Rangeley to Stratton

June 22-23: Rangeley to Stratton

Total Miles: ~40

Since finishing up the New Hampshire 4000 footer list in 2000, I have been looking for other lists and mountains to occupy my time. One of the lists that I have been working on is the 4000 footer list for all of New England. Obviously, this includes the New Hampshire peaks, but also high points in Vermont and Maine. The main focus for my return to this section of the AT was to get three new 4000 footers; Abraham, Sugarloaf and Reddington.

I started off on Saturday morning from Lewiston, ME, were I stayed at my good friend Ray's place to give me a head start on the long drive to the trail. From there, I headed to Rangeley and the Gull Pond Lodge, a place that I stayed when I went through this area in 1999. The owner, Bob, shuttled me around the trail so that I could drop my car at the north end of the section, then dumped me at the southern trailhead. Point to point, it was 32 miles, but I would be hiking quite a bit more than that by the time the weekend was over.

I finally started hiking around 10:30 on Saturday, just as it started to rain. Last time I was on this section of trail it was raining, so I didn't think that this was a good sign at all. After about a mile, I arrived at Piazza Rock Lean-To, my refuge from a brutal rainstorm in 1999. I saw some MATC volunteers building a caretaker cabin and bringing up supplies for the summer months. Since I had gotten a late start, I only stopped long enough to check out the rock, sign the register and then I moved along up the trail.

The next stop for the day was Saddleback Mountain, one of the nicest parts of the AT. While the rain had stopped, it was extremely hazy this day and the views were not as I had hoped. Still, Saddleback is a really amazing place, a multi-peaked Moosilaukie if you will. There were only a few day hikers on the trail today, and as soon as I got over Saddleback proper, there was no one else on the trail. It was hard to imagine, but this section of trail was in jeopardy of being developed by the ski area that is currently on the western flank of the mountain.

The walk along the ridgeline of Saddleback is not an easy one, but it is rewarding and unique. I was high about the trees for over a mile, until I hit Saddleback Junior and headed back into the woods. From there, it was only a short trip to the Poplar Ridge Lean-To, an older shelter with a ver entertaining register. The maintainer of this shelter puts together a report each year with information about the shelter, the area and answered to common questions. I was pretty tired at this point, so I enjoyed a long snack while reading this year's report as well as some entries from the southbound thru-hikers.

A bit later down the trail, I was hiking along a flat section in open woods and I almost walked right into a giant bull moose. This guy was BIG with a rack to match, and he scampered off the trail and into the woods just deep enough for me not to get a photo. The only time I was actually able to photograph a moose was on the Kanc Highway, but that was the day I lost my camera of course.

I still had more hiking to do, however, so I packed my things and headed up the trail - next stop Mount Abraham. In 1999, I blew right past this mountain since it is a long 1.7 mile trip off the trail. On a thru-hike, anything more than .3 off the trail has to be pretty important to actually walk that many "negative" miles. Today, however, Abraham was my main goal, so I dropped my backpack, took a bottle of water and headed for the summit. I was shocked at just how cool this mountain is! First, the clouds had started to break up so that the sun was making its first appearance of the day. Also, the summit of this mountain was high about treeline, which really surprised me. Abraham actually looks like a mini-Mount Washington as it is just a big pile of rocks. On the summit, there are some interesting rock cairns as well as an old fire tower that should probably be removed at this point. The views were very nice, if still a bit hazy. All and all, though, this mountain was more than worth the 3+ mile walk to get here. I headed back down towards my backpack with a smile on my face.

From the junction with the Mount Abraham Trail, it was only a mile to my destination for the night, the Spaulding Mountain Lean-To. I was going to be arriving here on the late site, about 7:30, so I wanted to hurry up so I didn't disturb any southbounders looking to head to bed early. I was surprised to arrive here at the shelter and have the place to myself. I had not seen a single person since Saddleback, over 10 miles ago. Since the place was empty, I spread my stuff out and started to cook dinner. It was a very peaceful night, and I had a partial view of the sunset through the trees in front of the shelter. As the light faded, I started to do some reading before retiring for the night. Just about 9:30, when I was ready to fall asleep, I started to hear some noises in the woods. Not a big deal, usually just squirrels or deer wandering around, however this thing was big. A few seconds later, I heard a large branch snapping, and then another. Now I knew that there was either a moose or a bear outside the shelter. Given the fact that I has just seen a moose, and than moose are a lot more friendly than bears, odds are that there was not a bear roaming around outside. However, I looked at my food bag which was hanging directly over my feet and considered the possibility that a back bear came looking for a snack. Before I could get up and get to my hiking poles to make some noise, however, the creature went away and I went to bed.

The next morning started off well, but low-lying clouds quickly ruined whatever views I might have had. I climbed Spaulding again today to find nothing but fog and drizzle on the summit. Then I headed up to the summit of Sugarloaf, another peak I need to cross off the list. There was this perfect spiderweb on the was up the trail that I was fascinated with for some reason. The last tenth of a mile or so is all exposed, but I was again firmly in the clouds so there was no view to be had from the summit here either. Sugarloaf is a popular ski area, so there was plenty of building and equipment on the summit, all of which looked eerie through the fog. It was a scene out of a horror novel for sure, as building and towers literally popped out of the fog as you walked towards them, and disappeared as you walked away.

With Sugarloaf now in the bag, there was just one more summit to hit, Mount Reddington. Mount Reddington is officially a trailless peak, however a series of woods roads and old logging roads will take you within a half mile of the actual summit. From there, a roughshod trail has been cut and blazed to the summit. The walk up the roads was long, but largely unnoteworthy. I followed a cow moose about halfway up to the summit, as I would spook her, she would run away (along the road) only to stop until I appeared out of the fog to spook her again. We did this dance for about a mile until I took a turn off the main path. Reaching the summit using this route can be difficuly, and the directions that were provided by Mohamed were invaluable. The summit of Reddington is completely wooded, but it has been clear-cut to make way for a wind-recording device. A local power company is considering putting a windmill farm on this mountain to generate green power. While I applaud their efforts on generating clean power, putting over 40 towers half the height of the Empire State Building in the middle of such a scenic area is irresponsible. Pennsylvania has a few such windmill farms, but they are all located near an interstate where the landscape has already been disturbed.

I climbed back down the mountain and headed back to the junction with the AT. From here, I had two options - continue north on the AT over the Crockers and down to my car or walk the road out. Given that it was already 3:00 in the afternoon and that the weather was not great, I chose to follow the dirt road back out to my car rather than slog up over another 4000-foot peak. I made good time down to the road, and in less than an hour and a half I was back at my car ready to head home. All told, I hiked about 40 miles, bagged 6 4000-foot peaks, 3 for the first time, saw about 8 southbounders, and didn't get rained on. All and all, another great weekend in the woods.

-Chomp