{"id":1107,"date":"2014-09-02T19:36:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T23:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnatow.com\/wordpress-happytrails\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2014-09-02T19:36:54","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T23:36:54","slug":"day-140-sluice-brook-to-mile-1994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hnatow.com\/happytrails\/?p=1107","title":{"rendered":"Day 140 – Sluice Brook to mile 1994"},"content":{"rendered":"

We headed out this morning and almost immediately began our first climb. We hiked up to Lone Mountain. It was a pretty steep climb, but the trail wasn’t too bad. I think we almost went up too fast and tired ourselves out a bit because the tread was pretty smooth compared to the normal crazy rock and root party that Maine throws. We got to the top, but the actual summit and viewpoint was another 150 yards up a pretty nasty looking chute of rocks, so we skipped it. We were trying to get over the 4000 footers before all the thunderstorms that were predicted hit us by late afternoon, also. We hiked along and then had our second big climb up and over the northwest corner of Spaulding Mountain. It was another pretty tough one. Then the descent down off this ridge was wickedly steep. It took quite a while to get down to the South Branch Carrabassett River at the bottom. There were a few hawks sailing seemingly around our heads as we climbed down the precarious rocks. <\/p>\n

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Hawk sailing around<\/p><\/div>\n

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Valley between Sugarloaf and Crockers<\/p><\/div>\n

This river was the 3rd one that can require a ford, but all of them have been low enough that we could rock hop across without getting wet so far. I think there are a few farther north that we won’t be able to avoid fording, however. After we ate lunch by the river, we started the long 2000+ feet, 2+ mile climb up to the Crocker Range. The climb started pretty easily, but then after a campsite junction it got intensely steep. It levelled a bit off after a half mile or so, but the remaining half mile seemed to just go on forever. Once we hit the summit, the clouds had overtaken all the views, too. A storm seemed imminent, but it held out and then actually got nice and sunny later in the day. We climbed over North Crocker and then down off the ridge. We found an established campsite on the way down and grabbed it. <\/p>\n

It was another really tough day here in Maine. Our legs are just super beat after all the constant elevation change since we hit the Whites. Tomorrow looks to be another pretty tough day with the Bigelow Range looming, but after that we should have a bit of an easier stretch as we head towards the town of Caratunk later this week. <\/p>\n

Vital stats for Tuesday, September 2nd :<\/strong>
\nMilestone – less than 200 miles to Katahdin
\nMountains remaining – 6
\nMiles hiked today – 14.9
\nMood – feeling excited about having less than 200 miles left
\nPhysical state – tired, but good otherwise
\nSmell – the moose are avoiding me now (come on you moose, I just want to see one of you!!)
\nSong stuck in my head – Go Do by J\u00f3nsi<\/p>\n

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