Nomad and John O: AT Thru-Hikers

Week 4

Monday, June 12, 2000
Trail day: 20
Trail mile: 245
Location: Warden's Bunkhouse, Mount Carleton Provincial Park, NB Canada

This is going to be an excitement-filled day, the weather's cooperating with, and the skies are perfectly clear. Returning to Mount Carleton and then back again to Sagamook is a time I've been looking forward to with great anticipation. Maurice Simon will be climbing with us today, but at 9:30 a.m. he has still not arrived so John O and I decide to head out. Bert is like a little kid, wanting to go along, but with Monday and with new "casual" help to train he must tend to the park and to his many responsibilities as park superintendent.

The climb begins as we ascend toward Mount Bailey. From here it's on to Bald Mountain Brook Trail. I have vivid memories from my climb up this brook two years ago, for it is one of the most magnificent climbs of all. Here is a singing and dancing brook so grand. To this place does Mother Nature send all her people of music and dance, for down this brook comes an absolute choreographed ensemble. I am greeted immediately by glad and happy children of the bounding water as the brook cascades and free-falls past the boulders and rocks. The trail sticks tight to this delightful show and I feel no effort in the near-vertical climb. The music and motion now is so pure and sweet, not one false note, not one miscue, not one wrong step. Every note ever played through time is being played, every song ever sung is ringing forth, all in perfect harmony. Fall after fall forms remarkable ballets of rhythmic motion, the shimmering ballerinas dancing and pirouetting to perfect, pure sound. What a joy to be the audience for this performance . . . what a blessing to be alive on this day, here on this glad and happy trail!

As we gain the ridge the trail turns to climb Mount Carleton. This being the highest point in the Maritimes and in New Brunswick it is one of the mountains to climb on the SIA/IAT, a must, so up we go. But it is Sagamook that I am anxious to visit again, and no time is wasted retracing our steps to head for that sacred mountain. It is here that Maurice finally catches us up and we make the climb up Sagamook together. What perfect timing and what a perfect day. What a memorable experience we share together. The earth, we are told, is ground, the physical medium of closure in the loop of energy as we know it. Should this be so, then the nodal point in this limitless sink of energy most certainly is Mount Sagamook. This mountain is encased in boundless energy, this mountain emits boundless energy . . . this mountain is boundless energy!In the evening we descend to Lake Nictau, much as I am certain, did the tribal chiefs descend after their day of council. Then it's a leisure hike as we return to the warmth of the Warden's bunkhouse at Mount Carleton Provincial Park. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

What are they carrying? Check out John and Nimblewill's gear lists and pack weights