August 14, 2004 - Left the lodge and it wasn’t raining, I was a very happy camper. The hike down Sugarloaf was a tough one. At the bottom was fast flowing river that you could hear miles away that I had to ford. Luckily I only had to ford part of it because someone had placed a board across the fast moving part. After the river it was an uphill climb up North and South Crocker to a 5 mile downhill to Stratton. I hadn’t eaten all day and so I was hiking as fast as I could to town. Made it to the road around noon then had to hitch the 5 miles into town. Only took about a minute for someone to pick me up. In town I picked up a few supplies and ate lunch. Shepherd showed up soon after and we ate lunch together and hitched back to the trail together, which was a little harder than hitching into town. We hiked the last 8 miles together talking about running; he is fellow DIII runner at Martin Luther College. We thought about staying at Horn Pond camp but thought we would get a good sunset up on one of the Bigelows. After dinner we raced up to West Bigelow to watch the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. I may try to wake up early to watch the sunrise from the other Bigelow. 18.6 miles today.
