A great climb to end the 2008 "season". This turned out to be much more difficult than I expected. After leaving Houston, Hurricane Ike, and over two weeks with no electricity behind, Hurricane Kyle loomed in the Atlantic, threatening to hit the Maine coast just as we were heading up to set up camp.
The fall colors were in full force, as we drove up from Bangor in the rental car. The last several miles of road in Baxter State Park are gravel, but are well maintained. We encountered several A.T. thru hikers. Including those in the photo here. From the sign in log, it appears that only about half the hikers that started the hike made it to the summit. Perhaps even less than half. Some of the thru hikers decided the weather was too rough near the top, and decided to come back on a better day for the final A.T. summit.
There are two campsites that have the picnic shelters as seen in the group photo. we tied up our hammocks in the rafters and rode out the rains from Kyle the nite before. It was a windy, noisy night. A couple of hikers came by to check our out Hennesse Hammocks, as we hung like bats from the rafters in relative comfort.
We made it up to about two miles from the summit, before deciding the cold wind and blowing rain wouldn't make for a nice day. On the way down I started planning on rescheduling my flight and coming back in two days for another attempt. After running some of the thru hikers to town, and dropping David off at the airport, I spent a night in Bangor hanging out with my son, who drove up from college. (WPI)
We located a "dive" bar, next to the bus station downtown. Chatted with lots of folks, and, unlike Texas, most everyone knew thier state hightpoint and had climbed it 2-3 times. Thats Kris clowning around in the fountain. Yes, we had in fact enjoyed a couple of beers already!
I have to mention this restaraunt, which is just a couple of towns away from Baxter State Park. The food was excellent. I had the spaghetti one night and a fish dinner the other. It's called the Aerie, and it's on the left hand side of the road, in East Millinocket.
After an uneventful nite, I headed back up again, this time, with no rain to deal with. I was the first one on the trail that morning. I even caught a gap in the clouds for almost an hour, and got a few photos between the clouds.
This is a bridge just past the one mile point.
This lovely waterfall is a nice place to stop for a sandwich and a short rest.
The last two miles consists of a fairly difficult to navigate boulder field. Even more difficult in the rain, as the trail becomes a rocky stream. Finally things get easier the final half mile as it levels of into a nice rocky field, with an easy path.
Although it's not as high as some of the western U.S. highpoints, and it's not a particularly long hike, this one will probably catch you by surprise the first time you hike it!
I had the honor of meeting this Retired Marine Colonel, who goes by "Yoda"! It was an honor to chat trailside with such an experienced hiker & soldier. Like the other Yoda, he was full of wisdom, inspiration, and advice on hiking and life!
At the summit, there were a few thru hikers that had camped at the summit. They were kind enough to snap a photo for me....
