Yo-So Rangely to Andover

The Hiker Hut was amazingly serene and full of zen. It’s no surprise that Steve, the owner, lives 6 months a year in India. My favorite feature was the open shower right on the bank of the Sandy River…there’s nothing but woods on the opposite bank so you can be one with nature.  

Day 1, 07/21, Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to, 9.4

I met Chief on the return ride from town yesterday. He had decided to push on South rather than spend the money to stay at the hut ($40 for bed, shower, and breakfast sandwich). When he was packing up to leave, he dropped his water filter in the grass, Steve asked me if I was going to catch up to him again, which I was…we were planning on camping at the same lean-to tonight. I agreed to the burden of the extra ounce and a half to carry the filter out—I can be generous at times. 

When I walked back to the trail and entered the forest at 7a (yes, I’ve become an early riser—only 3 times this year have I started after 8), I saw a tarp setup in a stealth site. I called for Chief but didn’t get an answer. Later in the day, Chief admitted it was him but there was no way in hell he was getting up that early—I have arrived as an annoying, early hiker!

Not too far up the trail, I ran into a work crew building drainage walls along ravines beside and above the trail. The long term goal of the MATC is to replace all wooden structures along the trail to make a more permanent, less maintenance required trail. The MATC is doing a fantastic job of cleaning and maintaining the trail. This year has been trying because of all the rain.

After talking with the crew leader and praising their work, they offered me trail magic—rice crispy treats and oatmeal pies. ALWAYS thank and praise work crews. They make it possible for us to hike the trail. Chief soon discovered the truth of this. 

Once Chief got up (much later than me), he ran into the same work crew, except he chose a different approach. When he saw them doing the stone work, he said “you’re the bastards putting in all these steps and making it hard walking for me.” Needless to say, he was NOT rewarded with rice crispy treats. 

Overall, the day wasn’t bad. I stopped at the campsite (where Chief was supposed to stay last night) for a leisurely lunch. It’s only about 27 miles to Andover, so I’ve decided to have easy days and Nero into The Cabin on my third day. 

I’ve deciphered the squirrel/moose connection. When I’m hiking along the trail, the squirrels start chattering at me. Inevitably, I always run across fresh moose poop after such an encounter. What is really happening is the squirrels are warning the moose of approaching humans which cause them to shit and run. 

A squirrel started chattering at me while I was eating lunch. I told him I knew what they were doing and I wanted it to stop. I want to see the moose rather than have him sit in the woods laughing at another shit-trick pulled on a human. This pissed the squirrel off and he started tossing pine cones down at me—but they haven’t chattered at me along the trail since. 

The rain started while I was eating. I decided to break out my umbrella for the second time because it appeared this was going to be here for a while. I arrived at the lean-to nice and dry a couple hours later. Chief was right behind me, meaning he hiked a lot faster. The rain kept going. 

A couple hours later, the aptly named, Sir Talks-a-Lot arrived. He was a nice enough guy, but he talked so much that you couldn’t even get an agreeable acknowledgment in between his sprees. 

Day 2, 07/22, Bemis Mountain, 9.9

The day started out with another easy downhill to ME Route 17. Chief and I were walking together (I could keep up on level and downhill, but I know there’s no way I can keep up on an uphill). We knew there was a bench on the road where we could have a snack. 

Chief wanted to head straight to the bench, but I talked him into heading over to the parking area/scenic overlook. Best call so far. We met several people including a 2003 thru-hiker named Snooze. She was out camping with her son and had intended to do trail magic but had run out of time. Since we were the only 2 hikers around she loaded us up with fruit (bananas, oranges, and peaches) along with more oatmeal pies. We had enough to snack on without even opening our packs.

Back at the bench, we sat and ate our newfound bounty. We could see a storm headed our way, but also blue skies following. I raised my umbrella and we waited out the short rain before heading on. 

Two more surprises happened in quick succession. Another mile down the trail, I found some magic (beer and Pepsi hidden under a bench) and Denise, who I met climbing the Crockers showed up in her car to go on another day hike. She agreed to take our garbage from us. 

I’m a slow climber. Denise walked all the way up Bemis and back 2 miles (7 total) in the time it took me to walk 3 miles. We stopped and talked for over an hour by Bemis Mountain Lean-to before it started getting twilight-ish. 

I was going to meet Chief at a spot about a mile past the summit of Bemis. Just as I was getting to the summit, I noticed someone had grabbed a killer stealth spot with a great view—it was Chief. He asked if I wanted to cowboy camp up there. I countered with offering to let him sleep in my tent if he’d move his stuff. The chance of rain and amount of bugs were both to great for me. 

Day 3, 07/23, The Cabin, East Andover, 7.1

We got up to watch the sunrise. Chief claimed not to be a morning person, but this may be a new page in his book now. We couldn’t get great pictures because of all the trees, but there were enough clouds that were outlined in gold from the morning sun that they looked electric. 

Chief took off ahead of me because he was wanting to get in and out of Andover today while I was planning on staying overnight at The Cabin. When I got to the top of Old Blue, I called for a shuttle to pick me up when I hiked the 2.6 miles downhill. I screwed up in my time calculation and felt rushed getting down. 

I made it to the road with 15 min to spare. An even better result was trail magic of beer, soda, burgers, and dogs with Yogi and Turtle. Chief was already on his second beer and third burger by the time I got there. I managed to get in 2 burgers, a dog, and a soda before my ride arrived. 

When I got to The Cabin, there was one person already there. After we talked a bit, we realized we had a close connection through Patrice and Justin La Vigne who we used to test product for through Backpacker Magazine. Casey used to be the editor of the magazine. 

Included in the stay at The Cabin is an “all you can eat” family supper and breakfast. I did slightly better than the Taco Tuesday where I ate a measly 3 tacos. Tonight, I downed a respectable 2 overflowing plates of spaghetti and meatballs and 3 pancakes for breakfast. Townward, a NOBO, ate 4 plates of spaghetti and 10 pancakes in the morning. I’ll get there. 

EFG