I have been wanting to explore the Bigelow Range for a while, but haven't had the chance to hike any part of it... until this year. We have hiked a lot of miles in all different terrain so I guess I figured during peak foliage was as good a time as any...
Since we tackled the tallest peak in Maine at the end of July I figured we could squeeze one more 4,000+ footer in this season. There are many different ways you can hike Bigelow. There are more or less 4 peaks (Avery Peak, West Peak (the actual peak), and the two horns). To do the loop and hit all of the peaks it ends up being a 13+ mile hike. The upsides were that there were absolutely gorgeous peak folliage views at each peak we hit, we had a nice mix of hiking up and down during the middle of the climb, and we all learned a lot about mental toughness. The downsides mostly all boil down to the fact that 13 miles of hiking makes for a long and exhausting day no matter how you cut it... and going down and up again to another peak can be a bit demoralizing.
We took the Fire Warden's trail up one side which has, as our kids have deemed it, "the stairway to heaven/from hell". It was a lot of quad work. We made it up and down Avery Peak just before a cloud bank engulfed it. It was cool to watch from the West Peak, but we were glad we weren't in it. The kids got a kick out of seeing Sugarloaf from another peak and can't wait to be skiing this winter and look at Bigelow from the peak of Sugarloaf. By the time we made it to the South Horn everyone wanted to be done with the hike so I didn't dare to risk mutiny if I suggested taking a small detour to see the North Horn. We were pretty excited for the view coming down from the horns to the tarn part way down the mountain. It was a great place to have a snack and change socks.
We made it back to the parking lot almost exactly 8 hours after we started all in one piece. I can't express how impressed I was with how well everyone did. There were certainly high points and low points, but everyone came out on top and surprised themselves at what they accomplished. The best reward of the day was getting to have a Bag burger after!! We were beyond thrilled that the Bag at Sugarloaf was open after the hike. There is nothing like a Bag burger after a long day of activity. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the view of the Bigelow Loop from the comfort of a seat.
The over all consensus is that were are all glad we did it, but don't plan to do it again anytime soon. If we do plan to hike Bigelow again we would hike the Fire Warden's Trail just to Avery and West Peaks, then go back down the same way. That would make for a much more manageable hike. It was unanimous that we were just as exhausted after hiking Bigelow as Katahdin. They are different climbs, but the length of the Bigelow loop makes it equivocal.
