Uphillklimber and Skeetah Bait's excelle nt klimb

“What a klimb! Our first since the winter BSP hike/ski in March. This was a warm up, see how we fare klimb to prepare for Katahdin in a couple weeks.

We took the Piper Trail off the Spaulding highway. 82 degrees and humid, but quite breezy! 4.5 miles up to an elevation of about 3400' or so. The first 3 miles took us an hour and 15 minutes. The last 1.5 miles were to take an hour. 4 1/2 miles in 2 1/4 hours, a respectable 2 mph uphill. Okay, that was with a light load. Surprisingly, downhill took 5 minutes longer, with the skeeters chasing us tha last mile. Hence my old name, uphillklimber.....

Okay, those were the techincal aspects. Let's talk the fun in it now! We klimbed up and saw quite a bit of exposed rock on the way up on the neighboring ridges. A few chipmunks scurried around by us. 3 miles up is a viewpoint that sorely tempted us to just stay there. And the clouds were rolling in. We were sweating pretty good, and the breeze felt good. We headed up to the top, and it was fine for SB... until we were 50 feet from the top. I had to cajole her to complete the journey, whilst she took a firm hold of my hand.

At the top, we munched some cookies, goldfish and the granola bars, everything we brought with us. The wind was blowing at a good clip and drying us off. There were, perhaps, 20 people there. After a half hour, we had to bundle up, or start moving. Since it was mid afternoon, we opted to head back down. But first, we had to negotiate the scairry part. All the time, she has a firmer grip on my hand and promising me that I'd never... well you know... again.... Right after that short section, we head down. The steady downhill is taxing to our knees and her quads. She finds a staff, but since she is supposed to be resting her shoulder (which is why we are not kayaking or biking) she asks me to take it for a fire poker tonite. It spares my knees quite a bit of turmoil.

On the way down, we pass 2 groups heading up to spend the night in the shelters. They inquire of the conditions before heading on.

At the State campsite, after a dip in the lake, we eat ravenously, and soon consume all we have brought for the night, then break out pretzels and cheese. We start a fire at quarter of 8, and it is getting dark. I am out before 8:15 and waken to ask her how she is doing. She grunts at me, so I douse the fire and we crawl into the tent. So glad we had a fire.....

It rains most of the night, we awaken to a fairly dry period, pack up, shower (it was a sticky night) and head to North Conway, where our credit card take a powerful hit on ski gear and new snowshoes for Skeetah Bait. She should fare better this coming winter in the shorter snowshoes.

All in all, a great hike, and confidence builder. Nice cookout and shopping for gear trip!”

“Humidity everywhere!

Prepping for Hike Maine!!!
NICE!”

“I was pretty psyched about this trail...well almost....just at the very top was kinda scary for me. I really, really hate being near the edge. But trying to be a good sport and really wanted to say I was at the top. I took MB's hand and continued up, telling him the whole time he was (or more like myself)gonna be sorry for this. Going up's not so bad, it's the looking down or not, is the hard part for me. It was only for a short distance. Anyway enough of that crying.

I have to say this waw a very enjoyable trail for us. A lot of the trail was like a huge stairmaster with all the rocks set up like stairs. I knew I'd pay more for it than MB seeing where he has a more physical job than I do. There were also some areas with fairly even terrain. Near the beginning of the trail we crossed the stream at least three times over man made bridges, where we stopped to refresh going up, but only once coming down. About 2/3 the way up at a scenic outlook there were some blueberries that we picked just a few. Also at the scenic view looked like someone had made camp with a small fireplace. What a great place for an overnighter. This was a good workout to get ready for the climb to Katahdin. BTW, I did not grunt at MB, I just agreed after I had a beer was about to fall alsleep myself.”

“Sounds like you had a great hike!

I did mt coocooracha in winter, can you sing "in and out the window" LOL...
I almost drowned in Mt Blue state park this weekend (car camping with the kidlets) and then again tonight leaving a bar (I lost my credit card down the sewer in the process, LOL) and am home "drying out" now.

=)”

“Sounds like a nice trip. I can't wait to see you guys for the BSP trip. One item of note-I have a foot problem that I hope will be resolved by Hike Maine III. I'm headed to the doc tomorrow to see what he thinks. If the trip were tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to go. Wish me luck!”

“moneyboy, i'll be coming up that way in sept and could use some4 help with some canoeing suggestions. we usually do the saco but would really like to do something different this time around. will be in vt,nh and me.thanks”

“Nice report, gload you both had a good hike.”

“Cyndee, probably the nicest trip I ever took was a couple years ago, in Bethel, Maine. They took us up stream and we drifted back down to the supplier. Very uncrowded. But basically, we just drop in at interesting looking places and find a true wonderland!

It would be good to get a couple vehicles together and spotting a vehicle at the end of the trip works real well.”

“Chocura was my first "real" mountain. I climbed it at age 5. Haven't climbed it since, but have driven by dozens and dozens of times in the past 34 years.”