Bigelow Hike

The Bigelow Range is a series of 5 peaks in the mountains of western Maine. On a foggy Monday morning, we set out to hike/run the entire range from east to west. I'd estimated the distance at 17 miles, but soon saw on the first trail sign that it was closer to 19. Wet rocks and fallen leaves made for slow, slippery going, but we made good time to the summit of Little Bigelow, the first peak. The brilliant fall colors in the valley were totally invisible, blanketed by a thick white fog that gave us the eerie sensation of standing on the edge of an abyss.

As the team pressed on toward Avery Peak, I circled back to the van to shuttle over to the western trailhead. By this point, it was mid-afternoon, and Shannon and I started up toward Cranberry Peak, hoping to meet the team up on the ridge. Shortly after, I got a call from Ezra (yeah, we were hiking with cellphones - safety first!) - the team had covered about 12 miles but, with 7 miles of rugged trail to go, was starting to get worried about daylight, not to mention toasting themselves for Tuesday's long rollerski. We decided to have them skip Cranberry Peak and take the AT down to the Stratton Pond Rd, cutting 3 miles off the hike. This was a good decision - people were comfortably exhausted but still in good spirits by the time they finished. I'm sure that our group could've handled the full 19 miles, but the safety risks and the extra training load weren't worth the satisfaction of traversing the entire range. Maybe next year. In any case, we got what we needed out of the workout and came back to camp content and healthy. After a truly classy stir-fry dinner (our team can cook!) and some cards, we called it a night.