On Saturday, June 25th, my friends John and Steve and I headed up to Baxter State Park, ME. It was roughly a six and a half hour drive. The park is 204,733 acres and is the home of Maine's tallest mountain, Mt. Katahdin. Here's a map of the park:
http://www.baxterstateparkauthority.com/map/
John rented a cabin in the park for two nights. It was $75 a night. The cabin was very well taken care of. Here's a picture of the cabin from the front as well as a view of Kidney Pond from the back porch (it started raining as soon as we got there but only rained for about ten minutes).
Here's a picture of Steve and John inside the cabin (as we were getting ready for a steak dinner served with vegetables).
We headed out around 11am on the following day, Saturday, for Mt Katahdin. It was about an hour drive to the head of the trail. Along the way, we saw a male moose (one of three we saw on the trip).
The following two pictures were taken along the way to Mt. Katahdin. The first picture is of one of the smaller peaks in Baxter State Park, Double Top. The second picture is of Mt. Katahdin. You can't see the peak due to the cloud cover. The true summit is 5,267 feet.
We started out on the trail around 1pm. Within an hour, we crossed a wooden bridge and I snapped this photo of a stream that flowed under the bridge.
Around 3:30pm, we had reached 2,914 ft. Here we came upon Chimney Pond. We were originally going to take Saddle Trail to the Knife's Edge which would have brought us to 5,267 ft, but the ranger wouldn't let us as we had passed the 1pm cutoff point. Here we agreed to take a trail to the left (I can't remember the name) which would bring us to a peak called Pamola, at 4,902 ft. The following picture was taken looking out across (and up) Chimney Pond to Pamola. The true summit is off to the far right and out of the picture. At this point, I was truly dumbfounded as to how we were going to get up there. John informed me that there was no elevator.
It took us about two more hours to get to Pamola. At this point, I was in really bad shape and completely miserable. I couldn't feel my legs, I had to stop every few minutes to catch my breath, and I was completely drenched in my own sweat. The whole way up was nothing but rock all the way to 4,902 ft. I wanted to quit, but John wouldn't let me. He kept pushing me. I was complaining non-stop on the way up, but he kept telling me to shut up and keep going. I'm very grateful to him because getting to Pamola was well worth it. The view from there was amazing. In every direction you could see smaller mountains, lakes, ponds and the greenest forests I have ever seen. I broke out my compass and we estimated which way Canada was (we were probably only an hour or so away from the Canadian border). Here's a picture of the three of us at Pamola.
After enjoying a clif bar, some much needed water, and a cigarette, Steve and I took some time to enjoy our victory. John still didn't quite feel victorious, so he decided to head up even more still to the beginning of the Knife's Edge. I couldn't believe he went still further up, but John's in very good shape and does quite a bit of hiking. Here's a picture of John just below the knife's edge. The picture after that is of the same spot where John was standing but zoomed out a bit. Off to the right, you can see the Knife's Edge heading up to 5,267.
Here's a picture looking out from Pamola.
The trail down was less steap than the one we took up. It was extremely rocky. At this point, my legs were gone, absolutely gone. I was dehydrated and completely exhausted. I kept feeling like one of my knees was going to give out. We got back to the car around 8pm. At this point, we were entirely out of water, and I was very thirsty. The only thing we had in the cooler was Budweiser, so I grabbed one. Within a few minutes (sitting in the back seat) I got two charlie horses, one in each calf. I started screaming at the top of my lungs for John to pull the car over. Once he did, I opened the back door and extended both legs as far as I could. The pain was horrible but eventually subsided. Once back at the cabin, we reminisced about how amazing the day was and enjoyed some beer and barbequed teriyaki chicken. John got a fire going in the fire ring in front of the cabin and we sat outside for a couple hours enjoying the night and some great conversation. I slept like a baby that night. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. My legs hurt for four straight days - I had trouble climbing up and down stairs. I'm very glad I made the trip though and have realized it wouldn't hurt to get in somewhat better shape. I leave ya'all for now with a picture of John stoking the last night's fire.
c'ya :-)
bri
http://www.baxterstateparkauthority.com/map/
John rented a cabin in the park for two nights. It was $75 a night. The cabin was very well taken care of. Here's a picture of the cabin from the front as well as a view of Kidney Pond from the back porch (it started raining as soon as we got there but only rained for about ten minutes).
Here's a picture of Steve and John inside the cabin (as we were getting ready for a steak dinner served with vegetables).
We headed out around 11am on the following day, Saturday, for Mt Katahdin. It was about an hour drive to the head of the trail. Along the way, we saw a male moose (one of three we saw on the trip).
The following two pictures were taken along the way to Mt. Katahdin. The first picture is of one of the smaller peaks in Baxter State Park, Double Top. The second picture is of Mt. Katahdin. You can't see the peak due to the cloud cover. The true summit is 5,267 feet.
We started out on the trail around 1pm. Within an hour, we crossed a wooden bridge and I snapped this photo of a stream that flowed under the bridge.
Around 3:30pm, we had reached 2,914 ft. Here we came upon Chimney Pond. We were originally going to take Saddle Trail to the Knife's Edge which would have brought us to 5,267 ft, but the ranger wouldn't let us as we had passed the 1pm cutoff point. Here we agreed to take a trail to the left (I can't remember the name) which would bring us to a peak called Pamola, at 4,902 ft. The following picture was taken looking out across (and up) Chimney Pond to Pamola. The true summit is off to the far right and out of the picture. At this point, I was truly dumbfounded as to how we were going to get up there. John informed me that there was no elevator.
It took us about two more hours to get to Pamola. At this point, I was in really bad shape and completely miserable. I couldn't feel my legs, I had to stop every few minutes to catch my breath, and I was completely drenched in my own sweat. The whole way up was nothing but rock all the way to 4,902 ft. I wanted to quit, but John wouldn't let me. He kept pushing me. I was complaining non-stop on the way up, but he kept telling me to shut up and keep going. I'm very grateful to him because getting to Pamola was well worth it. The view from there was amazing. In every direction you could see smaller mountains, lakes, ponds and the greenest forests I have ever seen. I broke out my compass and we estimated which way Canada was (we were probably only an hour or so away from the Canadian border). Here's a picture of the three of us at Pamola.
After enjoying a clif bar, some much needed water, and a cigarette, Steve and I took some time to enjoy our victory. John still didn't quite feel victorious, so he decided to head up even more still to the beginning of the Knife's Edge. I couldn't believe he went still further up, but John's in very good shape and does quite a bit of hiking. Here's a picture of John just below the knife's edge. The picture after that is of the same spot where John was standing but zoomed out a bit. Off to the right, you can see the Knife's Edge heading up to 5,267.
Here's a picture looking out from Pamola.
The trail down was less steap than the one we took up. It was extremely rocky. At this point, my legs were gone, absolutely gone. I was dehydrated and completely exhausted. I kept feeling like one of my knees was going to give out. We got back to the car around 8pm. At this point, we were entirely out of water, and I was very thirsty. The only thing we had in the cooler was Budweiser, so I grabbed one. Within a few minutes (sitting in the back seat) I got two charlie horses, one in each calf. I started screaming at the top of my lungs for John to pull the car over. Once he did, I opened the back door and extended both legs as far as I could. The pain was horrible but eventually subsided. Once back at the cabin, we reminisced about how amazing the day was and enjoyed some beer and barbequed teriyaki chicken. John got a fire going in the fire ring in front of the cabin and we sat outside for a couple hours enjoying the night and some great conversation. I slept like a baby that night. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. My legs hurt for four straight days - I had trouble climbing up and down stairs. I'm very glad I made the trip though and have realized it wouldn't hurt to get in somewhat better shape. I leave ya'all for now with a picture of John stoking the last night's fire.
c'ya :-)
bri
posted by pennies4sale at 11:14 AM
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