Friend-ly surprises.

Day 120 - 8/18/10
Had a pretty decent start time out of town, getting to the trailhead
around 8:45. The hostel owner gave The Crusher, Ichabod, Davin and I
the ride, which was also included with the stay cost. Starting out was
a nice gradual ascent for a few miles, and it was good to have Davin
around for conversation while hiking. I don't hike with others too
often, so it was a bit different to have that all day.

When we hit Cranberry Stream Campsite we started our first big climb
up to the South Horn. That forced us to hold off on talking for longer
stretches because it's almost impossible to do that and climb up those
super steep sections at the same time. It was a nice climb up
nonetheless, and we stopped at a really great viewspot for a break
along the way. It was like an overhang of Horn Pond, which is where
the first shelter was. After a solid 30 minutes or so we hiked to
there, getting in around 12:30. To my surprise I saw two other friends
waiting to meet up who had come from a side trail. Matt Gilliam and
Dan T, both buds of mine from high school, came to hike with Davin and
I for the day. Wasn't expecting that at all, very cool surprise.

So we hiked onward together, hitting a a lot of great peaks along the
Bigelows. First was the South Horn, the one I mentioned earlier. It
was a decent view, and you could see the next mountain to conquer,
Bigelow (west peak). Getting up there was a challenge, steep and
rugged rocks, but the others handled it well. What we hiked today is
actually a very difficult first day to take on. Huge elevation
changes, tough rocks and roots to climb, just a really demanding day.
But at the same time to see such great views like those on top of west
peak on your first day makes that toughness worth it. It's above 4K by
a hundred feet, so it's above treeline, which means good views.

From the west peak you can easily see Avery peak, just a bit smaller
at 4090 feet. You dip down into a small ravine before going up Avery,
and the distance is only a matter of .7 miles from peak to peak, so we
hit that summit pretty quick at around 3-3:30. From there it was
another 7 miles to the next shelter, so by then I was thinking we
probably wouldn't make it. There was a campsite only 2 miles from the
summit of Avery, so I suggested that one instead. They all agreed that
sounded good, so we stopped there for the night, getting in at 5ish.

I'm actually glad we stopped early because that put us at just over 10
miles today, and that's plenty for the others. I'm happy with it,
mostly because it put me over 2000 miles! Pretty exciting, almost too
crazy to believe. Anyway, the four of us set up camp and made a
campfire, then had dinner. It was really nice to get together with old
friends who I hadn't seen in quite some time because it allowed for
tons of good conversation. Plus Matt and Dan are doing the AT next
year, and so we had all that to discuss.

At around 8:30 we called it a night because we want to get an early
jump tomorrow and make up some miles. Matt and Dan will be doing about
6 or 7 miles to the road crossing, then it's just Davin and I heading
northwards Goodnight!

Total miles: 2001.7