This weekend, I decided to take advantage of the great Maine weather and go on a 3 day backpacking trip to the Bigelow Preserve in Western Maine. The trip started near Flagstaff Lake, the fourth largest body of water in Maine that was created in 1950 when the power company dammed the river (apparently, there are even some remnants of a few towns underwater!). I then hiked up to the Appalachian Trail (AT) and hiked the ridge line of the Bigelow Mountain Range until tenting out at the Horns Pond Campsite, where I met at least a dozen AT thru hikers that were on their way from Georgia to Katahdin - many of which have been hiking the 2175 mile trail since March!
On day 2, I volunteered to help some members of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) with their semi-annual task of cleaning out the campsite's two composting toilets (because the campsite is in a sub-alpine zone with very shallow soil depths, they are unable to use the much easier to maintain 'big hole in the ground' privies). The process consisted of mixing the 'waste' with wood chips, tilling it up, and then putting it in large bins to be 'cooked' by the sun before being dried and then distributed around the campsite as fertilizer. It is safe to say that this volunteering job will give me a lot of 'guilt free' hikes down the road.
Day 3 essentially took the same route back to Flagstaff Lake. Unfortunately, the cloud level was below the 4,000 foot peaks that I was hiking over, so much of the day was spent hiking in the fog. Regardless, it was a great trip that I would recommend to anybody looking to do a challenging but rewarding hike. Here's a bunch of photos from my trip, including the infamous composting toilets:
Monday, September 20, 2010
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