[at-l] I'm back: Gorham to Stratton

[papa_bear_nyc@yahoo.com (Papa Bear)]

Hello all

I just got back from 2 weeks hiking the AT in Maine with my daughter,
specifically from Gorham NH to Stratton ME.

That may sound like a wimpy distance for 2 weeks but we  learned (actually
relearned) a few things about Maine the hard way:

1) It's tough
2) Don't go over exposed peaks (aka Bald Pate, Sadleback) in a rain storm
3) It's so beautiful, it's worth taking a zero to hit a nice peak in the
sun.
4) It's tough

We lost 1 day to exhaustion and 3 days to rain.

We also did side trips to the following:

Goose Eye (0.1 mile side trail)
Old Speck (0.3 mile side trail)
Abraham (1.7 mile side trail)
Spaulding (0.1 mile side trail)
Sugarloaf (0.6 mile side trail)
South Crocker (0.1 mile side trail)
Redington (1.5 mile bushwhack from South Crocker))

IMHO, all but Abraham and Redington are MUST DO for any AT hikers,
especially Sugarloaf.  If you can spend the night there in the ski shack in
clear weather you may bag a Katahdin sighting and a beautiful sunset (we
weren't able to do that but hikers a few hours ahead of us that day did it
and bagged both of the above).

Do Abraham if you have the time - its a beautiful peak and ridge line.

Redinton was easier than I thought.  My daughter said "this is dumb".  There
is no view and you get lots of Spruce needles in your face and down your
back, so you may want to do it only if you are a peak bagger (it's one of
the 67 new England 4000 footers).  It took us about 3 hours (including 20
minutes lunch) round trip from South Crocker.

We had great clear weather on Bald Pate and Saddleback (after waiting out
some rain days), and pretty good weather on Abraham, and Sugarloaf.  We had
to skip the section from South Arm Road to Maine Route 17 (Old Blue, Bemis)
due to lack of time.  We'll be back next year for that.

We also had 85 degree, humid weather going up Mahoosuc Arm.  That turned
into a 5 mile day (Full Goose to Speck Pond lean-to) which was one of the
hardest days (of any distance) I have yet done. As one thru-hiker put in the
register "Mahoosuc Notch may be the slowest mile on the AT but Mahoosuc Arm
is the hardest".  We actually did the Notch in 2 hours and the Arm in 2:15.
So for us the Arm was the slowest and the hardest mile!

Equipment was fine.  We slack packed as much as we could.

Stayed in Hostels in Gorham (Hikers Paradise), Andover (Pine Ellis),
Rangeley (Gull Pond Lodge) and Stratton (Stratton Motel) and each was fine
with very helpful and hospitable proprietors (yes I like Bruno at Hikers
Paradise).

A full trip report will follow.

Pb