It can't get much better than days like today! We were able to get a ride out of Stratton within five minutes. At first I was concerned about the weather. Yesterday's rain left a thick layer of clouds. For a long time it looked like we'd get more rain. By the time we reached the top of the Bigelows, the clouds were replaced with bright blue skies.

After a couple miles, we found Cowboy and Easy 8. They'd decided to skip Stratton and after a 20-mile day, and had camped in the rain. I'm not sure if they wanted to avoid Stratton, or the side effects of another night of drinking. Whatever the reason, it was good to see them again.

On the climb up the Horn we passed another thru-hiker, Thunder Chicken who was hiking the section from Stratton to Monson with his brother-in-law John. The climbs up the Horn, and later West Peak, and Avery Peak were steep, but not as hard as I had expected. West Peak provided us with 360-degree views. We would have stayed longer, but a cold wind was blowing. After a few pictures and a snack we headed off to Avery Peak.

On Avery, Old Crow was taking a nap on the fire tower. When we pointed out Katahdin in the distance he was excited. After 2000 miles it good to finally see your destination. At first we weren't absolutely certain it was the right mountain. Later we met a local Scout group, and the leader confirmed our sighting.

By the time we'd made the long steep climb down to Safford Notch, I was getting tired. From there we still had another five miles to the shelter. Little Bigelow is one of those mountains that I hate. It's composed of lots of little peaks. Of course the trail seems obligated to climb up and down over each one. It's not that the peaks are high. Most of the climbs are no more than a hundred feet. It's just that it's hard to make good time when climbing a hundred feet then immediately descending. The views from the ledges were good, but after this morning's view, we didn't even bother to stop.

Long before we reached the shelter my feet were beat. I walked the last mile down the rock ledges somewhat numb. When we arrived, we were greeted with two groups of kids that have taken over the shelter and surrounding area. One of the groups, from French Canada, had taken over the shelter despite the fact that groups are not supposed to use the shelters. My efforts to communicate that fact to the Canadians fell on deaf ears. They either did not understand English, or pretended not to. Brandon and I found a flat spot and laid out our bags.

We woke up early today in the motel in Stratton. We bought stuff for breakfast yesterday, so we ate that before walking outside into the cold to get a ride back to the trail. We stuck out our thumbs, and a car picked us up in just a few minutes. We hiked in a couple miles and ran into Cowboy and Easy camped near the trail. After that we started the climb up to the Bigelow Range.

The climb up West Peak wasn't too bad; it just lasted a long time. We took a break at Horns Pond Lean-to, then continued up to the top. The views from the top were fantastic! We ate lunch up there before going on toward Avery Peak. When we got to Avery, we found Old Crow up there chilling, so we stopped to talk. We showed him Katahdin from a distance. He was pretty excited about being so close. The hike down Avery was sort of up and down over rocks and around boulders. Next we had to climb Little Bigelow. I didn't particularly like the ups and downs, but Dad hates them even more than me. From the top of Little Bigelow it was a mile or more of ups and downs to the shelter. The shelter was full of a French Canadian group, so we had to set our bags out on the ground. Shadow and Minty came through, but decided to go on. We spent the evening with Pine, Easy and Cowboy.