Finally a beautiful day! It started with a climb up a mountain, then a descent to a road crossing (right around the corner from my friend Eric’s cabin) then up and up some more to Old Blue mountain. Most of the gain was early in the day which is a nice change. I managed to get signal and reserve a bed at the hiker hut outside of Rangeley where I’ll resupply.
There were some ups and downs along the way but nothing too aggressive. Spoon managed to wipe out on a big bridge and go knees deep into the mud.
The last section of the hike was really nice, lots of views of the mountains and lakes around us with lots of open slab, and not being wet was really easy and pleasant hiking. Then, of course, the final descent to the river was slippery, slow and intense, but part of that was probably the fact that we were hungry and wanted to get to camp before dark.
We managed to get set up and even cook dinner before sunset! Always easier in the light. The push to get this far is to get to town tomorrow with enough time to resupply tomorrow, so we can get started early the next day and make it over the Saddleback Mountains (which has a good stretch above treelike) before the day after, when there are supposed to be thunderstorms. Of course the forecast might change again tomorrow, so plans might change.