The day we hiked Mt. Spaulding began with cloudy sky's, drizzle and rain. Hoping the weather would improve, we put on our rain gear and hit the trail. Just as we began our hike the rain began to fall. This made the river crossing a bit of a challenge, but luckily someone placed a board across the widest part of the stream. As we continued up the trail the rain began to slow and clouds started to lift. We had some nice views looking down into the valley as the trail wound its way along the ridge.  Soon after we reached the intersection of the Sugarloaf spur path and decided to take a break.

From the spur path we decided to hike up Mt. Sugarloaf first, before heading over to Spaulding. We wanted to bag at least one summit in case the rains returned, and this mountain was much closer. After our successful hike up Sugarloaf we headed back to the AT and continued on our way to Mt. Spaulding. The ridge walk was rather easy. We had to get around a couple of blow downs, but for the most part the trail was a nice walk in the woods. About half way to Mt. Spaulding we came upon a rock that had a plaque on it which marked the completion of the Appalachian trail. After about an hour and over a mile of hiking we reached the spur trail that lead to the summit of Mt. Spaulding.

Back at camp we started a fire to cook dinner while we enjoyed some beers under the cathedral pines. This was Heather and Steve's first camping trip. Except for the rain we all had a great time.