HERE WE GO......
Above is what we set out to do. Below is what we did. Turned out to be an amazing trip. Day one was challenging but trail hiking that led us to an established camp right near a beach at Pine Pond. Pine pond was beautiful and night one was perfect weather. Rained a little on Saturday, and the Saturday Hike was Epic. We decided to go searching for an old logging area that should have been around Alford Mountain. Mile 7-8 was on the same trail, then we broke off crossed the water and hit a deer trail that was cool from Mile 8-10. At Mile 10 the trail broke up a draw and cut the corner of the creek bend. We took the bait and went up the draw where the trail ended at Mile 10.5 at a shabby, home-made moonshine or pot building. It was a scene out of the hills have eyes...the place was creepy but had solar panels and an old stove for heat. We steered clear of it and by Mile 11 had found the water again. But there was no trail, and it was wet, soggy, sloppy and slow. The hike from Mile 11 - Mile 12 included a climb over a waterfall and a lot of arguing about where we were, and Matt lost his GPS in the river. So finally, we just found a place and called it home, we didn't find the logging camp. On Sunday we woke up to 2 inches of snow and steady continuous snowfall. We packed up and took a 70 degree bearing and started through the swamp again. It was a mess, but beautiful scenery. Just before mile 13 we found the logging area, and a hundred year old road. The road led us down the mountain over a beautiful pond and back to our original trail and thus home. What a cool trip, great group of dudes, and a lesson learned about not wanting to ever hike through swamps again!
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