Baxter Snow Ball trip report

“WAHOO, HIKE MAINE!

Everyone is one their way home, I wish them all safe journey...and thank everyone for driving/flying all the way up here to join me for another great trip!

Lthiker, Skiracer, Peensy (oops! lol) and Artex arrived my house Wednesday night. We ate and drank and I tortured them with DVDs about Maine until 1:30am. After much banging on the wall of the boys room to quiet the giggling, we all were soon peacefully snoring.

Day 1, Thursday
We jumped out of bed at 6:30-7am, showered, packed into two vehicles and were on our way by 8am. Stopped at Dysart's truck stop to eat a large and yummy breakfast. I fretted about the snow/no snow most of the way, thinking what I'd leave behind if I had to use my pack instead of my sled. I'd packed kinda haphazardly and had WAY TOO much stuff, even for a sled. Right up until the park entrance it looked pretty bare of snow.

However once we got to the Matagamon parking lot, we could see the road still had plenty of snow, and we loaded up the sleds.

On our way with bare boots around noonish, under an overcast sky that got darker as we went on. At the two mile mark we decided to hike Horse Mountain. We put on our snowshoes and left our sleds at the trailhead, taking our daypacks up for the 2.8 mile round trip hike.

After a while we were getting misted/sprinkled on, so Pennsy led us to an outlook not far from the summit, we enjoyed the views, and turned around.
(1 and 1/2 hours RT and 700' elevation gain)

We harnessed our sleds back up, and were on our way to Trout Brook Farm bunkhouse, arriving about 4-4:30. We moved in, started the stove, then grabbed the water jugs and headed down the half mile to the brook for water.

We ate, drank, napped, then the guys farted and played cards while I rested. It was sooooo relaxing to be away from work, in BSP, in a bunkhouse, in winter....

more to follow...”

“oh yeah, total mileage for day one, 7 miles...”

“What, girls don't fart?”

“Day 2, Friday
One nice thing about a bunkhouse is the wood stove to dry things out. We hadn't gotten toooo wet the day before, but wet enough. This one was small though, and the poor sucker who had to sleep on the top bunk deserves a medal. Or at least all of his chest hairs to pin it on. ;)

We got up, got water, made breakfast and started packing up. We were still debating wether to wait for Monkeyboy and Skeetahbait (and waiting for me to style my hair and pack my cosmetic case, LOL) when they called us on the radio and said they were about a half mile from the bunkhouse.

Once packed and all together, we headed off with bare boots around 10:30 for our 7 mile journey to South Branch Pond. It's a nice walk along Trout Brook, and not as hilly as the day before. However we knew once we got off the main perimeter road and onto the campground road (where public snowmobiling is not allowed) we'd be back to hills and using snowshoes for the first time.

As we sat having lunch at Trout Brook Crossing, the ranger arrived on snowmobile. We kinda joked about him hauling our stuff in and he said he was headed that way anyway, so we could hitch 'em up. We did, and as he took off with $10,000 worth of gear, I jokingly wondered out loud what indication he'd given that he was a ranger. It was very nice to snowshoe that 2-3 mile hill section with no sleds. On his way back through he stopped and we chatted - really a super nice guy.

We arrived to the beauty of South Branch Pond and an awesome bunkhouse around 3 or 4pm (?).
Moved in, strated a fire, hung our wet stuff and snacked.

After a bit, Pennsy, Artex and I snowshoed back to South Branch Falls and hiked that trail. It was nice, but small enough so that the frozen falls were not very impressive. Still pretty though.

After supper we got out the cards and we all joined in for a rousing game of rummy and "what's in that nalgene?" I learned to ask that question after pouring about $25 worth of scotch (that I don't drink) into my water glass. sorry ski :) Unlike the first winter trip, we had a plentiful supply of spirits.

I don't know what time we went to bed that night, but several times during the card game, I heard someone say, "wow Lt, that Chianti is GOOD" LOL...

more to follow...”

“so...I meant we'd used snowshoes for the first time on the trek in...

and Day 2 was 7 miles for some, 11 miles for others, and 10 miles for still others...”

“Day 3, Saturday
The weather for this day was predicted as 50% chance of rain, so we thought we'd only be escaping with some short hikes to avoid cabin fever.

We started off with snowshoes around 10am to the Howe Brook Trail. A 6 mile round trip, 700' elevation gain, but with some treacherous footing in places. The trail follows the falls and pools of the brook, then ends at a 20' fall. I was prepared to be disappointed since the falls the day before were completely frozen and covered with snow, but it was a beautiful hike.

The signpost at the beginning of the trail was on the ground, but since there's only two trails it wasn't hard too know which way to go. Before long, we reached the treachery - narrow trail on unsafe, slippery footing, with not huge drops to the water, but definately cold and hurtful ones.

Lthiker went right over, as did Pennsy. Monkeyboy crossed the brook to find a better way, which he was fine with, but the brook was deep enough to keep the rest of us from trying. I tried going up, but that was no good.
I didn't want to turn back, so I struggled across the narrow ledge. Skiracer and Artex followed. Skeetahbait opted not to cross at all, so she and Monkeyboy went back to the cabin and "napped" LOL...

Along the way we were to come to more treachery, and one that I really didn't want to go over. At that point, Skiracer, Artex and I put on our crampons which made the footing much more certain. We left our snowshoes behind, and even though we postholed some after that, we were glad to have our crampons on for the narrow ledges.

Along the way, we saw lots of beautiful white, blue and blue-green ice formations, some with water falling behind them. It was very beautiful and well worth the effort. We arrived the main falls around 1:20. We lunched there, and as we were getting ready to leave, the gods turned the water off in the falls. A minute too early, as the tourists hadn't left yet, LOL, so they turned them back on.

The hike out was much faster, with crampon confidence (for some) and a broken trail on our side. We were back at the bunkhouse at 3:45. A great hike, with none of the predicted rain, but I was pooped after that. The challenges of the trail were fun and interesting, but I'd had enough.

This night we played WAR! WAR! WAR! and laughed our guts out again...so glad there was no one else for miles and miles, cause that bunkhouse was rocking with the laughter and chanting!

After a few hands of two deck war, Pennsy decided to crash in a lean-to since he "wanted to get some sleep"....whatnever...LOL...

We all made our way to our own little farty snory sleepytime...

total mileage for the day - 6 rocking miles!


more to follow...”

“Oh God, tell me you didn't pour out good Scotch?”

“Good thing Pennsy got some rest. I95 is closed in Bridgeport, CT and if he hit it at rush hour he'll need it.

If you have his cell number he might want to cut over to route 15 in Milford instead of waiting.”

“Sounds fun, twiggy. Hey, I should try to get you on Yahoo tonight for some trip organizer type questions. :-)”

“Day 4, Sunday
Today we leave South Branch Pond... :(

The night had been cold, so the snow was firmed up from the mashed potato stuff we had hiked in the day before. The sky was bright blue and the temps were warm. A perfect day to hike the 11 miles back to our cars, the cabin, and the pizza and beer that awaited us.

We all tooled along at our own pace in our snowshoes, with the lead hikers waiting at points along the way. There were lots of interesting animal tracks to ponder, and we all enjoyed the day as we went.

We snacked at Trout Brook Crossing, then stopped for lunch at Trout Brook Farm bunkhouse. We horsed around there for a while, then were on our way for the last 4.2 hilly miles of our journey. Right after TBF there was a large patch of ice, then slush for a ways, then back to the mashed potato snow. It was comfortable and pleasant snowshoeing in the sun, and we continued on to our final destination.

We regrouped at the gatehouse one last time, then started off for the last mile of the trip.

I stopped at the spring by Horse Mountain to fill my camel "belly" and MB&SB and I discussed climbing some cool big rocks. We opted not to, as we knew those ahead would be waiting for us. We saw some sap buckets in the woods that had tipped over due to the melt, and I sat them upright and put the hoses back in.

I don't know what time we arrived the Matagamon parking lot. The cabin owner's son was just headed in to check the taps, hauling a boat full of buckets with his sled.

We drove over to the store at the cabins, bought some beer and said we'd be over to order pizza later.

The cabin was very nice -mattresses (even double beds) pillows, propane heat, lights and stove...couches, table...

Joe (the owner) came over to replace some mantles in the lights and we ordered our pizzas. We went over to pick them up and cleaned out his beer cooler and chip rack (just kidding) then went back to uncharitaristic silence in the cabin as we all inhaled our yummy pizzas...


We saw the resident fox, played with the star chart for a few minutes, played a very short game of rummy, then drifted off to sleepytime again...all were in bed by 11pm, a record early time. :)

11 miles this day...

today, we had coffe/tea, packed up, hit the Patten Diner for an excellent inexpensive breakfast and hit the road for our respective homes.

THE END!”

“no bit, I was apologizing to ski cause he drank all that I poured in my cup - one mutha of a drink, LOL...

I'll call him pepsi, thanks!”

“Oh, no reason to apologize for that...unless he died from it or something...”

“Sounds like a great time was had by all.

But now we can start looking forward to HIKE MAINE.”

“Day 2
We did, and as he took off with $10,000 worth of gear,
So the ranger only pulled Pennsy’s gear in.”

“Great trip report. Can't wait to see some pictures.”

“Ok lizs, I'll be on later - you must've got your PC fixed?

pepsi I called Pennsy, he said thanks! We did have a blast, and it went by so fast. The rest of the gang will add the highlights and pics soon!

good one lumberzac, LOL...”

“I can wait for the pics - there's some I can't believe I stood still for.

o(=D”

“Yeah, what Twigeater said!!!!

Those games of WAR,WAR,WAR, were something else. As we went to the out house, we could only imagine if others were camped there. We'd be keeping them up for sure!!!

What a great gang, and a great time!!!”

“Sayyyyy..... Twigeater and Pennsy, how were Skiracer and LT Hiker so aware that I can't stay awake on these trips???? I know I mentioned it, but they seemed to take delight in making me the butt of a joke they had never witnessed.... Seems some one tipped them off that I am such a light weight. And they still couldn't wake me, even as boisterous as everyone got.”

“I arrived home about 5:20 PM after a stop at L.L. Bean in Freeport. Smooth sailing all the way.

Thanks for doing the trip report, twigeater. For the record, twigeater only poured about 1/4 of the $40 bottle of Macallan into her cup. She was looking around and I saw she might be thinking about throwing it out or something. I probably startled her a bit when I said, "Don't throw that out!" It was a challange, but I didn't waste any.

Great trip, great people, great place and a great time! I'll try to get some pictures up later tonight.”

“monkeyboy, your reputation preceeds you - up at the crack of dawn, totally wired ALL day, then crash and burn at an early hour...it's a thing to witness, LOL.

Throw out alcohol? bite your tongue skiracer! I might've been looking around to see who I could con into drinking it (like Skeetah) but not throw it out. tsk, tsk...
It was good to finally meet you and hope you join us again!
PS - you did a great job with that challenge, LOL...I drop my hat to you! ;)”

“Oooooh Peensy, I just found your radio in my pack!”

“Early to bed, early to rise.....”

“First thing I did when I got home, even before unpacking the truck, was to take a nice hot shower. It felt sooo good. The car is unpacked. I ended up taking just over 200 pictures.”

“Where the heck are these pictures? ;-)”

“Holy moly, what a long day! Pepsi, thanks for the traffic tip on the I95 closing and to Twigeater and calling me on my cell. I figured 15 would be backed up since it's close to 95 so I went the 84 route. Well, it was an absolute nightmare from Hartford and thru Danbury and I just got home.

I'll post more tomorrow night but what a super weekend. Thanks again to Twigeater for organizing yet another fantastic Manine trip. Pics should be up hopefully by Wednesday night, but in the meantime some hilights include:

Twigeater's seafood stir fry is to die for.
Chili should be banned on all future Maine trips.
There is a new sheriff in town as LtHiker ousts Artex as the new fart king.
Artex tosses his cookies.
Why did Pennsy show off his chest hair?
Why did LtHiker rip off a handfull?
Why is Twigeater saving it?
Riding sleds on the downhills is way cool.
Maine is paradise.

Nighty night.... stay tuned for details.”

“Twiggy, I got on late and musta just missed ya. Dang.....”

“Starting to post pics....

coming soon...”

“We Need Pictures!”

“Sounds like a great trip...

Can't wait to see pics!”

“Pictures!
Pictures!
Pictures!”

“(the crowd chants)
WE WANT PICTURES!
WE WANT PICTURES!”

“wow, lucky Twiggy with all those boys! LOL! sounds like a blast...PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!”

“but do we realy want to see artex hairy chest?”

“Sounds like a great trip - yes, pictures please.”

“Pennski is a chest-shaver?

From West Virginia to Maine in one week!

lumberzac, that was a good one about the ranger hauling only Pennsy's gear!

I see no problem with having chili on one of these trips.
Just take a canary with ya......not a Norwegian Blue!”

“I didn't take a lot of pictures, but they'll be up soon!”

“Dang, Pennsy and Artex.......together again.....and I missed it!”

“OK, to satisfy the picture hungry crowd, I've posted a few pictures of the trip.

A few of Skiracer's pics.”

“...more pictures to follow.”

“Sounds like you all had a blast.”

“Holy Moley! That's a LOT of crap on those sleds! How the heck do you handle all that?

And what's with the T-shirt wearing with snow all around? ;-)
I would have been freezing my a$$ off.”

“Ah, FYAO.........



Can't wait 'til next winter!”

“I haven't finished with my captions, but Internet access is slow today...

pics”

“FYAO, I'll be there.”

“Stovestomper, I think you might have answered your own question. It got up into the 40's a couple of days and hauling those sleds, especially uphill, was work.”

“those ARE some insane sleds! very cool.

Artex looks like a beach bum! :-)”

“OK twiggy, what's the story behind this picture? ;-)”

“Great pics so far.”

“That 70s show?
So is that Eric, Hyde or Fez?”