Maine’s big smoked mountains – The Trek

Once a north hiker is through the rank of Mahosuc in Maine, things become more like a normal path. This week, I walked through a beautiful series of mountains, each with its own lovely ponds to appreciate: Malhumorado, old blue, Bemis, Saddleback, Spaulding, Crocker, all the reasonable climbs that would normally have the desired reward in radical views. Among the mountains, if you are not bordering a beautiful pond, you are walking through a babbling stream. It is idyllic, but for the smoke that rolls through the wild fire valleys in Canada. All the effect makes this section of Maine seem to have its own version of the smakies.

To the box score

• FRIEND PEOPLE – 165/165
• Interesting wild creatures – Mink? and more signs of alces
• Errors – 0
• Injury report: keeping stable with signs of wear

Several of the days of this week presented popular diurnal trails, so I saw many people to exercise. The highlight of this week was a group of ~ 20 young women, many of whom were on their first guided packing trip. They were a delight: I received a round of enthusiastic applause and many questions about my trip. Maybe, one day, some of these women will address everything!

I have been sad because of the relative lack of wildlife in recent weeks and I was very excited to see three young visions playing together near a current. I have had people suggesting that they are Pine Martens or Fishers, but I am quite sure that the dark fur and the white tuft under their coson make them vision. Anyway, they were adorable: friving and squeaking each other!

High peaks and limited views

Hiking in Maine is much of what I expected on this walk. The trees are beautiful, the mountains are high (but do not crush the soul), the ponds are crystalline, people have wonderful ease and everything feels deliciously remote. The only thing that would make it more perfect would be a clear sky. The weather has been spectacular, but the wind brings smoke that limits visibility. Even the weather forecast in atweather.org Includes smoke as part of the descriptor. I can rethink my attitude about the beauty of the smoke established in the valleys and think about it as another «smakies», but that does not change the devastation that is the source of smoke.

The view from Avery Peak, named for the visionary Myron Avery, should have spectacular views of the Rangelley lakes.

Beautiful and clear skies on the mountains have dominated my walks this week, while the smoke sits in the valleys.

The Maine Appalachian Trail Club does an incredible job by keeping hikers along the way, protecting rare alpine plants.

This type of forest is my favorite and the rocks to navigate have been minimal!

I feel so grateful to the CCC for all the parks and trails that made possible so that people enjoy the outdoors.

So much water

One of the things that differentiates Maine from other parts of AT is the abundance of water! There are ponds, lakes, swamps and streams everywhere and, even in dry spells, it is easy to find water sources throughout the day. The ponds invite swimming or the sum of the feet. Some even have ships available to get a palette or some fishing. A hiker near me carries lures on his hat and a simple fishing post in the package, for opportunities like these.

The ships and canoes are available next to many of Maine’s ponds. Most include life jackets.

Pantans in Maine create the need for many swamp boards. When I saw this battery, I considered that they were good and bad news. Well because many would be replaced; Bad because it had not yet happened. These will be appreciated by the hiking class next year.

SHIPPING SHENANIGANS

Regular readers can remember that my phone (around 2018) finally resigned from the normal function somewhere in New Hampshire. I have been keeping it together through a convoluted set of steps, waiting for my new phone to arrive. Margin note: I have a deep objection to pay the full price for the phones, so for many years we have bought the Amazon reconditioned. Usually, this works very well, except when trying to send the Rural de Maine. The animosity of the shipment between Amazon, Fedex and the USPS has apparently heated a lot and we are trapped in the conflict. Typical Amazon orders can reliably «general delivery» to USPS, where they do not have their own fleet. Telephone orders, however, do not tell him who will be the sender until he has chosen his shipping and USPS address will reject Fedex’s orders. So, here is the ridiculous sequence of events that were required to get my phone.

• Telephone 1: The confirmation of the order said that the sender would be Fedex, so we could redirect online from USPS in Bethel to local Walgreens (they allow it to solve general). Easy key. Except that the «unlocked» phone would not work in Verizon. I had to make a return, but there is no place to print the label.
• Telephone 2: The confirmation of the order said that the sender would be Fedex, but for unfathomable reasons, the seller would not allow a redirection. Then, he was rejected by USPS and sent back. GRRRR.
• Telephone 3: Blue Bear became friends with a local office for real estate management in Rangngeley, so they agreed to accept our Fedex package. Problem solved.

I’m still looking for life lesson here. The correct answer would have been to send it to a shelter and pay its rate. If I ever need to send a reconditioned phone to a remote location while I am walking 2200 miles, I know what to do.

Curiosities of the path

This type of cone must have the most delicious seeds because I see them carefully dissected everywhere along the path. The result is a beautiful pile of purple cone bits and yellow that eventually fades brown. I saw that this meal was interrupted before the creature could finish the work; I wonder if he chose the remaining tasty.

Remember to look for beauty

It would have been easy to walk beyond this location at Earth’s height at the end of my hiking day. A quick walk to the point of view took us this beautiful view on the Langelley lakes.

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