There are definite rewards to performing trail work on the Appalachian Trail. First, you get to maintain the trail. I find great benefits in the hard work of clearing winter blowdowns, painting blazes, cutting brush, volunteering for work trips and receiving “thank yous” from hikers.

But, perhaps the ultimate reward is the chance to spend time in a special place in the mountains of western Maine. One of those places is Bigelow Mountain in Carrabassett Valley.

The Maine Appalachian Trail Club runs a caretaker program in two locations along the Bigelow Range. One is a paid program, in which the club pays for two caretakers from May to October, at the heavily visited Horns Pond Lean-tos.

The other program is voluntary, at Bigelow Col, in a saddle between West Peak and Avery Peak at the other end of the mountain, three miles away. It’s a chance for club members, like me, to spend a minimum of two nights in the old fire warden’s cabin, located just off the Appalachian Trail, at an elevation of 3,750 feet.

In return for the use of the cabin, the volunteer agrees to take head counts of hikers, inform them of the fragile mountain ecology, and perform some trail clipping duties.

So, on the four-day July Fourth weekend, I signed up with Scott Fisher, a frequent hiking partner from Ellsworth, and we hiked up to the cabin for three nights.

July 1, Day One

We parked at Stratton Brook Pond Road, a few miles north of the entrance to Sugarloaf on Maine Route 27, and took the Horns Pond Trail instead of the more direct Firewarden’s Trail. I wanted to show Scott the entire ridge that connects the four major peaks on the mountain, North Horn (3,831 feet), South Horn (3,810 feet), West Peak (4,150 feet), and Avery Peak (4,088 feet).

Instead of a 41/2-mile hike to the cabin, we would take the scenic, long way up to Horns Pond and across the ridge. It would make the trip 71/2 miles, but we would see most of the mountain and cross two of the peaks, South Horn and West, in one long day.

Loaded with enough food and foul weather gear for four days, my pack was heavy. I was packed for anything, excluding a tent, which I wouldn’t need. The day was breezy and bright. The mosquitoes in the woods were pretty bad, probably because of all the rain in June. Once we got higher up the mountain, they dropped off. We stopped at Horns Pond for a lunch and to talk with one of the caretakers, Jeff Goldknopf.

Finally, six hours after leaving the truck, we reached the cabin. It was about 4 p.m. We removed the boards from the windows and unpacked for a long stay. The winds increased and clouds formed as a predicted cold front approached from the west.

After supper and a head count of nine overnighters, we climbed the rough, steep, half-mile trail to the top of Avery Peak to watch the sunset over the Boundary Mountains on the Quebec border. Dark rain clouds parted just enough for the sun to shine on Flagstaff Lake. It was “Hand-Of-The-Creator” spectacular. We went around to the leeward side of the abandoned fire tower, and as we looked down the east slope, we could see a hiker with a dog ascending the steep trail to the summit.

We waited for the hiker, a young woman, talked a while, then followed her down to the tent platforms. She set up her tent, made supper, and she and I visited before I headed up the trail the short distance to the cabin.

July 2, Day Two

It poured during the night. It rained so hard the trail was like a lake in the morning. I went around the sites to check to see if anyone had arrived late. I stopped and talked to the woman we met on the summit the previous evening. She was a southbound Appalachian Trail through-hiker who had started from Katahdin a couple of weeks before. Her trail name was Gold Bond, her dog’s, Pawprints. We talked about the trail in Maine, her hike, and Bigelow Mountain.

Scott had decided that he could only spend one night, so he left under overcast skies for his truck at the trailhead. By afternoon, the skies partially cleared, but the wind blew even harder than on Saturday. Most of the hikers had moved on to other points on the trail or down to the trailhead. The young woman left late, after we exchanged names and addresses.

There was nothing much to do except clip the branches back that were growing into the trail to the spring. After about an hour of lopping and tossing branches, it looked more like a trail and less like a game path. I counted 10 overnighters by late afternoon.

Just before sunset the sky opened up with thunder, lightning, and a torrential downpour that lasted about 40 minutes. The wind was blowing hard as I settled into the cabin for the night.

July 3, Day Three

The morning broke astoundingly clear. It was a pleasure after all the foul weather and limited views of the previous two days. The wind blew so hard during the night as the remains of the cold front passed that it shook the cabin. After breakfast, I decided to hike up to West Peak to check out the views.

Unlike the days before with their mixed clouds and limited views, the visibility was astounding. I could see all the way to Mt. Katahdin in the north and to Mt. Washington in the south, both more than 150 miles away, and every feature, mountain, and lake in between. It was simply amazing.

Bigelow is called Maine’s “Second Mountain,” partly because the views are second only to Katahdin. Sugarloaf across the valley was clearly visible, of course, but I could also make out North and South Crocker Mountains, Saddleback, Mount Abraham, and Kennebago Mountains, all in the southern view. Chairback, Whitecap, East and West Carry Ponds, and many other features were in the view looking north.

After an hour or so on the summit, I headed back to the cabin. I took the loppers down to the spring trail to see if I missed any branches that still needed clipping. Sure enough, I had left a few and lopped those. Then, I decided I should close up the cabin and hike back over the ridge one more time to Horns Pond. I brought a fly rod and planned to fish the afternoon, since I didn’t get a chance on the way across the first time.

While I was locking up and leaving, another southbound hiker showed up, “Wandering Angler,” so-called because he was packing fishing gear. We started talking and soon were hiking together for Horns Pond. After the 21/2-mile hike across the ridge, we arrived at the pond. We talked with the other caretaker, Rob Read, mostly about how improved the site looked now that there are full-time caretakers on duty.

As recently as 15 years ago, the Horns Pond site was heavily impacted by campers who had camped everywhere, browsing for firewood and making huge fire pits. Then, the site was trampled down to dirt. There was no understory growth at all and bootleg trails led everywhere.

Now, the understory is growing back, fire pits have been removed and the place is starting to recover. I went down to the pond around sunset and cast my line. I caught a nice 10-inch trout and released it back to the water. The sun set in a mix of clouds across the surface of the small pond. I turned back to the trail and headed to the lean-to for my last night on Bigelow, for this trip.

Brad Viles is an avid hiker who has logged some 8,000 lifetime miles, including the Appalachian Trail. A trail maintainer for the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, he has climbed Mount Katahdin more than 85 times. He can be reached at sball1@ prexar. com