Baxter Trip

“Nesowadnehunk bunkhouse, last hurrah of the BSP winter season. I think it's a five mile trip in, and I'm hoping to hike Doubletop which has awesome views of Katahdin.

Everyone bailed on me for this trip, so I've got 3 spots available, $32/each for the two nights. I'd say they were fully paid, but I'm on the hook for the whole thing.
Guess I should've kept one of those "kick me" stickers for rmyself! =D”

“Yikes... you need to either need to get the money up front or start being a capatilist (i.e. get something for risking your money).

I emailed my g.f. on this... we were talking about tenting it in the Whites. She probably needs to be back too early on Sunday to make BSP doable.”

“I KNOW! ~>:( stupid me.

Usually I do get $$ up front, but not this time.

I posted the trip on views from the top as well.”

“Yup... I was going to suggest it, but had the brilliant idea of checking to see if you had.”

“How deep is your snow?

Wasn't that a Bee Gee's song?”

“I dunno - maybe BSP will cancel the trip on account of mud.
(fat chance, lol!)

BSP called last week to tell me that we can't park on the side of the road. If the plowed parking lot is full, we have to shovel a spot for the cars.

Where's Mr Pennsylvania Hiker and his trusty shovel when ya need him! =D”

“The Shuvluh?”

“Wellll.... I can send you the shovel, but the shoveler probably won't make the trip. My guess is you're looking for the laborer instead of the tool, eh?”

“I can't do it.... can't leave early enough on Friday start (let alone finish) the five miles into the bunkhouse in daylight. (but this will put the thread back up)”

“Well now Pennsy, what good is the tool without the laborer??? ;) Actually since I shovel my dooryard all winter, one little parking space is no biggie. Plus I've got 4wd so who cares anyway!

Too bad pedxing, but thank-you! I'd say do it in the dark, but I have no clue where I'm going.

I've still got a coupla other bites before I break BSP law and trek in on my own. Should I confess when I get caught or not? (I've never been a good liar) hehe...”

“Hey! Some other TT'ers gotta go on this trip - so those of us who can't make it can live vicariously!”

“Wahoo!
I twisted monkeyboy and skeetah bait's arms so much they finally cried uncle, lol!”

“Our snow is gone.....how's your's.”

“Nee-deep”

“?”

“I still have snow at my house although it's suppose to disappear today.

Millinocket is supposed to get 5" of snow today and tonight.”

“pics

=D”

“This trip started out very uneventful, just like the S.S. Minnow. And strangley enough lasted a little over 3 hours....

We were all set to go in, pack loaded, new gear to try out, BBinkley's potato surprise. We had our snow shoes, cross country skiis, gear sleds. I mean, we were all stoked and hot to do it.

We get to the trail head, which is a closed old gate road to the park, and as such, is not shown on any BSP maps. The Gazateer shows it, but we don't want to carry that big old thing in. We take one last look at it and start in on a 5 mile trip.

We decicde the skiis are useless and don't bring them, or the gear sleds either. The snow is pretty cruddy. We start out in our hiking boots and get a couple hundred feet and put our snow shoes on. It is a clear night, great for stargazing, but no moon.

As we go in, we are hoping to see a sign where trails converge. We see one, which basically says this is a sign placed by the U.S. government, under the auspices of some department. I'm not kidding you, the sign tells us nothing.

As we go in, everything seems right, we cross a few bridges and cross trails; and then we come to a fork in the trail. Twigeater is singing "a three hour tour". And none of us remember the fork in the trail. We pull out the BSP map, and we can't be sure. We also can't see Doubletop. Turns out there were some other mountains blocking the view, besides there are trees lining the trail and it's dark out.

The hiking is somewhat strenous, it's dark out, the wind has a cold damp bite and we are wearing t-shirts to fight back the sweating.

We look at the watch, consider how tough the hiking is, and decide to go til the 2 hour mark and see if we see anything, or feel better about the trail being the right way. No one has a tent with them as we had planned to use the cabin. The snow is pretty cruddy and getting deeper and harder to traverse. And rain is forecast for the next day, which will only make hiking tougher.

At the 2 hour mark, we reconsider. We think we are on the right trail, but we are not sure. The vote goes 3 ways, keep going, turn back, and which ever we decide is fine with me..... We decide that if we are on the right trail, it will be tough and wet tomorrow and Sunday. If we are on the wrong trail, it's only going to get longer coming out. Besides if we give it up, we can always come back again.

We would rather regret turning back, than regret not turning back. And with all the uncertainty and the weather forecast... A hotel room, pizza and beer sound pretty good about now.

What took us 2 hours to go in, only takes 1 1/2 hours to get out. Amazing what a difference certainty makes.

We got a hotel, beer and pizza. They have a pool and a hot tub!!! But it's closed. We go over and ask, and the desk guy won't bend the rules, even after I offered to let Twigeater skinny dip.

We chat til midnight, decide, when perusing the map that we were probably on the right trail. Oh well. We are up a little after 7, the pool's open, and we are enjoying breakfast and all the amenities.

This trip reminds me of those ski trips that we take. Every now and then, you plan, pack, drive forever to get there, and the wind shuts the lifts down, or it's too icy, and you can't do what you came to do. When you go this often, sometimes it happens. We do feel better about turning back, in that you won't read about us having to be rescued.

Oh yeah, we gotta teach Twigeater a new song. Help me out here, we want one with lots of bravado, about conquest, and klimbing to the highest heights...LOL

It wasn't what we planned, but still some good times and fun memories.”

“O Lord, please don't burn us.
Don't grill or toast Your flock.
Don't put us on the barbecue
Or simmer us in stock.
Don't braise or bake or boil us
Or stir-fry us in a wok.
Oh, please don't lightly poach us
Or baste us with hot fat.
Don't fricassee or roast us
Or boil us in a vat,
And please don't stick Thy servants, Lord,
In a Rotissomat.”

“What an interesting trip this was....LOL :) Just like monkey boy said, we really wanted to get to the cabin, but I'd rather make it out on my own accord than have to be rescued and have it read in the paper how three hikers weren't prepared. After all at least two of the three are experienced hikers. Guess you gotta know when to say when. Funny I had another vision going through my mind on the way in....

I kept thinking Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!!(Oz) Especially after I saw these footprints in the snow that were huge....Monkey boy said that was probably a moose and I thought oh *#it, I don't wanna run into one of those in the middle of the night. The further in we went the darker it was getting. OOOHHH

When we arrived at the fork in the road it reminded me of the part of OZ when they saw the sign saying "if I were you I'd turn back now". Monkey boy suggested to check out each section and told us for one go this way, and one go the other, and I said what am I supposed to do? He says I could just wait here.....ha, ha, ha, funny I said I'm not staying here by myself, so I went w/Twigeater to keep her company. :) Can't help it, I guess I've got a wild imagination, if I had to be one of the characters in the Wizard of Oz, I'd have to be the Cowardly Lion. I'm not saying what Twigeater said who she is, she can tell you. We know who Monkey boy is...... :)

Anyway all in all it was a lotta fun!!! Now I can say I've hiked at night and survived(LOL). Well I guess we'll just have to go back and do it again.”

“I saw Twigeater's pics late night before the trip reports were posted and thought "Damn, Twigster never told me about that sweet Baxter cabin."

Hey Monkeyboy - that hike sounds quite familiar, don't it? ;o)

You made the right decision to turn back, especially since you did not have a shelter. I'm glad you still had fun, although I am dissapointed at the post hike party pic. Only ONE pizza, ONE six pack with 3 unopened bottles, and what's with the can of ice tea?? You needed Tommy T and me there for a REAL post hike party. ;o)

Mmmmmmmm Dysarts, now I am hungry!”

“Ok, my song on the next trip will be "Lion's and Tiger and Bears, oh my" lol...(sorry skeetah, hehe)
The trip was great fun even if we didn't make our intended destination - great company, great night outside, great fun!

My plan was to arrive in plenty of time ahead of monkeyboy and skeetah to scope out the trailhead. I had a good idea of where we were going, but didn't expect it to be totally unmarked. So we parked at my best guess according to the map.

While on the trail the best I could do was "I'm quite sure this is probably the right way." I kicked myself a bunch of times for not tearing the page outta the gazeteer like I usually do. We came to several other logging roads, which is normal, and often many of them aren't on the maps anyway. However, we came to one definite fork in the road and I started to feel like this wasn't the best idea - I'd never live it down with BSP - no map, no emergency overnight gear, unfamiliar trail in the dark, oh yeah, I'd hear about that, lol!

We disucssed our options and split up to check out the trails. We dicussed a bunch of things - since it was so tough going (mashed potato snow that was getting progressively deeper) would we have enough energy to make it out when we decided to turn around? What kind of time were we really making? Were we even on the right trail? Monkeyboy was for going forward, skeetah was for going back, and I was the idiot who didin't bring the map, so I didn't vote. :) We push on for a while. Then I piped up with how much the snow was gonna suck on our way out on Sunday after two days of rain, and we practically did an about face - one thing we all agreed on was that it would be a tough, nasty hike.

The hike out was a lot of fun, we stopped often to look at the stars in the clear night sky, and monkeyboy pointed out Orion's belt to us. I swear you never heard three people cheer so loud when we arrived at the cars, or groan so loud when we dropped the packs. I declared that that measily three or four hours was tougher than the 13 miles into Roaring Brook or the hike up Whiteface.

So we headed back to town and got a room at the Katahdin Inn. Nice place! I finally talk monkeyboy and skeetah into swimming, and the pool's closed! When monkeyboy offered my skinny dipping up as incentive for the desk guy to open the pool for us, I knew we'd NEVER get in, lol.

I popped outta bed at 7:30am, and headed for the pool to give the honeymooners some time alone. They arrived shortly after, and we spent a few hours alternating between the pool, the hot tub, and the continental breakfast.

We packed up, and after some smart remark about the red lights on the back of my car, they followed me to Dysart's where we had a yummy meal, then headed off for home.

Nesowadnehunk awaits us another day!”

“Pennsy, that can of tea was mine, I don't do beer and they didn't sell vodka, though they did sell orange juice. Very familiar trip, yeah!

Oh my, I forgot about those glowing red lights on the back of Twigeater's Suzuki. They mean one of two things: Either we have arrived, or it is really, really bumpy!!! LOL. That girl can fly, and makes me look like a sane driver!

Nesa-wah-ha-ha-non-dunk-it....we'll be back!!!

Oh my, such fun on an aborted trip!!!!”

“Hey! they've been fun "three hour tours!" Pretty soon I won't be able to get anyone to follow me - on the trail or the road! =D

For all skeetah's talk about being the cowardly lion, she certainly is a good sport - I didn't know it was her first night hike, she didn't hesitate one bit!”

“How 'bout 99 bottles of beer on the wall? :-) Gotta be worse than the 3 hour.”

“Y'all did the right thing. I'm glad you are all back, safe and sound (or at least as sound as you were before the trip!) - and able to hike another day!”

“Okay, so I'm an adventurous(curious?) cowardly lion? Even these 3 hour tours are fun!”

“I gotta admit tho' - its just as well I couldn't make it. Even though y'all had a great time - and it would have been great to see you, I prolly woulda been more bummed over getting only a 3 hour tour because I would have kept thinking about my 12 hours of driving (round trip).

Anywho - thanks for the report and the pics.”

“I love to go a-wandering
Along the mountain track,
And as I go,
I love to sing
My knapsack on my back

Valdaree, valdarah, valdaree,
Valdarah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Valdaree, valdarah
My knapsack on my back

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun
So joyously
It calls to me
"Come join my happy song."

Valdaree, valdarah, valdaree,
Valdarah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Valdaree, valdarah
My knapsack on my back

I tip my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me
The blackbird call
So load and sweet
From every greenwood tree

Valdaree, valdarah, valdaree,
Valdarah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Valdaree, valdarah
My knapsack on my back

High overhead the Skylark wings
He never stays at home
And just like me,
He loves to sing
As over the world he roams

Valdaree, valdarah, valdaree,
Valdarah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Valdaree, valdarah
My knapsack on my back

Oh may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die
Oh may I always
Laugh and sing
Beneath God's clear blue sky

Valdaree, valdarah, valdaree,
Valdarah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Valdaree, valdarah
My knapsack on my back


(repeat ad nauseam until a homocide ensues -- which really shouldn't take very long)”

“repeat ad nauseam until a homocide ensues

Quick! Somebody shoot Tilt before he posts another verse!


Valdarah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.... I'm probably gonna be singing that ALL day tomorrow. I pity the fools in my path.”

“great song Tilt - if I knew the tune I'd sing it next time!

Ped - yeah we were bummed too, but I hope you know that I'd never take off half cocked like we did if people were coming from away. I truly appreciate the time and money that people like you invest in coming here to hike, and want you all to keep coming back! :)
(not that monkeyboy and skeetah bait aren't just as special, lol)

We could've hiked in for Saturday night, but chose not to - and with the weather we've had today, I'm glad I wasn't in Millinocket! =D”

“I think you did the right thing and stayed safe - and why throw good time after bad hiking in just because you have reservations. The weather was awful in Northern NE... I cancelled my plans to backpack myself.

It all goes to show how lucky we were with the weather last time!”

“Since I was gonna be in Millinocket Saturday morning, I decided to do a recon trip to see just what was up on that failed winter tour. I tried to con monkeyboy and skeetah to join me for revenge, but they couldn't make it.

I packed my backpack, thinking that even though I'd heard the road was still driveable, I'd be hiking in the ~5 miles to BSP. Well that is one of the most beautiful woods roads I've ever seen - way better than the BSP roads - and I'da felt silly walking it, so I decided to drive as far as I could. Then when it turned to much less of a road, I wanted to see how far I could go.

A moose ran off into the woods along the way, I passed the campsite at Williams Pond, and parked. I threw on my pack and in 10 minutes there was the ranger station!

No ranger around, so I dropped my pack, thinking I'd hike and then leave, when mr. ranger comes running out of the crew camp asking if he can help me, blathering on about how he was trying to eat lunch. I was kinda thrown by his attitude, so I asked if he had a site available. He did, but I didn't have enough money, so I had to go back to my car. He asked where I came from and I pointed "over there" and that I'd run back out and get more money. I really didn't want to stay over, but he made such a point of telling me I'd interrupted his lunch and all that I felt kinda rude.

So I ran out, got some money, another book and an orange, and went back to see mr. ranger. This is where I got 20 questions, like did I know there was another Nesowadnehunk campground, and was I maybe in the wrong place. I replied Yes, I knew that, and No, I meant to come here. It appeared that he and his buddies had decided I was a nut. =D

Anyway I ate my orange while he called headquarters to see what sites were available. He did the usual "have you been here before" I replied yes, and normally that is the end of it, BUT since I was a NUT, I got the ENTIRE BSP rule and reg speil, right down to "what did you bring to treat your water with?" and 10pm is quiet time! LOL...
Oh yes, he also looked pointedly as my orange peel as he went through the carry-in, carry-out and only burn paper policies.

So I went off to my site feeling very inadequate as a human being, even in my dreams...I dreamt I dialed 911 to report an intruder in my house and the 911 operator asked if I was sure I hadn't just invited friends over...

Anyway mission accomplished! we were on the right road in March, but I couldn't figure out how far we made it in, since there were so many roads to the left that looked alike. I had a great hike the next day as well.

pics”

“Is that backboard "strategically pre-positioned"?

Great pics!”

“Thanks for the pics !!”

“Nice photo of the baby twigeater!”

“Yeah, that backboard made me nervous AND the straps were duct tape! I'd like to see the rafts go through there sometime.

Also, anybody know what that red stuff in my tent was? I thought it was dust, but it moved!”

“Wasn't he cute! I almost missed him taking pictures of the stumpage.”

“That place looks a bit different than I remember it!

And that blonde on the rocks ain't wearin' near as much as the last time I seen her!”

“No snow, lol! I was almost wearing even less, it was so freakin' hot!

Last week a 16 year old boy died on Katahdin from dehydration. I think that's really why the ranger was so stern in his water lecture.”

“Were you able to hold your water during that interminable water lecture?

Or did you need a potty break in the middle of it?”

“Awesome pics! Great one of the moose ("handsome"), I may have to use that one as wallpaper.

I want to come back to Maine! I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back!”

“Delta's ready when you are!

Regrets to all involved. Damn manic state...”

“well, get yer butt back up here!
You need to come on the Isle au Haut trip and then you'll have "KAYAK MAINE!" fever as well! :)”

“Twigeater, I just looked at the trips page and realized that we are supposed to be on the ferry to Isle de Haut on Tuesday. Are we on the island for four nights after that and come off on Saturday?

Oh and that dream about the 911 call was hilarious. Too bad the ranger thought that you were a nut. Didn't you tell him that you practically live at Baxter?”

“Dang, that airfare's cheap. Now, if only I could get the time off work!”

“Hey Twig. Nice report... very funny account of the Ranger and the dream.”

“Lyndy, we can go on/off the island anytime between Monday and Friday. However, we must leave by or on Saturday.

The plan is to go on the island either Monday or Tuesday. The idea was to give the Katahdin bound two chances to do the mountain in case we got bad weather. I'm still not sure how we're going to let you know which day we are arriving. Are you driving up?

I wonder if the ranger will remember me if he sees me on the 12th when I drop my car off. :)”

“"Too bad the ranger thought you were a nut."

Ha ha ! !

That's funny!!”