Yahoo Hour

                                                                Yahoo Hour


   The Appalachian trail is one of the most iconic hiking trails in the United States, so Evan's planned  sunrise hike for July was more than appropriate on a mountain that's named after the first person to accomplish 2000 miles of the so named trail.

    Avery peak in the Bigelow mountain range of Maine is named after Myron Avery who's foresight and leadership was the force behind the completion of the AT.

   Our normal start time for any hike is usually well before the Yahoo hour of 9am, but with a lack of sleep and a long drive we arrived at the trail head for Fire Wardens trail after 9, so we considered ourselves Yahoo's for the day.
   Yahoo, by definition, is a "rude, noisy or violent person".  The definition in hiking terms is one who arrives at the trail head late, is noisy and traveling in large groups, disturbing the peacefulness and tranquility of the great outdoors that so many of us utilize to slip away from normal everyday existence in the mainstream world.
   It's been ten years since the last time we did this hike and with time comes changes. The road was in great shape and a parking lot with a kiosk has been built since.

The Yahoos for a day

   The trail started easy following an old road onto a footbridge across Stratton Brook and along Stratton Brook Pond at an easy, almost flat grade with a few rolling hills the further we hiked away from Stratton Brook Pond until we arrived at the intersection of Horns Pond Trail at 1.4 miles.

Crossing Stratton Brook

   The Bigelow mountain range is an interesting narrow range with a fairly flat landscape surrounding it's base, because of this natural feature Fire Wardens Trail starts gaining elevation at a steady pace once it leaves the valley floor climbing a modest 2500' in less than three miles.
  We arrived at the junction of the AT, after hiking approximately four miles from the parking lot, when we reached Avery Col there were many tent platforms to choose from. This was a perfect space to set camp with Avery peak only a quick 15 minute hike away.

Our camp

  After setting up camp and nourishing ourselves we headed out to enjoy the weather and views from the summit, where a sunset is a beautiful way to cap off a terrific day of hiking.

The setting sun with Bella looking ready for sleep

This was my favorite picture of the sunset with West Peak in the distance.

  We had a restful night sleep and were up and ready to go at 4:30am. With the sunrise starting around 5am it was an easy 15min hike up a boulder strewn trail with enough light of dawn that no headlamps were needed for the short trek.
   The summit greeted us with steady winds whipping across the flat northeast territory of the mountain, where the brightness on the horizon showed us approximately where the sun will be appearing in the next few minutes.

   As the sun appeared and slowly rose from the distant horizon, it seemed as if the perceptible natural movement of air was being forced across the landscape by the sun itself to where we stood.

Evan standing tall in the early morning winds

   In the early morning moments that it takes the sun to rise above the horizon, I always seem to take hundreds of pictures hoping just a few develop into something special, worthy enough to create a collage of one perfect photo from each sunrise we've done. I couldn't imagine attempting this in the days of rolls of film for a 35mm camera...

The heater pushing the winds across the flat landscape surrounding the Bigelows

   Now that the heater seems to be distantly floating above the horizon, we head back to our camp to have breakfast and break down camp.
  We finished our hike by traversing over West peak and over to the Horns for a summit of North Horn for more views, something this hike is far from lacking!

A tired Bella

The beautiful trail between the Horns

Resting at The Horns Pond

  We also rested by The Horns Pond so we could filter water and Bella could soak herself and relax before our descent from the Bigelow mt range. From the camps on The Horns Pond we branched off the A.T. onto Horns Pond trail, which merged back with Fire Wardens trail to complete our loop.


Our GPS Track: 1st Day: 1st Day
                           2nd Day: 2nd Day
Evan's Blog: Evan hikes