woodland wanderings: Shelburne Moriah

I wanted to have more storage space in my car, so I replaced the full-sized mattress with a twin-sized inflatable mattress for my car camp. Note to self: $11.00 Walmart specials will deflate in the middle of the night giving you nightmares of being tossed around on rough seas.

I woke up on my deflated mattress to a surprising sunrise at 5:15 AM. The weather report had said cloudy, rain showers at 7:00AM and a possibility of thunderstorms around 3:00PM. I wanted to get ahead of any thunderstorms so I was on the trail at 5:30. The trail starts out wide and flat and I’m thinking this will be a breeze compared to yesterday’s West Royce hike. I look at my GPS and notice the starting elevation is 860. The summit elevation is 3,735 feet, with most of the elevation gain in the last mile of Rattle River trail. This was not going to be an easy hike.

The trail continued to be relatively flat past the cabin, where there were very few blazes along the trail. I saw a white one and figured I would be looking for white blazes. The trail became overgrown as it meandered along the river and I started wondering if I was going the right way. I stared at the map and looked at my GPS. There was nowhere else to go; this was the only trail up. It crossed the river a few times, the river was low and the crossing was easy, even for the ERD. I saw a red blaze and stopped short. I thought I was following white? I stared at the map again, stared at my GPS and reassured myself this was the only trail up.

Rattle River

The trail doesn’t get steep, really steep, until you get to the last river crossing about a mile before you reach the Kenduskeag Trail. I looked at my GPS, I was only at 1900 feet of elevation. Oh man. I sat. I ate. I thought. Maybe the ERD’s tired; maybe he wants to turn back. I looked at him; he looked at me. He continued up the trail and I followed.

The trail has stone stairs on a good portion of the it, making the ascent much easier than the eroded trail I experienced while hiking Royce and Laughing Lion the day before. They were never-ending stone stairs and all I could hear was the song “Stairway to Heaven” in my head over and over again.

I finally make it to the Kenduskeag Trail. I thought, “I’m at 3,400 feet of elevation. OMG I am only a 1.4 miles away.” I read some interesting things about this trail online, but how bad could it be? Sigh… This is a muddy, bushwhacking hell hole. I tried to avoid the mud and was doing quite well until one small misstep got me stuck mid-shin deep. I had visions of an AT through-hiker finding my body in August, mummified by the bog and bugs. I finally pulled myself out. Luckily for me, I refused to put away my heavyduty winter gaiters and my foot remained dry!

Mid shin deep mud on Kenduskeag Trail

mud, lots and lots of mud

I continued on until I hit a wall. A literal wall of trees. “Um, what happened to the trail?” I pushed through and saw I was still on the trail. Then the trail drops down…. “No!”, I said out loud. “I refuse to give up any of the elevation gain I just climbed! I worked too hard for it!” But, of course, I had to continue on. The trail goes up a little then ruthlessly down. Each time you see the sky and think you are almost there, you go down again. Talking out loud I said, “Why would the universe make such a trail?” I imagined a response from the universe. “The trail was here long before you decided to hike it and I was nice enough to change the weather forecast for you so you didn’t have to hike it in the rain.”

Yes, this is the trail. No, not kidding.

I finally popped out of the bushwhacking mud mess and the trail opened up onto sweeping ledge views. I looked at my GPS, I still had 400 feet or so of elevation. I looked ahead and kept going. I came to a large cairn. I wanted it to be the summit, I sent a post to the 52WAV group. Is this it? I knew it wasn’t. My GPS told me I had 100 feet of elevation left to the summit. I continued on. I see it. I made it! I plop in front of the summit cairn and take a photo. The ERD stared at me. He wanted to eat.

Me at the summit, with my phone lying on the ground next to me...

After a while I said goodbye to the summit and told S. Moriah I would not see her again. I hiked about 10 minutes back down the trail and realized I left my phone at the base of the cairn. I had to see Shelburne one more time. Haa!

48 down 4 to go.