I leave camp at 6:45 just as the sun is starting to rise over the nearby eastern ridge. I snack as I walk, and plan on stopping for a bigger meal once I get some elevation behind me. Today is going to be a big climbing day, where I will tackle the Barren/Chairbacks and gain about 4,000 feet, so I want to keep on the move.
Shortly after starting I cross the Long Pond Stream where a rope is fixed to help hikers across but I am able to rock hop without using the rope. There are some beautiful campsites next to the stream, and I'm hoping to find something equally as nice tonight when I stop 15 miles up the trail.
I'm feeling a wet spot on my back and that means my water bladder is leaking. I don't have a ton of water as it is; carrying the bare minimum between water sources to save pack weight, so I take off my pack and investigate. Some debris has gotten into the connection between the bladder and the hose so I clear it and get back on the trail.
The trail follows the stream for a while before diverging and heading up the mountain. On the way up I pass by the blue blaze to the Long Pond Stream Lean-to but I decide to skip the shelter because I need to keep moving.
The first climb is 900 feet up to the Barren Slide. The climb is not too difficult although I stop halfway up to make a pit stop. Freehand comes up the trail as I'm stopped and we chat for a little while. He stayed at the shelter I just passed, and it sounds like I had a much better night than he did.
At the top of the first climb is a really beautiful view of Lake Onawa and in the far distance I can see the tips of the Bigelows and Crocker Mountain. I take a brief pause here, but only for a few minutes because I've only hiked three miles so far.
After the view the trail is a delightfully easy path along the ridge. The trail passes through a dense pine forest and the ground is covered with nice soft pine sheds which cushion my feet, which recovered nicely overnight.
The ridge is covered in trees for the next two miles, and adds another 700 feet to the Barren Mountain peak, the western peak of thee Barren-Chairback Range. A partially dismantled fire tower dominates the peak, and I see a PVC tube at the base of the tower, and I unscrew the end cap to sign the log book within.
Most of the fire towers on the mountains in this area were erected in the early 1900's. Now the fire activity is monitored by airplane so the towers are no longer necessary and serve only as attractive nuisances to adventurous hikers who think it's fun to try to climb up the old rickety things.
Coming down Barren Mountain I encounter a challenging rocky descent which really slows me down. It's approaching noon and the sun is high overhead. I'm thankful for the tree cover, which keeps me cool on the high ridge.
I arrive at an intermittent stream a little over an hour after leaving Barren Mountain to find Freehand and another gentleman who is section hiking southbound engaged in conversation. I take off my pack and join them for a lunch break. I figure out that I can filter my water hands-free if I sit on my dirty water bottle while I'm eating, squeezing the filtered water into my pack bladder. I also discover that the bladder is definitely leaking, with a wet spot on the outside of my pack. It's not pouring out but a steady slow drip. I think it will last for the rest of my hike, but I will have to put the water bag on the top of my pack with the leaking connector positioned on the outside so as not to get my stuff wet.
We all say goodbye and Freehand gets ahead of me when I stay to finish sitting on another bottle of water to watch a mouse darting around the spot where he sat, looking to score a crumb or two.
The trail goes through the Fourth Mountain Bog where there are a number of endangered plants including carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews that are native to Maine. I would love to see something like this but the last couple times I've tried to find them in the bogs my eyes couldn't register anything that looked remotely like a pitcher plant, so I walk across the bog bridges looking but not expecting much. A few seconds later I am delighted to find pitcher plants everywhere! They are so cool looking and they're easy to spot as they are bright red in color against the fading green and yellow ferns and green mosses. I carefully peer inside one to see a dead bug floating in the cup, being slowly digested by the plant. This just made my day! It's not a moose, but it's still really cool to see something like this on the trail, nonetheless.
After seeing the plants I start up a 450 foot climb up some unnamed peak. As I round the corner of the trail I'm amazed to see old plane wreckage scattered through the woods. I've seen videos of this on Youtube, but I had no idea it was in this section. The crash happened in January of 1984, and miraculously the father and son walked away from the wreck. I leave the plane wreckage undisturbed to continue along.
The trail both up and down in this section Is amazingly nice and easy with only a couple of really rooty areas as I descend from spruce woods almost instantly into a mixed forest. A breeze is blowing and leaves drift down lazily onto the trail. The birds are tweeting, and the trees are spectacular in the dappled sunlight.
A couple hours later I crest Chairback Third Mountain, and on the ledges I have a gorgeous view of a pond to the west and White Cap Mountain that I will climb tomorrow. There are some fluffy white and gray birds that are flittering branch to branch in the trees near me. I really stink at bird identification, but I'm pretty sure that these are the birds that will come and eat out of your hand. When I stop to get a look at them I take out some trail mix and hold it out but the birds are not interested and they just fly away.
The roots and rocks have really slowed me down the last couple of hours and I'm barely doing one and a half miles per hour. My feet are starting to ache when I arrive at the blue blaze for West Chairback Pond. This is where I originally planned on staying tonight and it's four o'clock and I'm tired, but I really don't want to use up the miles in my bank. If I stay here then I have to stay on point for the rest of the week, and I will absolutely have to do 15 miles per day to make Katahdin on the 17th. Even as inviting as the spot looks to camp, and as much as I'd like to stop for the day, I decide to push on. There is another campsite over the next mountain where I can stop if I can't go any further. I'd really like to make it the whole way down to the river where I'm meeting Dad tomorrow morning, but that is six miles away and you never know what surprises the trail has in store.
I do stop to filter some water and pop some ibuprofen for my aching feet, hoping I can head off the discomfort that I'm sure to have later today. At the rate I'm going I won't get to the river until dark, and I still have Columbus and Chairback Peaks to go over.
My plans go off the rails as I start the descent from the last Chairback peak. It is a boulder field straight down where I have to boot scoot several times clutching my poles because if I drop one it will likely go between boulders never to be seen again. The climb down is crazy difficult, but thankfully it's short; only 150 feet or so, and I make it down unscathed other than a couple of scratches on my legs.
Once I'm down, I breathe a sigh of relief, thinking I can make up some time, but instead of a nice, smooth trail I encounter a crazy maze through chest-high blueberry bushes with long branches that stretch across the trail. The sun is getting low in the sky and I'm crawling at a snail's pace.
An hour before dark I realize that I still have three miles to go and at this rate I will have do an hour of night hiking, which is less than ideal in good conditions, but a really bad idea on rough trail such as this. I look at the app and see there is a place to camp between here and the trailhead at East Chairback Pond, which is supposed to be a lovely campsite, although I won't be able to enjoy it since I'll be getting in right at dark, but at least I'll get set up before it's too late and I won't have to night hike.
At 6:30 p.m. I I'm a half mile from the pond when I walk by a nice looking campsite next to the trail that would perfectly fit my hammock. I check it out and start to take off my pack but then have second thoughts and start to head back up the trail, but after a few steps I decide to turn back and set up here.
My desire to be done before dark supercedes my need to be next to water. I don't have a whole lot of water but I can make it work for the night and I know that Dad has some water in the car. My plans for a gorgeous waterfront campsite went completely off the rails, but at least I won't have to night hike and I did get some hard miles behind me.
I don't bother to eat a proper dinner and instead plow through a lot of snacks in my bear can, and I'm out by 8 p.m..
Today's Stats: 14.7 miles, 4,065 feet gain
Trail Stats: 2,112 miles, 425K feet
Miles to Katahdin: 85
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