i got up to grafton notch on sunday around 11:30am, with sue from the stratton inn picking us up around 12:30 nd shuttling us to the trailhead outside stratton on 27 around 3pm, hiked the 1.8 north to cranberry stream campsite where coach lou and i had camped the year before.it was clear and cold that night, temps in the lo 40s, but i was plenty warm. ii camped with a nobo and 2 section hikers out to do the bigelows, marvelling at our lightweight gear(their tent weighed 8 lbs).
next morning i headed south over the crockers. the clouds increased during the day. the climb over the crockers was steep with scrambles and ledges to climb that wore me out. got to crocker cirque around 4:30 in the afternoon, set up my tent and camped that night alone.coupla light showers over night, had a quick breakfast and broke camp around 7:30. another steep climb down and then stupid steep up over sugarloaf, agin both up and down spaulding mtn. then a long steep down to orbeton stream. at the top of the falls an old rr bed runs past and i found a stealth site just 20 yds from the stream crossing.it began raining as it got dark, and had wicked t storms throughout the night, which would be with me for a few more days.
at that point i knew the weather was slowing me down and i knew i had to throw my plan out the window,decided to slow down and enjoy my vacation. i headed up over poplar ridge and again negotiated a near vertical up and down over saddleback junior. saw a sign for water around 2:30 at redington stream cmpsite, not knowing it was .2 off the trail. thunder began to rumble again, and i was hesitant to go over saddleback in t storms late day, so i decided to call it a short day and set up my tent on a platform, and a while later, met up with starfail and sublime.

all in all, i had a great time.i'm very happy with the new lightheart solong6.it sets up faster than the fly creek, gives me tons more room, and weighs about the same.i even set it up on a tent platform one night and it didnt take more than a few minutes to tie it out right.it got tested pretty well that night with t storms through till morning long with some gusty winds, me and my gear were kept relatively dry.
this was at redington stream campsite between the horn and saddleback. i stopped for water around 3pm, which turned out to be .2mi off the trail. there were rumbles of thunder again, so i decided to set up my tent. although the campsite is 1000' off the trail. my platform was only 30 or so yards away from the at and i could see hikers passing nobo. i yelled out to a few of them, they yelled back and hiked on. i wondered if i knew them, but didnt want to start yelling out names like some weird thru hiker groupie. a few minutes later a girl hiked past, couldnt see her but recognized the pack.i hoped she would stop for water and headed down the blue blaze to the trail head, and saw starfail walking towards me!it was great to see her, she told me her brother, sublime(NOBO2012) was hiking with her, who i had met in the smokies. she also told me that i had missed homebrew by just minutes, as they were hiking hard to meet up with me at orbeton stream!starfail had given them the wrong itinerary! i was at orbeton the night before! i spoke to homebrew a few days later and we both laughed. he was one of the hikers i had yelled to. as he didnt recognize my new tent, he asked aquaman, why is that old guy yelling at us?it sucked i missed him and the others, but he and starfail are planning to hike a part of the trail with me next year when i thru. great kids, theyre family. me starfail and sublime camped together that night, had dinner and brought out pepe.starfail is now carrying pepe to katahdin. and then the rain started, we said goodnight and crawled into our tents.

thursday morning starfail and sublime continued north with pepe, and i let me tent dry out , had breakfast, and began to pack up . i left the tent up for last as the skies were threatening, and i had already decided to make piazza rock lean to, just 6 miles away, my destination for the night.it did rain again for 20 minutes, so i waited it out, then packed my wet tent, it was almost 11am and began yet another stupid steep climb over the horn. i met salsa and twix, along with their dog bella as i was going up over saddleback, and they were coming down. quick hugs, as it was raining, and we both continued in opposite directions.a long steep downhill finally brought me to the shelter about 4pm. it was empty, and a little while later a section hiker named iceman showed up. the rain had stopped and he said he was tenting, found a platform and set up his camp.
as the shelter was clean and empty,with the forecast calling for more t storms overnight, i decided to stay in the leanto.around 5pm the heavens opened up. a few minutes later iceman came up with his cooking gear to cook out of the rain. i told him there was plenty of room, why not stay in the shelter, but he said he was gonna sleep in his tent.
10 minutes later 2 very very wet nobos appeared out of the storm, and i would spend the night with them. it poured hard all night. iceman was packed and out before we had even eaten breakfast.forecast for the next few days was for more rain, so i decided i would head into rangeley.got to rt4 crossed to the parking turnout, and ran into a nobo . we stood there talking for a few minutes. there was a guy sitting in his car, rolls down the window and offers us a ride into town, some 9 miles away.got to rangeley booked a room at a motel, showered and headed into town for dinner, a large plate of coconut shrimp followed by prime rib.

the following morning, i got a shuttle back to my car at grafton notch. i had thought about going back to rangeley for the day as there was a trail festival going on, but when i got to the notch around 12,there was a section hiker looking to hitch a ride, asked him where he needed to go,stratton, he said, threw his pack in my trunk and on we went. we hit the intersection of rt2 and rt 4 and came across 5 nobos and a dog looking for a ride to stratton, so we got gear, livestock, and hikers packed in, and got to stratton around 1pm. hung out there talking to other hikers for a while. by the time i got going, it was already 2pm, so instead of heading back to rangeley, i headed south to find a place to eat, started driving, and after a half hour, thought about heading across the whites via kancamangas hwy. when i put it in my phones gps, it turned out it meant backtracking the same road i had just drove down, so i decided maybe it was time to just go home.
i love maine, cant wait to go back.

when i planned my plan, it was initially your plan i planned on planning.turned out it wasnt in the plans to follow your plan, had to revert to no plan.that part was easy to plan