Trail Report
After hiking Sugarloaf and Spaulding the previous day, my ankle was sore and I wasn’t positive it would be up for another day of hiking. Not wanting to sit around camp all day, I wrapped my ankle tight and Michael, Jeff and I headed to the Bigelows.
The Bigelows are a long range of mountains found south of Flagstaff lake in the Bigelow Preserve. The range has two New England 4000 Footers and a New England Hundred Highest, all of which we planned on tackling. To get to the standard route for hitting all of those peaks, we took Stratton Brook Pond Road off Route 27 and parked at the last lot before the road turned left toward Stratton Brook Pond. The standard route was a lollipop loop up the Fire Warden’s Trail to Avery Peak, then west across the Range Trail to West Peak and The Horns and at Horn Pond Shelter taking Horns Pond Trail back down to the Fire Warden’s Trail. The hike was nearly 14 miles and 4000 feet of elevation gain and by the end I wanted to amputate my left ankle.
Maine Wanderlust 