The Bigelow's. What an epic adventure! I admit that it ended up being a little more long and difficult than I imagined in my mind, but it was gorgeous and completely satisfying. Our plans for this hike changed almost daily. Originally we planned to make the three hour drive up to the trail head and camp, backpack 2/3 of the way, then go down the rest of the way the third day. But thunderstorms were predicted for Friday and Saturday and we didn't want to risk camping with the kids in the exposed mountains of the Bigelow's. Then we thought we would just drive up the night before to camp and make the hike all the next day. But we were worried the free camp sites would all be taken and didn't want to risk not having a place to sleep. So in the end we ended up driving three to the trail, hiking 16 miles in one day, and drove three hours home. It was an exhausting but exhilerating experience.
We went with our wonderful friends Anita, Steven, Jacob and Max. They are the family that we have done most of our big hikes with and we have been hiking together since Meo and Max were babies on our backs. These kids have been hiking since they could walk, so are very experienced and strong. We were also joined by a good friend of Anita's, Kellie, who it was a pleasure to meet. She is an avid hiker and ultra marathon runner, and I hope to do more hiking with her in the future (if we didn't scare her off with Anita and I's ambitious hike haha).
Here we are at the beggining, fresh and mostly energized. Meo just turned 10 last weekend and has been doing a lot of growing and a lot of sleeping. So waking up at 5 am was a bit hard for him (we went to bed super early). He declared he was tired right at the begininning, which was a little worriesome. Spoiler alert, he somehow managed to do the whole hike despite being tired most of the time.
Stratton Pond was very picturesque with the mountains in the background and the soft morning light.
Going in the first couple miles on the Firewarden's trail was pretty gentle, with lots of board walks and pretty mushrooms. Anita earned her trail name "Mushroom Seeker".
This is where the fun began. Going up the Fire Warden's trail to Avery Peak. First we had snack break at the trail junction and registered our party. We knew this would be the most difficult part of the day, and kept reminding the kids that once they got past this part the rest of the day would be much easier. This trail has an almost vertical stone staircase for a mile. It's epic. When you feel like you can't lift your leg for another step, somehow you have to keep hoisting yourself up. And up, and up and up.
Here, I must brag a little about this guy, Linky-Loo. At age 7, he was the youngest of our group. This kid was a rockstar. Not once did he complain about being tired. He was so upbeat and enthusiasic the whole day. And he earned the trail name "Flash" for his speedy hiking. He was always in the lead setting and very fast pace. I earned my trail name "Shadow" because I did my best to keep up with him so that he could stay safe but still enjoy himself by following his own rhythm. We would take breaks so that we didn't get to far ahead, and I enjoyed listening to him hum, tell stories, singing together, and sometimes listening to the absolute quiet of the woods snug in the mountains.
Max, is only half a year older than Link, was also a rockstar on the Firewarden trail. He loves climbing up those boulders! That's how he earned his trail name "Boulder". Those two little boys sped up those rocks like mountain goats. Actually, the decided they wanted to be snow leopards (me and Max) and an arctic fox (Link). They would race ahead, and did a great job of pausing for me to try and keep up with them before moving on, always making sure to keep me in sight for safety. I was really proud of them for staying safe and being good listeners. I was also proud of their strengh and endurance!
When we got closer to the summit of Avery, we got a bit confused. There was a trail blaze on a boulder and a sort of trail. We thought it was the right way but not sure. It involved some rock climbing that was a little scary, and we were starting to feel a bit lost. Fortunately we did a little backtracking and figured out the correct trail. 
Here is Robbie, not impressed with this fake-trail.
Max and Link were super excited to get to the first summit, and practically ran up the trail once we got above treeline. Again, I did my best to keep up, haha. We ended up summitting 15 minutes before everyone else! They were super pumped and proud to be up there. I was proud of them too!
Avery Peak! Our first summit on the Bigelow Mountain range. At 4,090 feet, this peake provided us with amazing views in all directions. It was incredibly windy, so we were glad we had warm things to wear! But not so cold that we couldn't hang out and eat our sandwhiches and enjoy that hard earned view.
Meo, Jacob, and Steven picked some yummy blueberries at the summit to munch on.
Not too far from our first peak was our second summit, West Avery. This was our highest summit of the day at 4,145 feet. Again, gorgeous view on all sides. We met a handful of thru hikers nearing the end of their epic journey across the Appilation Trail and it was fun to hear about their experiences!
See those two bumps in the distance? Those are the horns, and our next and final summit. We were thinking this would be a quick walk, but seeing how far those horns were we realized it would take quite a long time! Especially when all the kids besides Link were exchausted. Link was still speedy, and I spent most of this stretch alone with him in the mossy forest. We sang songs and sometimes just soaked in the silence of those protected woods. We took snack breaks and enjoyed each other's company. Robbie stayed with Meo and helped to motivate, support, and encourage him to keep going. As long as he got lots of snack breaks and gentle nudges, he was able to find the will to keep those legs moving! At some points, Robbie carried his backpack AND Meo's little pack, and they played a game where if Robbie caught up to him, then Meo would have to wear his pack again. They got him going a little faster for a big hehe. It also earned Robbie the nickname "Camel" because he had a couple humps on his back.
When we finally made it through the woods along the ridge, and started to get up over the trees again, we "whooped" when we saw West Avery Peak in the distance. We had gotten so far! By then, it was getting late in the day, and the hope was that we could bypass the Horns and start heading straight down by Horn Pond Trail. But the trail took us straight up to the Horn summit (3,805 feet). I was delighted because we had walked all that way to get there and it would have been so said not to have bagged that peak. But getting down the steep parts of the trail was now very pressing, and we had to skip the 0.4 miles to the second horn and back and just start heading down the Horn Pond trail right away.
I saw a lot of toads on the trail, especially once it got dark! They were super cute. Jacob also had been finding lots of toads as we hiked, and he earned the nickname "toad catcher". 
I'm not going to lie, the going down was a struggle. Most of the boys were completely exhausted. We watched the sun go down as we descended further and further down.
At every bend, I hoped to see the sign that would show were back at the Firewarden trail junction. It seemed to take forever to get there! But when we finally saw it, we were SO ELATED! And it was time to break out the headlamps. There were lots of tears. It got dark and it was past there bed times. It felt like we would never make it to the trail intersection, and then the lest stretch of the Firewarden trail felt less flat and more tedious as we picked our way across. I was nervous of stumbling upon wild animals when I was leading the group and carried a big stick that made me fell a little safer. Link was a little worried about ghosts. He didn't cry, but I could tell he was exhausted because he is like me and get's loopy/wild when he is tired. He was telling stories with great theatrics to Kellie, and we had to get him to stop once in a while so that he would focus on his walking and not hurt himself! But also, I was glad that he was so noisy because I think he kept bears and other wildlife away from us hehe. Except for toads...quite a few of those jumped out in front of me.
Seeing this bridge made us all so happy! We knew were were almost back to the cars! I think we only had like a third of a mile to go or something. The moonlight reflecting on the water with the mountains silhouted underneath them were a beautiful site. Walkind down that last stretch, Meo sat down and was feeling defeated. I was super tired, and my knee and shins ached, but I gave Robbie my pack and gave him a piggy back for a while. He is pretty heavy now! But I think having a tiny break from walking, and more importantly feeling like he was loved and being held up when he was feeling down gave him a little more strength so that he could finish the hike on his own and boy did he feel proud and accomplished!
I can't say enough how proud I am of all the boys. My word for this trip was "grit": to have courage and resolve; strength of character; to be able to keep going even when things are really hard. They all had grit. I think about how experiences like this helps to shape them into the adults the will come. And that they will certainly have grit! I know at least my boys remembered that lesson, and in the morning proudly told me that they had grit. You will be glad to hear, after a having a good night sleep, they still think hiking is awesome (they might not have told you that if you asked them last night), and are definetly up for more hiking adventures. Thank you to our friends for sharing this crazy adventure with us.
Here are some videos of the boys. I interviewed them about the Bigelow's Traverse this morning to see what they had to say about it :).
Also, if you are interested in some stats from our hike, I had my fitbit going. We hiked a total of 13 hours. We walked 16.6 miles. I took 45,774 steps. My average heart rate was 115 bpm, and my max heart rate was 175 bpm. I spent 4 hours and 58 minutes in the fat burn zone. I earned some badges yesterday too:
What an adventure!
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