SADDLEBACK MOUNTAINS

AT Day 113: Saturday,  July 29, 2023

SOBO Mile  1991 – 1977.8

Sluice Brook Logging Road – Rangeley

Distance Hiked – 13.2 miles/21.2 km

Total Distance Hiked:1879.2 miles/3023.6 km 

A: 4500 ft /1372.5 m D: 4320 ft/1317.5m

My heart sank a little when I was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of rain hitting the tent. I hoped that the predicted rain for today would be through the night only. We woke in the morning to patches of blue sky. Birds were singing and the waterfall nearby was background noise as we broke camp and headed off for another day of 4000 foot mountain summits. 

Not far from camp we descended to the crossing of Orbeton Creek. Hammer tried a very chancy  dry foot crossing over widely spaced rocks and luckily he made it, could have so badly gone south. I took my shoes off and walked across in bare feet as the water was not flowing all that strong. So hopefully we can have another day of dry feet hiking.

From the creek it was a gradual warm-up climb up  Saddleback Junior before the summit of the 4,000 foot Saddleback Horn and Saddleback West peaks.  

We met an AT Ridge Runner on the summit of Settleback Mountain.  We stopped to chat to him and asked if we were resupplying in the next town, Rangeley. We had planned on the next town Anover. The ranger said we would be better off going into Rangeley as Anover was very small.   As we were coming off Saddleback Mt we decided too go into Rangeley and top up our resupply for the next 5 days all the way through to Gorham in New Hampshire.

It seemed like a good idea as it was predicted to thunderstorm later in the day so we could resupply, spend the night in town and then be back on trail Sunday. Well like all good plans, it didn’t quite go to plan.  We got to the highway to discover there was no cell service and it wasn’t a good spot to hitch. We probably waited for about 20 minutes and just as we were about to give up a car stopped and gave us a ride. And as we were going into town,  Mike and Cindi who picked us up, mentioned that there was a huge concert on in town tonight and some roads in town were closed. The Marshall Tucker band was playing and it was a big deal. The town was full of visitors,  so no accommodation was possible. The hiker hostel I tried calling didn’t answer, the shuttle driver I rang also didn’t answer so we started to feel a bit stuck.

Mike and Cindi dropped us off at the IGA store and before leaving said they had a spare room in their holiday cabin by the lake and if we are stuck to give them a call. We really didn’t want to impose they’ve already been more than generous to have stopped to give us a ride. 

The IGA store was frantic busy with concert goers getting their last minute supplies. It was a jarring contrast to our solitude in the dark, dank woods. We stood in the car park after we did our shopping  and realised that the storm was approaching and we had nowhere to go. We  couldn’t even get out of town because almost everybody was walking over to the concert.  So we rang Mike and Cindi and accepted their overly generous offer to stay at their cottage.  Mike came back and picked us up. It ended up being one of the more pleasant nights on trail, very relaxed and just such a very comfortable night.  Great conversation, a cup of tea, some food, a shower and comfortable night sleep in a bed. I so wished we were finished but we were not. 

For me every town stop makes  going back on trail that much harder. Town stops are like an aid station in an ultra-marathon. The more comfortable you get, the harder it is to get back out there.