared shortly after leaving this shelter, never to be seen alive again. The search for her lasted for months, but it was a few years ago that her remains were discovered miles off the trail. She had left the trail to heed the call of nature, then got lost in the wilderness. She survived 28 days before succumbing to starvation.
A man walks up and he drops his pack. His name is First Light, and he says he is staying here tonight. We talk as I filter some water. I tell him about Inchworm and he says he remembers her story. I say goodbye and I think of her as I continue down the trail, hoping she is at peace and hiking the golden trails of eternity.
To get my mind off her misadventure, I tun on some music and bee bop my way down the mountain. I descend 1,600 feet over three miles to a beautiful and big stream. Two hikers are filtering water and say the camping is one-tenth of a mile up the hill, but they think this is where to get the water, so I do the same. Everyone is feeling the scarcity of water, and getting it whenever possible.
Just up the hill from the stream, the trail crosses an old fire road. It looks like a campground because there are already five tents set up on the road. I am delighted to see another stream with a nice pool, perfect for soaking my sore feet!
I set up near the water and hydrate my dinner before soaking my feet in the cold pool until they go numb before I eat.
I am in my hammock at 7 pm! As I write this, I can't believe how quiet it is at 7:30 pm with so many other hikers camped nearby. The term "hiker midnight" is for that time when hikers finish eating and hit the hay the minute the sun goes down. I am beat and I am asleep before eight.
Today's Stats: 13.8 miles, 4,200 feet gain
Trail Stats: 1,991 miles, 411K gain
Miles to Katahdin: 203
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