Maine trip

“Pennsy: have you decided on any trails in the whites yet. I'm still waiting on the maps. Thought I would have had them by now.

twigeater: so does that mean you'll be sucking on wine all the way to Russell Pond????? Talk about your basic happy hiker! lol!”

“A camelbak full of wine? Want to borrow my 100oz camelbak? ;o) hic..

gforce - I am the worlds worse hike planner. Sometimes I decide only that morning. However, I'd like to do Mt Washington again, Mt Adams, the Bonds, and maybe the Franconia Ridge again.”

“Pennsy: for this type of trip I won't have a set plan either. But rather come up with a list of hikes and then let the weather decide on which I'll go. So I'll try to pick out hikes for both good weather and bad weather.”

“I won't be sipping along the way (unless I mix up the camelbaks, lol) I'm klutzy enuff without any help!
Wish I had one now though, first day back at work always sucks...
:(”

“A list of the confirmed to date:

me
Artex
Pennsy Hiker
Fritz
LyndyS
gforce
wolfman's brother

I have all the reservations in hand. In additon to the lean-to we have the two tent sites at Russell Pond. If you look at the campground map, we are lean-to #3 (8 people), tent sites #16 (2 people) and #18 (6 people).

can't wait!”

“twigeater: I finally got my maps tonight . . . now the questions. I'm a little cornfused. Is Baxter peak and Mt. Katahdin one in the same?

Pennsy: I also got the AMC guide to the White Mtns. 524 pages. I figure that I should have some routes planned by the first of the year! I did not realize there were that many trails in the White Mtns.”

“Thanks for the update Twigeater! I am sooooooooooooo excited for this trip, we're all going to have a blast! :-)”

“gforce - Katahdin has several peaks, with the most popular being Baxter Peak.

Starting from the south the peaks are Pamola, Chimney, South, Baxter, Hamlin, and three Howe Peaks. I thought there were ten, but maybe not. If you do the Knife Edge trail you will hit the first four peaks. If you're really ambitious and had enough daylight you could bag them all in one trip.”

“(Baxter is also the highest of the peaks)

I'm with ya there on that White Mountain guide, the first time I looked at those maps I was scared, lol!

Don't know what time everyone is arriving on Thursday, but I should be at the site before noon. I'm planning on hiking out to Katahdin Lake if anyone wants to join me for that. Six miles round trip to a pristine lake outside the park.”

“...just one more thing (I don't have internet at home anymore so I gotta do all my talkin' now)...

I know I said Russell Pond is ~7 miles, and it is. But we have choices, and since Pennsy asked and others might be interested I thought I'd mention it now. We can take the scenic route for 7.5 miles, but if we take the VERY scenic route it's ~10 miles. That puts a day hike in our backpacking and leaves us with the hiking/canoeing that mapleleaf suggested. Kinda gets the most out of the area. The hike out would be ~7 miles.

If you want specifics and have a map, I'll tell you the trails.
There's one here but it's not very good:
Baxter map”

“The ~10 miles route sounds good to me, the more that there is to see, the better.. I'll do what the majority wants though, and be perfectly happy.”

“Hike Maine! Hike Maine! Hike Maine!

coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, 10 miles sounds okay to me right now. I just finished reading an article on Acadia and I wish I could just move up that way NOW!!!!”

“When is this going on?”

“Oct. 10-Oct 14.”

“this im guessing”

“this year”

“Someone give Lyndy de-caffe now! ;O)

Count me in on doing a few more miles for more views. Cool!

gforce - LOL about your first look at the Whites map. I did the same thing. Soooo many trails, so little time. This will be my 3rd visit but one thing I really like is that you can go almost anywhere on a day-hike. Plus, not every hike is a killer uphill. There's a great variety.

For trail/trip reports in the Whites (and Maine, NY), check out Views from the Top as well as the Dave Metsky link I mentioned before.”

“okay, decaf, decaf, snore, snore...”

“Thanks Pennsy I'll check those sites out. The White Mtns. maps look like someone droped a bowl of spaghetti on them!

BTW, I got the maps for both the Whites and BSP online from the AMC site. They are very nice maps . . . printed on tyvek and very compact.

twigeater: so Baxter peak is the summit of Mt. Katahdin? I'll get this straight yet!

I'm good with either route . . . 7 mi. or 10 mi., but I'd lean towards the 10 ifin I had to decide (see more).”

“Yep, Baxter Peak is considered the summit and is the northern terminus of the AT. There is a 13ft cairn on top to make it a mile high.

I like the 10 mile option myself because I think the gorge is rather pretty in fall. We'll be starting right from the park so we have plenty of time to get where we're going. There is one stream crossing that I use tevas for, but I bring them anyway - I think jerbear crossed it bare-foot.

If you look at the map gforce, we'll start at Roaring Brook campground, follow the Russell Pond Trail, and then bear right at each trail junction. At the end of Grand Falls (the gorge itself is about 1/4 mile) we turn back and bear right again.

So it's Russell Pond Trail, Tracy Horse Trail (may be Tracy trail or Wassataquiok Stream trail on your map) cross the Wass, Ledge Falls Trail, then Grand Falls trail to the campground.

Can do a couple of different things the next day - Greene Falls and canoeing (~6 miles) or Davis Pond (~10 miles with another ford). Other short, but nice things are the Lookout trail - especially if the foliage is nice, and the New City site if you're interested in the remnants of old lumber camps.”

“Oh, the italics.

I can fix that.”

“So Fritz, I was going by the italics thing I copied from Tea's html thread, and it shows whatever . Should the last "I" be "i" ???”

“Fritz to the rescue!”

“yeah, see I knew it...”

“They should both be "i" -- either upper or lower case will work. You may have seen an uppercase "I" (that is an "i") and thought it was a lowercase "l" (that is an "L".)”

“I've seen this on other threads - I know why mine didn't change back, but how come it carries into other's posts?”

“Because it is the same web page. The browser does not know anything about posts, it just sees a bunch of text, with instructions on how sections of the text should be displayed.

In this case, the browser just sees an HTML tag that says "start italicising" so it does exactly that, until it finds a tag that tells it to "stop italicising."”

“well smarten that browser up, lol!

but no, they were both capital I's and that's what I used. Capital I at the start and small i at the end worked.”

“I see your problem. You actually did't use any letter at all in your closing tag. A simple typo.

See--you are already an expert at HTML! Update that resume!”

“Now how can you see that?

With the picture of that stream crossing in my mind, it's no wonder I forgot a letter, lol.

Where's mapleleaf?”

“In IE, the command is View Source. Accessible via menu, or by right-clicking anywhere on the page (other than on a hyperlink.)

Netscape has a command for this too but I can't remember what is is.

You can learn a lot by looking at the source.”

“omigawd, I see it!
(is that a good thing, lol?)

Thanks!”

“Uh Oh,not another html wannabee?”

“I WANT TO CANOE.”

“You showoff Pennsy!!! :)

I did notice a lot of "cell padding" when I looked at the source - necessary for cyber nuthouses like this one I suppose.

OK WOLFIE YOU CAN CANOE. We'll put in you in with mapleleaf - she said something about a wetsuit, I think...”

“Hmmmm... barefoot stream crossings must be common with Jerbear - in this Black Forest Trail stream crossing photo he removed something else in addition to his boots.

I checked out the Baxter trail map. Wow - lots to do! The Knife's Edge looks very intriguing.”

“yeah well, that looks a little familar...

Baxter is a great place, I never get tired of it!”

“will we need tents at any point or will we have a shelter every night?”

“I second the notion of Knife Edge looking veeeeery intriguing. Looks like it could be a real buttkicker, which is awesome. I'm already counting down the days!”

“Hike Maine! Hike Maine!

(I have only had one cup of coffee today and it was 12 hours ago, so there!)”

“Bringing this back to the top just to hear Lyndy shout HIKE MAINE! one more time. ;o)

Actually, I spotted a few threads from people showing interest in Maine so they might want to check this out.

Hike Maine!”

“HIKE MAINE!

This trip is gonna kick some Anna Nicole Smith-sized a$$!”

“Who?


Hike Maine! Hike Maine!


coffee, coffee.....”

“oohh man Atex thats just plain BAD”

“Well, the trip ain't gonna kick Fiona Apple sized a$$.”

“Before I leave this cracker factory for a coupla great weeks, here's the list to date:

Artex
Fritz
Pennsy Hiker
LyndyS
cow patty
wolfman's brother
gforce

that's 8 including me.

So - the first two nights car camping we have a 4 man lean-to, the rest tents. I think we can have two tents (I don't understand this group site thing, have to clarify it this weekend) The next two nights is an 8 person lean-to, and 2 person and 6 person tent sites. One tent on each tent site.

So if you want to talk tents vs lean-to and who's sleeping where, anytime is good. I'm claiming left wall lean-to space!

I'll wave to you guys from Baxter Peak on Sunday, wahoo!”

“Yo Artex - ain't nuthin that big! ;o)

Hey, no fair twigeater! You're gonna be on Baxter Sunday and I'm gonna be stuck with these bums on the NJ AT! nyuk nyuk

As far as sleeping, I'll have my tent with me but I'll take what's leftover - leanto or tent works for me.

OH! Directions - looking at the map, it looks like rt95 to 11 to Millinocket, and then it looks sketchy. Is there a certain road we take into the park and do need any info to register?”

“Holy crap! I just realized this trip is only one month away! Yahooooooooo!!!!!!

I'll bring my tent with me also, but I'll be happy with a shelter.

Hike Maine!”