We hiked this section on January 15, 2011.
It was a balmy 6 degrees when Chuck, our shuttle, dropped us off at Blue Mountain Lakes road. The road was closed due to the snow so we had to hike about one mile+ to reach the AT. Fortunately we were able to walk in someone’s tire tracks so it went quickly.
We passed a sign for the camp Ken-Etiwa-Pec and a few hundred yards later we saw the AT. We put on our winter gaiters but decided we didn’t need snow shoes since the snow was soft and fluffy and 2-6 inches at this point.
Dirigo signed us in at the trail register and off we went with Dirigo breaking trail. It was 9:37 AM. We had started later than planned and had to hike an extra mile – this was always on our minds throughout the day.
The trail was beautiful covered in snow! We saw tracks in the snow from deer, birds, and bears.
We both slipped and fell several times throughout the day but always landed softly in the snow.
The snow definitely slowed us down. Python usually dreads the descents but this time she looked forward to them because it gave us a break. The ascents felt harder than normal – it felt like we were mountaineering!
Lovely trail
Dirigo climbing
Around 11 AM, we stopped for a short break and Python took off her long johns because she was too warm. Then a guy on cross county skis came around the bend and surprised us. He asked us if we were okay. Did we look like we needed help?
We were both tired as we descended into a valley and saw a partially frozen creek – great a water crossing! As we got closer, we saw a guy and his dog (Scout) standing on a small bridge over the creek.
The guy told us that his brother lived nearby and he knows this area very well. He told us that he too had seen bear tracks and asked us if he could join us during the hike up Rattlesnake Mountain.
White blaze
At one rocky section, the guy asked us if we needed help. Do we look like we needed help?
We saw our first view of the day at the top of Rattlesnake Mountain. As Python was getting her camera she slipped and landed on her butt – no damage.
Once we reached the next peak, the snow was deeper and packed harder. Also, we were completely exposed and the white blazes were on big rocks instead of trees. If the snow was deeper, the blazes would have been completely covered and we would have lost the trail.
Python in deeper snow
Dirigo thought about putting on the snow shoes but decided just to push through and hope we would back into the woods soon. We were both tired.
Once we got back into the woods, we started to descend. At one point, we saw some houses and thought we heard cars. Python was quite relieved to see some signs of civilization again. We were surprised that we had only seen 2 people on the trail today since it was a holiday weekend.
When we finished descending, we saw a sign for the shelter so we knew we were at Brink Road. It was just after 2 PM and we had 3.5 more miles to reach Culvers Gap. We were both mentally and physically tired.
We made the smart decision to bail on the hike and proceed down Brink Road. Once we reached Rt 521, we stuck out our thumbs for a ride. After road walking for 10 minutes, a nice elementary school basketball coach gave us a ride to Rt 206. Trying to hitch on Rt 206 was not good, as we got yelled at from a truck and people gave us the finger. We walked back on Rt 206 to the truck which was about a mile or so.
We were so happy to be off the mountain!