HIKE MAINE! trip reports and pics

“We're back! Or at least I'm home, lol...the others are on their way.

Trip reports and pics to come later (after I shower and unpack, lol) but I had to take a minute to say what a fantastic time I had! Saturday was the most awesome hiking day of my life - well, of this winter anyway - and I'm sore from laughing so hard and so much!

What a great bunch! I can't say enough about the TTers on this trip so I won't even try - except to say that I miss you all already! >sniff<”

“Woohoo! Glad you guys had fun! Wish I could have made it. :-(

Very much look forward to reading y'all's trip reports and seeing the pics! :-)”

“You little title teaser. I don't see any pictures.
Glad everyone had fun and didn't freeze body parts off.”

“Day 1 - Thursday, February 27
I arrived at the Compass Pond cabin around 11:30 and was unloading when Pennsy Hiker arrived at noon. We got the heat and lights going, went to the pond for awesome photo ops of Katahdin, then headed our for a hike to check out the trail conditions. We were pleased to see the trail was packed, and we bare booted it the 1.5 miles of the Abol Stream trail to the perimeter road. We returned, then hiked another mile and a half or so on the Blueberry Ledges trail, with our snowshoes on this trail. There we found Pennsy's partridge, but it was in a fir tree, not a pear tree. ;)
We then drove to the markers I'd left and snapped the light sticks to make them more visible for the late arrivals. Then we amused ourselves by drying stuff out and reading the cabin log book, what a hoot!

Tom Terrific and son arrived around 8pm or so (?) and Uphill Klimber and Skeetah Bait drove in soon after. We got acquainted over yummy moose stew and fine spirits.
Pedxing arrived at 2 or 3:30am, while we were all sleeping.

Day 2 - Friday, February 28
to Roaring Brook, wahoo!
After breakfast of moose sausage, cheesecake :), and other yummy stuff we're packed and off to park at Abol Bridge. We've seen lots of activity there both days, and it's kinda fun to check out everyone's rigs.

Our sleds are loaded and we're on the trail at 9:30am. My belt comes apart almost immediately, but I fixed it and it held for the rest of the trip. We stop for the usual group pics, and pretty much depend on Pennsy for photography on the rest of the trip as our camera batteries are too cold. Temps are mild, no wind, it's sunny and a beautiful day! The trail is packed by snowmobiles the entire way, so we walked. Saw a fox on the way to the perimeter road, it entertained us for a bit.

Arrived the gatehouse, had some lunch, then started off on the 8 mile uphill climb to Roaring Brook at noon. Since it was a straight shot, the weather was great, and we all had headlamps and radios, we walked at our own pace, and met up at the bunkhouse. I arrived around 3:30, TomT & son, Pedxing, and Pennsy Hiker a short time before that, and Uphill Kilimber and Skeetah Bait a few minutes after me.

The early arrivals had started the stove and we all claimed bunk space, then got water from the brook. Uphill Klimber made a pot of the yummiest chili, and he skied to Sandy Stream Pond later and reported back the conditions to South Turner mountain. A great evening was had with penty of food and grog, and great company. The ranger stopped by and informed us that the Chimney Pond trail was bootable, but we'd need snowshoes for the North Basin cut-off trail, that we planned to take. He also told us of a snow storm that was coming in on the day we were leaving.

Day 3 - Saturday, March 1
Chimney Pond, here we come!

I took a little hike to Sandy Stream pond, then realized when I got there that I forgot my camera, so went back to get it and UK, Skeetah Bait, and Pennsy Hiker joined me for the trip back out. Got some great shots and had some fun on the pond.

We get on the trail around 10am with day packs and snowshoes. I'm awed at the views the entire way, anticipating that view of Katahdin from Chimney Pond, which is the whole point of the trip for me. We arrive Chimney Pond around noon, after being teased by glimpses of awesome ice formations and snow capped peaks. I'm so excited to be there, I can't sit still, so a few of us continue across the pond and down the trail the technical climbers take to get to the base of the mountain. It was sooooo awesome to see Katahdin from that angle! Finally Pennsy warned me that if I went any further I'd need ropes and an axe and when I looked back, I realized I had actually started going up - I kept just wanting to see a little bit more! I was in seventh heaven, but turned back and Skeetah Bait and I slid down the ice banks on the side of Chimney Pond on our butts, Pennsy slid on his boots.

We ate some lunch, then headed out on the Blueberry Knoll trail, while Skeetah Bait went back to Roaring Brook because of knee and blister problems. The Knoll was beautiful with awesome views all around. We then headed back and picked up the North Basin cut-off trail where we put on our snowshoes and broke trail until we reached the Chimney Pond trail.

We arrived back at the bunkhouse around 3:30, too early to sit around, so I suggested a loop hike I wanted to do. After a snack of the ramaining chili, Pennsy Hiker and Uphill Klimber joined me, with UK skiing. I"ll let the guys tell about this hike, but it was a hell of a lot of fun! a three hour tour, lol

That night we lamented that we hadn't carted in more liquor, but managed to ration out the remaining spirits. Pedxing tried to play a joke on me with some scnapps I had in a water bottel, but I was too nice for him to play it for long. TOO NICE, lol!!! (fooled him, didn't I, hehe)

Day 4 - Sunday, March 2
time to leave, I'm so sad >sniff!<
It's gently snowing, but not too cold. We're thinking this day will be easier because the first 8 miles is mostly downhill. UK and Skeetah Bait decide to ski. The walk out takes us an hour less than the walk in. Everything was absolutely beautiful with the snow and it wasn't cold unless we stopped for too long, so we didn't. Toward the end when we were doing the last uphill hauls the new snow made it harder to drag the sleds. It was a great trip out, a lot of fun and like being in a winter wonderland or a post card.

After drying off we made some runs to the store and settled in for the evening, with plenty of food, grog and hilarious company! UK did bring a BBQ grill and grilled steaks, Pedxing did corn on the cob, there were more moose fixings, and everyone sampled deer heart. Some retired earlier than others, but I doubt they slept. :)
Oh yeah, a couple of us took a little hike on the pond in the dark, but couldn't see a darn thing, including where we were going.

Day 5 - Monday, March 3
goodbye day, the day I hate the most!

Awoke to cold and lots of new snow. Pennsy went to start his truck and reported back that his doors were frozen. Ditto for the rest of us. We got 'em open and started our cars, but I couldn't close my front driver side door and had to hold it shut until it finally thawed out.

We pack up, clean up, load up, and head to the Appalachian Trail cafe for breakfast, where Pedxing very generously treats us all! The power goes out, but fortunately that's after we all have our breakfasts! We say goodbye inside since the wind is blowing a freakin' gale, and everyone is on their way.

THE END

Saw lots of coyote and rabbit tracks every day all over the place. Much deer and moose track, but no critter to go with them. I know I left out lots of stuff, but I'm sure others will fill in.

I miss you guys! TomT and his stories - not to mention his sparkly blue underpinnin's, Ped's jokes with his excellent accents, Pennsy's cabanna boy services lol, UK's monkey boy antics, Skeetah's good company and spirit, and the way Henry just quietly took it all in.

And don't forget blue is our favorite color ! ;)

HIKE MAINE!”

“ whoops, sorry!”

“Nice trip report!!!

It sounds like you guys had sooooooooo much fun, I'm happy for you guys! And extremely jealous!”

“We missed you guys! Can you believe that I have leftover moose stew and sausage, lol???”

“Twigeater --

Wow . . .it sounds like you had a great time. I thought about you folks several times this weekend!


Glad to hear it went so well!!”

“Cool trip report, thanks.
Can't wait till someone posts some pix.”

“Thanks guys - what did you end up doing, lee?

I can't post my pics until tomorrow, cause the cord to my camera is at work - I've only got a few anyway. I can't wait to see Pennsy's!”

“I don't much to add to Twiggy's report - and I've got tons of work to do (including tests to grade and hand back tommorrow).

The bottom line: What a nice bunch of people! Every single one of 'em would make great neighbors - it was a joy hiking with 'em.

Twiggy made great plans and was a great organizer. She mentions my treating for breakfast - but she treated us all to lots of food and booze all the way through the trip and drove through the blizzard Sunday night to get provisions for everyone. UK and Skeeter made a great Chili dinner for all of us (and lugged the cookware and provisions all the way to Roaring Brook). Tom was way generous with his fine beer - and Pennsy treated us to his magic hot cocoa and really lent me a hand when it looked like I needed it (as did everyone, but Pennsy took some extra steps - searching the snow for a lost zip lock bag/wallet that turned out to have been knocked into a corner and had a trash bag thrown on top of it).”

“I'm pretty jealous but also really glad that you all had such a good time!”

“And another big thanks goes to Pennsy for letting us all use his Coleman stove at the cabin and for lugging his Coleman lantern to the bunkhouse. THANKS!”

“We want picutres we want pictures!!!!!

Glad ya all had fun.

8)”

“The number one memory is... the envelope please....The shark feeding frenzy!!!! (Massive applause!!!)

Seems we had all eaten our dinner, and Pennsy had just cooked up some awesome mashed potatoes, except that instead of using water to hydrate the cheesy potato buds, he used lipton soup. Smelled fantastic. No sooner had he explained how it was cooked and said "If you'd like to try a bite, go ahea------". At that moment, I shout "yes!!" and instantly 6 of us have silverware dipping into his dish as he backs away from his plate!!!

Seems we'll be adding this dish to our next trip.”

“bbinkley's potato surprise, yum!

It's about time you started posting under your real name Klimber, lol!”

“I gotta tell you about this bunch!

Twigeater is the person to plan your trip. This is the second trip of hers I have been on and she arranges for fantastic weather, wildlife sightings, great groups and accomodations, and of course, there is always moose to eat.

Pennsy is always a blast to have around, and if he shows up with anymore gear, his new name will be inspector gadget.

Iffin' you need a storyteller, you gotta have Tom Terrific, and his son, obviously is a good listener. He is also a very accomplished hiker, without considering his youthful age. He was the only one under 40, in fact he was under 20!

Pedxing arrived at 2:30 AM, yet is ready bright and early to hike up the hill. His renditions of jokes are masterful with the accents he inflects.

And of course, there is the one nearest and dearest to my heart, Skeetah Bait. We do so enjoy our time together, and all these great folks only increase our satisfaction with life.”

“I gotta give one piece of advice:

Consider where you sleep if there is a wood stove in the bunkhouse. I just naturally chose the top bunk, and was way too tired to change come bedtime. I had a zero degree bag, and it had to be a hundred up next to the ceiling. And I sleep warm anyways. Next night, I slept on the bottom bunk, next to the floor, much better.”

“Y'all remember the ditty of Gilligan's Island? Not the song to sing as you leave on a hike....
Especially if the snow is crusted, over 4 feet deep and completely unbroken. There's a reason it's completely unbroken, and Pennsy hiker has got to be the luckiest man I know (Hey, you never bought me those lottery tickets). Oh yeah, I wanted to ski it (snowshoes would have been better, so I did a little learning on the fly, even after 20 years of skiing. I finally found a safe way down the steeps in that deep crusty stuff). Still, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. We met several challenges, overcame them all, and had a great time, out there....somewhere.... LOL!!”

“WOW! AWESOME TRIP YA'LL!”

“Where is he, I want some pics.

Hey guys, did he bring that plasma cannon called a camerca with him? All jokes a side, pennsy's camera took my all time favorite backpacking photo of me.”

“thanks dude.”

“Wahoo for the fantastic trip, and BooHoo because I'm home and it's back to reality.

A HUGE thanks goes to Twigeater for organizing yet another great Maine trip. This weekend could not have been any better. We did not see a cloud in the sky Thurs, Fri or Saturday, and hiking out in the snow Sunday was a blast.

The winter scenery was fabulous and I hope the 270 photos I took does it some justice. Our cabin for Thurs and Sun nights were right by Compass Pond with a fantastic view of Mt Katahdin. I could have stayed there all weekend and been happy.

Twigeater's huge pot of moose stew really hit the spot, as well as her cheese cake and moose sausage. UK's (aka Monkey Boy) pot of chili went down well also. I don't know how you can hike 42 miles in the Maine winter and gain weight, but I think I did.

Great trip report Twiggy!! I just have to add a story about our "3 hour tour" Sat night. Around 4 o'clock UK, Twigeater and I headed out for a little 3 mile out and back hike to Whidden (or Whitten?) Pond. The trail to the pond was broken and packed which made it an easy walk (ski for UK). However, Twigeater decided that we should make the hike into a loop and break trail on the way back.

Fair enough UK and I say. It's only 1.5 miles and still ample light out. After about a 1/2 mile or so we encounter a stream where the only access across was a log. The snow on the log was about a foot deep and beneath that nothing but ice. On top of that it was about a 5 ft drop to the stream. Hmmm, no wonder the trail was unbroken. What people in their right mind would do this? Us, naturally.

I took one step with my snowshoes and decided that was not going to work. I removed my snowshoes, used one as a shovel to clear the snow and slowly bare booted across the icy log. After 3 steps, one foot slipped and I had no choice but to jump down into the stream. Somehow, I managed to spread my legs and land my left foot on a log and the right on a rock. I screamed in delight that I did not get wet, but then thought "How the ^%$& am I going to get out of this."

I somehow managed to grab onto a tree and pull myself out onto the other side. UK very gingerly made his way across the log, while Twigeater kind of straddled and crawled across. It was kind of funny though and I wish I had gotten some pics. The real fun started soon after because it was getting pretty darn dark, and without the trail being broken, finding the blue trail blazes were getting difficult. Many times we spread out in different directions yelling things like "where are you blue?" and "blue is good" and "blue is our favorite color."

We eventually made it back to the bunkhouse in the dark, and we admitted that it really was a fun little adventure. However, we were worried that the others gave our bunks up to the hikers staying at a nearby lean-to.

It was right after that adventure that I cooked up "Bbinkley's potato surprise" that the sharks enjoyed so much. Thanks Binks!

That's enough babble for now and I'm sure I'll have more comments tomorrow when I'm rested. Pics should be up later in the week.

It was great meeting PedXing for the first time, and I'm sure glad you found your wallet. Thanks for breakfast! It was also wonderful seeing old friends again. UK and Skeetah-bait STILL act like newlyweds. Soooo cute. Ha!

Tom Terrific still is terrific and I never get tired of his stories. I just wish he'd let his son Henry get a word in once in a while. ;o)

And last but not least Twigeater, the hostess with the mostest! Thank you a 1000 times again and I can't wait for the next Maine trip.”

“I don't see any pics in that langthy report.”

“Glad ya'll had fun.

Pennsy - you're creek crossing story reminds me of one you and SirPete told me in NY.... The leap of faith! :-)

Hope to see some pics soon.”

“Wow, 270, thats a lot of photos, how much is webshots nailing you for?”

“nice report... Sounds like a blast... I am off in search of the pictures of this trip! LOL”

“Nice report, Pennsy!”

“yep sound familiar there Pennsy ole boy”

“Hi guys!

H Man and I made all our connections to
Baltimore and home.

We dragged the bodybag-size duffel into the house and its shower time for the funky.

This bunch was a hell of a lot of fun......too bad H-Man has been corrupted beyond all hope by this mob of lushes.

That woman made us eat moose!!!

"Eat moose or die suckuh!"

moose sausage
moose stew
moose oysters

I'm glad to see that Pennsy Hiker and the others made it safely through those hairy miles from Millenocket south on 95 for 30 miles or more of driving on snow with the gusting wind pitching the cars around.

The drive to Millenocket for breakfast was breath-taking with the wind blowing snow over the drifts like spray over waves.

The car in front of me would vanish in the blowing snow.

And the people I lived with for the weekend were just wonderful.

Good Night....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ”

“Unreal!! I was out for every excursion, dragged a pretty heavy sled (Huge pot of chili, not dehydrated), and had a blast. I do remember that I was extremely hungry most of the trip and thought I only ate enough to satisfy myself.”

“All this jabbering and I haven't even said a thing about the views, the clean air, the sounds of nature. I'm telling you, we forgot all about anything back in South Portland.

The first two days were just clear skies and white snow every where. The viewpoints we stopped at were just beautiful. Checking out chimney Pond and the slopes up the mountain were something else. The hike out in the snow... well I couldn't have asked for much more.

Good location, good weather, good views, good friends, good comraderie. It's all good.”

“Well, I don't know about "white snow everywhere".

I saw a lot of yellow snow!

Good thing that storm blew in on Sunday to whiten things up a bit.”

“Pennsy - you're creek crossing story reminds me of one you and SirPete told me in NY.... The leap of faith! :-) -Tarabull

LOL! I even mentioned Pete's famous leap just before venturing across. His leap was more athletic though. Mine was more like a 'fall of luck.'

best quote: "We can't go to sleep until all the beer and wine is gone." - Twigeater

Ay-yuh - this was the Sunday night post hike party around 10 after all but Twigeater, Tom T, and myself had gone to bed. We kept everyone awake til around 12:30 or 1. It wasn't TT's or my fault. We were just following orders.

2nd best quote:
"I'll dry off on the way." - Tom Terrific.

After the long hike out in the snow Sunday, our first priority was to get back to the cabin and get warm and into dry clothes. That is everybody except Tommy T who's first priority was to drive 15 miles in a snowstorm for a beer run. What a guy!

Best view: Wow, they were all great, but the views looking up at the mountain from the middle of Chimney Pond were tough to beat.

Hey Tea - I took 270 photos but that will get narrowed down to 60 for the Webshots album, unless I do a part 1 and 2. And I am not the total gear slut because I do NOT own a GPS (yet).

more later, back to work. yechhhh.”

“Heck, we risked life and limb to get that alcohol, and we were gonna drink it ALL damn it! LOL! However I was quite disappointed in the beer drinkers (and you know who you are ;) when I discovered some frozen beers on the porch in the morning! (j/k!)
I tried to take a video of the drunken bash, but all I got was black - have no idea why...hehe..

Yeah there was lots of evidence along the way of the guys "looking for that fox" lol...

I know whatcha mean about work Mr Pennsylvania Hiker...we always have staff meeting on Tuesday mornings. I generally use that time to make my to do list or trip lists. So guess what I was doing today? Planning next year's winter BSP trip - wahoo!

Ok, gotta go put up my few pics!”

“We(me) didn't quite knock off all the beers but we ate an entire moose, didn't we?

15 miles, hell!

It was 20!

each way”

“i can't wait for the pictures...”

“Yeah!

That slacker only took 270 photos?”

“Something must be wrong with webshots, I can't upload my pictures!

I keep getting this "internal service error"”

“yew got mail”

“Thanks yam!
I'll resurrect the thread to finish planning soon, and that should answer your questions.”

“Home for lunch, all I gotta say is that reality bites!!!”

“monkyeboy, are you gonna post your pics?”

“Yoo hoo... Ms Twigeater from Maine, what happened to the July Baxter trip thread?”

“Monkeys bite

What's the name of the thread, twigs?”

“And what about all that big talk about wicked fahts?

It turned out to be just a lot of hot air!”

“I can't post my pics either. I sent 3 to Phil for my pictures, as soon as I can get thru to webshots, they'll be there.”

“Wow--cool trip! I am making up picture postcards in my mind until y'all come up with some pics of your own.

I have never been to your part of the country but I really want to. I am ever so brave on a trail but I get chicken of rental cars in strange places.”

“trip

also see part 2”

“YAY for pictures! i like the ones with you guys in them the best.
:-) every time i look at someone's photos, the only ones i blow up are the people ones.”