Appalachian Trail - Day 134 - Spaulding Mountain to ME Route 27

Day: 134

Date: Tuesday, 05 September 2023

Start:  Spaulding Mountain (AT Mile 1996.5)

Finish:  ME Route 27 (AT Mile 2010.0)

Daily Kilometres:  21.1

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  3267.2

Weather:  Very warm, humid and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  Hostel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts

  Lunch:  Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals 

Aches:  Dave - exhausted and the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported

Highlight:  None really 

Lowlight:  We thought we had left summer behind, but there was a late burst today, set to continue for another few days, that had heat advisorys issued for our area.  Dave struggled in the heat and humidity.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Another 5:00am alarm and we were on the trail soon after 6:00am on a mild morning.  We started with a solid climb through the forest to the summit of Spaulding Mountain (4010') and then after a drop to a saddle up onto the shoulder of Sugarloaf Mountain (where we decided not to take the steep side-trail to the summit).

We thought we had a relatively short day (approximately 14 miles) and hoped to reach a road crossing around 4:00pm where we were going to get shuttled to a hostel near Stratton where we had booked a room.  However, everything seemed harder and to take longer than expected.

From Sugarloaf there was a difficult and, at times, scary steep descent to Caribou Valley which took a lot of time and care.  Then, after crossing the Carrabassett River, the climb up to South Crocker Mountain (4050') was very steep and long and Dave started to flag badly in the heat and humidity.

We took a break at the summit then descended into a saddle before climbing to North Crocker Mountain (4228') which we reached around 1:30pm, about an hour later than hoped.  Our navigation app had a comment that the remaining 5 miles from the summit to the road was easy hiking.  It didn't have the usual steep technical descent, but it had plenty of rocks and roots, and our pace was slow, particularly as Dave was very tired.

Eventually, we reached the road shortly before 5:00pm and our shuttle picked us up 20 minutes later.  They dropped us in the village of Stratton where we bought some supplies and take-out dinner before being taken to the hostel.

Despite being later than we wanted, we still managed to have dinner, shower and do (much-needed … after a hot sweaty day) laundry before 8:30pm.

We passed the 2000 Mile mark today and now have less than 200 to go.  After the Bigelow Mountain range tomorrow (in forecast hot weather), the trail is reputed to be flatter and easier for a while.