The Climb up Little Spencer

Although the name of the mountain was Littler Spencer, there was nothing little or insignificant about the climb.  On Moosehead Lake in Greenville, Maine, My buddy and I hiked up Little Spencer.  It was a foggy day, and as we made a ascent, the fog got heavier and it turned to a mist.  We hit the hardest part of the climb when we got to what is known as "the chimney."  This narrow chute of sheer rock face demands complete concentration and a knowledge of one's one climbing abilities.  We free climbed up the chute, and once at the top of the chimney sat ourselves next to the native Maine blueberry bushes and had ourselves a feast.  Although we were both drained, we knew we had only climbed a third of Little Spencer.  The fog got heavier as did the sent of pine needles.  It was late July, but it smelled exactly like Christmas. Finally after stumbling through an area which clearly was just subject to an intense rock slide, we reached our goal, the summit of Little Spencer.  This was one of the most outrageous feelings I have ever experience.  With the dense fog, visibility was close to zero, but every few minutes the clouds would fly by and we could look out and get a sense of where on the lake we were, and how high up the summit was.  It was an outrageous feeling with the clouds whipping past, the mist striking our faces, and the heavy breathing that entailed after our gnarly climb.  Once rested up, Dave and I made our way back down Little Spencer, and once we got the Chimney we tied our rope to a tree in hopes that it would hold, and repelled down.  This seemed like a good idea instead of trying to free climb down the whole thing.  Leaving a rope behind was worth it, and we though it would be of great assistance to any future climbers.  Finally we made it back to the car which was parked on the side of a logging road in the back country of Maine.  We sat in the car exhausted, rewarded, and still perplexed by the feeling we experience at the top of Little Spencer.  That climb will always be heavy on my mind, and to this day I cannot put into words the strange euphoric feeling at the top with the clouds passing through us.