The trees on the way down offered some good protection from the rain.
After making it down the slope we were able to make it to a turnoff point where we were struck with a bit of a poser...we could either try getting to the carriage road via a short section of the Giant's Slide trail (dangerous even in good weather, so hell no to that) or taking a downhill loop that would bring us back to the trail we had taken up! Given the conditions, we opted for the latter. Unfortunately the foliage cover had been so good there that very little had melted, and it was rough going. We really weren't loving the idea of having to cross the bend again, especially since we were both exhausted, but it was actually easier to go down it than up it since we could slide in a controlled manner. It's also worth noting that I had used my RC-3 to clear a lot of branches on the way up that would have proved dangerously unbalancing. After what felt like an eternity we were able to clumsily make it back to the bridge where we scaled the side to get to the Parkman Mountain carriage roads. After a brief stop to take some "after" pics of ourselves, we limped our way down to the parking lot.
Part way down it started raining again, hard, so I pulled out a space blanket for Lauren to wrap up in (mostly to keep the rain off, not for heat, though it was welcome). Once we made it to the Parkman Mtn. parking lot, our car was right down the hill. The wind picked up at that point so strong that you had to lean into it! We cranked the heat in the car the whole way back, took a relaxing soak in the tub, and then treated ourselves to Burger King--fast food had never tasted so godly, and we just needed energy! Suffice to say we won't be trying anything so difficult until the weather gets better!
All in all it was a very pleasant experience on the way up, but downright scary on the way
down. Early spring in Maine can bring rapibly changing weather conditions, and we just didn't know what to expect! I take it as a lesson learned, and I hope some folks can learn vicariously through our rough time!
P.S. Regular jeans indeed would have been a bad choice for an outdoor excursion. However, the ones my lady was wearing were of the "faux jean" variety, and were a synthetic stretch material not ill-suited for the outdoors. I was wearing corduroys (which actually didn't end up getting wet) and the boots were a real benefit with the streams (the tongue is stitched to the sides all the way up, making it integral and keeping the wet out) and did a great job of protecting me from bumps and scrapes.
