Camp Across Maine

Day 4

Day four broke as another gorgeous day and we rose early for our ascent up Puzzle Mountain.  We had maybe a mile to hike and and the uphill began to feel a bit easier...or maybe it was the knowledge that it would be followed by almost 3 miles of downhill that made it seem bearable.  Puzzle Mountain was different than the other mountains we summited.  Instead of a clear, distinguishable peak with a marker, Summit Mountain was topped by several Appalachian Trail Survey Markers pounded into various boulders.  

Looking out over the shorter Bald and Stowe Mountains we would hike over later in the day.

The two humps in the middle of the picture were Bald Pate and East Bald Pate with Long Mountain standing somewhere between where we had started and where we now stood. 

Yesterdays hike.

A view of Old Speck Mountain and what would be our final ascent. L to R, Sunday River Whitecap, little hump of Slide Mountain, Old Speck, West Baldpate, and East Baldpate.    

Dave and I had decided to skip a hot breakfast (really, I couldn't take anymore oatmeal, bleh) so we breakfasted on nuts, dried berries, and granola bars at 8:30 atop Puzzle Mountain.  We attempted to check in by cell phone, but, although we could look below and see the road we had driven in to the Grafton Notch State Park, and although we were quite high with incredible visibility, our reception was rather spotty.  We hung out for about 30 minutes, resting, eating breakfast, enjoying the view, and attempting some photographs.

 Yeah, you try setting the timer and hopping across boulders!

 AT Survey Marker pounded into the boulder at 10:00 to my boots.   

Moving on, Puzzle Mountain had a descent of about 3 miles down to the road and the first mile consisted of hiking down boulders and small scrub passages leading to more views.  About forty five minutes later we stopped at "the Ledges" for one of our last views before heading into tree line.  It doesn't look like we've descended much as the photo angles are pretty much the same, but we could look up the hill behind us and tell we were making progress.  Also, the clouds appeared higher and the colors below became more saturated.  

 A nice, shady ledge.

Heading down the next two miles we began to pass day hikers heading up to Puzzle Mountain for a Saturday hike.  I feel like I asked each one, "when did you leave the parking lot?" The road-trips equivalent of, "how much further???"  Finally, we hit the road around 11:00 with the sun blazing hot above us. 0.6 miles along the road we had driven in to Grafton Notch Park trying to stay in the shade and saying hello to a lady with goats and a child trying to coax a German Shepherd through a hoop into a baby pool.  Oh, I wish I'd begged her for a diet pepsi as that's what I was craving at that point! Iodinized water was becoming a thing I only craved after intense heat and activity...

We re-entered the trail plowing our way across an open field to a large river crossed by a snowmobile bridge.

The weather was hot and the water looked inviting so we decided to take our lunch down to the stream. I had great intentions of bathing in the water but, stripped down to my underwear I found the water much too cold and satisfied myself with a dip up to the waist.  I sat on a rock and Dave said, "Uh, you might want to stand up." "Why?" I said. "Nevermind. No reason," he responded. "No. Why?" I could sense something was up.  "Nevermind." I began to scan my surroundings and to my horror there was giant water spider the size of my giant palm sitting on the boulder right next to me! I shrieked, threw myself to the water and managed to get to David without submerging myself in the frigid stream. "What the hell! Why didn't you tell me! Where is it? Where is it now?" Did I mention spiders make me hyperventilate and behave irrationally? Especially super large ones? I can handle little wispy spiders and have been known to pick up granddaddy long legs but these meaty ones or giant ones quite literally take my breath away!  His defense was, "well, I thought it would just go on by you so I decided not to tell you." Jerk!  Hahaha!  I succeeded in cleaning my underwear and returned to my clothes...my underwear hanging to dry off the back of my pack.

That rock Dave is standing on is where I met my nemesis the water spider. 

Back on the bridge I had to re-duct-tape my feet and was again assaulted by three wolf-spiders of increasing size. Each time they approached me I had to jump up from the planks I was sitting on and finally I had to throw myself down in the dirt to complete the job so we could be on our way.  The trail followed snowmobile trails through the sun until we finally returned to the trail and the cool, cool woods where we found the trail crisscrossed a gorgeous moss-covered stream uphill for a couple miles and an elevation change of 2000 or so feet.  At this point we met and were surpassed by a guy we grudgingly called "Speedy Gonzalez" because he carried a light pack and trekking poles and surpassed us very quickly.  He asked where we were going and we said to the Sergeant Brooks Campground a few miles ahead.  His response?  "I was planning on going further, but it is hot...." He passed and we stared at each other reassuring ourselves that HE probably hadn't hiked in from the Stuart Campground but had picked up the trail at the road....plus he had big calves and wasn't carrying 50 pounds like us!  Right.  We continued on along the stream which occasionally yielded beautiful little swimming pools or slip-n-slide like sections that seemed a cruel and taunting message to drop our packs and go for a swim. We hiked on. 

I have to admit, the energy I'd had earlier in the day yielded to a lazy urge in me to stop and break every five minutes at this point.  After eleven miles or so we finally arrived at our campground, complete with bear box to put our food in and settled in for the night to rest our weary bones.  Oh, and "Speedy Gonzalez" was there with his tent long before us.  Only two more days to go with two more incredible views up ahead! 

Continued...

So day three continued...we hiked along the edges of clear cuts and for the first time our uphill and downhill climbs were mixed with the glorious change of a flat terrain.  The day was hot if we were out in the sun and the water became more scarce.  When I had one water bottle left full of water we passed over the most beautiful stream and my desire to carry less weight had to war with the desire to carry enough water.  

And so we hopped over this beauty....of course the guide warned us the quality was debatable...

though that didn't make it any less beautiful. This was the most water we'd seen in days.  (aside from all the rain water coursing down the mountains)

So Dave led the way across....as he had the day before when we crossed countless streams of a much larger and rougher size when my camera was in my pack.

Oh, the water I would long for later....

 and so we continued on up hill...the path disappeared as we headed uphill and Dave had to do a little reconnaissance mission to determine where the blue swatches met up with the orange tape.  At this point the path became quite ambiguous with the easier direction obviously following the orange tape and the blue paint swatches disappearing.  Dave ventured a few yards up each trail and returned to assure me that, although the blue trail was bug, tree, and mud infested, it appeared to meet up with the orange trail towards the top of the hill.  We decided to follow the orange tape path.  It was wider and clearer with slight switchbacks.  Good decision.

 I really enjoyed the sights of nature growing in almost impossible situations such as this tree that seemed to sit its elephantine legs atop a boulder.

 And 
and the trail continued upward in typical prehistoric Maine forest fashion.  Can't you picture a T-rex jumping out of all of these ferns?

 And so....we ended the night at Stuart Campsite, halfway up Puzzle Mountain.  The bugs were the worst we'd seen so far however the amazing nature had some surprises.  Dave was taking the trail that led to water and I was trying to decide whether to follow or not.  I finally decided to call out to him and he calmly told me to be quiet and catch up.  Next to the path through the ferns, a female moose had arisen, flushed, out of the ferns and stood next to our path to the water.  I caught up and we stared warily as she faced away from us and flapped her ears at the hoards of flies and mosquitoes.  Should we continue on 20 feet to her left and follow our trail down to the river? Dave has had many moose experiences including a very close encounter with a moose that seemed to be diseased as the thing came right up to his vehicle on Stud Mill Road.  We were also aware of her strength if she were somewhat crazy or if she had some foal somewhere that we just hadn't spied.  We decided to venture towards water and she shied a bit and ran around a clump of trees, surprisingly, returning to her original position.  I suggested maybe she had a foal hidden in the ferns and was trying to throw us off by pretending to run away.  We ventured forwards again and this time she took off again, a cloud of flies and mosquitoes following midseconds behind her like the cloud surrounding that dirty Peanuts character, and then she crashed off into the woods...back towards our camp.  She seemed to come towards us a few times and we prepared to disperse, but she never reappeared again, deciding to give up her little glen for a safer place.  Dave continued downhill to water but I was too blistered and worn out and headed back to camp.

Back at camp we retreated from the bugs and I began to assess my own personal damages.  Blisters covered in duct tape? 

check!

Flies and mosquitoes knocking on the door?

  Check!

I joked with Dave, "check out that cross! God has blessed our journey!"

 
 check!

and we decided it was time to check in with self-portraits.

by the way....this pack I wore managed to maim my hips as well...I think I still have scars!

and so I took a long nap and woke only to eat some food. Lovely Dave gathered me water from 300 yards away and I worked on maintaining my strength ( God, I was exhausted) for our longer hike the next day.

By the way....lots of moose prints and poops throughout the campground.  I'm pretty sure our earlier sighting had also passed through the camp after we spooked her!  

Day 3

Day 3 broke sunny and beautifully.  We slept in a bit because our next campsite would be a short 4.5 mile hike.  We would have loved to go farther, but the distance to the following campground would have required a days hike of about 16 miles and I just wasn't up for that!  

A 1.1 mile hike took us to the top of Long Mountain which was really more of a pass through the short, dense pine forests that make up the tree line of some of the taller peaks.  We did take a short side trip to an overlook that had some of the best views we had seen so far (being shrouded in rain the day before!)

Looking back over the previous two days of hiking.

A view of Puzzle Mountain, which we peaked on Day 4 and would camp half way up tonight. 

Being freed from rain, I kept my camera out for the rest of our hike and attempted some photos that would show the type of terrain we were passing through.  Unfortunately, the emerald mosses and fairy-like appearances are lost in some of the pictures and appear bleached-out by the sun.  At least I still have the right colors in my memories.

Because the trails are relatively new, and not as busy as the AT, we came across a LOT of downed trees; some had been chopped and were mostly clear of the path while others forced a new trail to be made.

At this point I tried to catch up on some of our trail-side friends that had been along with us the entire journey so far.  Groundcover that looked like mini Dogwood Tree flowers, greens that yielded the occasional Lady's Slipper, ferns (tons of ferns), moose tracks, and moose poop.  In fact, there were so many tracks and piles, it began to feel like we were following a moose trail.  It wasn't clear if the trail was made following paths well-traversed by moose or if the moose just appreciated the wider trails that had been created and stuck to the paths.  

 

   
 
Dave kept telling me it wasn't fresh. We did find one pile roughly pyramid shaped which he said was the freshest we had come across as the longer it lies out, the more it unclumps.  

Rather hard to photograph a moose print.  For reference I wear a size 11 shoe.  

More to follow from Day 3 including an interesting encounter at our campsite....  

Day 2

Day 2 we woke up to rain, ate breakfast in rain, packed up in rain, and took off up Baldpate Mountain in the rain.  I was learning to enjoy the feeling of being wet and cold as my rain jacket quickly reached its saturation point.

Dave appeared to take it all in stride. You can't just be a fair-weather outdoorsman (woman), but must embrace all climates. 

As we began our ascent, I was shocked to hike up smooth granite pathways.  The paths were so well traversed that the granite base of the mountain was exposed as we hiked up what seemed to be narrow, granite-based streams, that were sometimes at an angle of 70 degrees or so.  Climbing out onto Baldpate summit, Dave and I remarked that our brother Carter, who is afraid of heights, would have been paralyzed by fear from the shear elevation, angle of ascent, and slick surface.  The entire surface was granite.  In fact, I found the surface quite slick and frightening and did not trust my treads to stick to the rocky surface in the rain.  My fears inevitably slowed our hike.  We survived the climb, of course, but could not enjoy the views as we were completely engulfed in clouds for the entire summit.  I really wish I'd had my camera out at that point as it felt like we were the only people in a world of fog and rocks, but between the rain and the steep ascent I was too afraid to juggle a camera so I had to settle for a few shots after we summited Baldpate and were traversing the ridges and open areas towards East Baldpate.  

 

You might begin to notice a pattern....Dave is well ahead of me in pretty much every photograph!

   

Around noon we arrived at Lightning Ledge, a name which seemed appropriate for although we were not hiking through a thunderstorm, the weather could not have been more isolating and dismal.  At Lightning Ledge we managed a phone call out to Mom to alert her that our progress was going to be VERY slow and we would be out of the woods a day later than expected, so a call to the State Police or Parks Services would not be needed if we failed to emerge from the woods on the anticipated day!

Says Dave, "this is very 'Last of the Mohicans."

Says Ellie, "Can we do a photo where it looks like I'm jumping into the abyss?" The answer is "no" and the resulting photo made me look like a constipated slouch so we retook it for the photo above.  

We continued through the rain, semi-shielded from heavy downpours by tree-cover (although *hint* if you grab a wet sapling, you will receive a shower) and found sun light and glimpses of a view through the trees at about 3:00 pm that afternoon.  We made our way to Town Corner Campsite (a total days hike of about 9 miles) and proceeded to hang most of our wet things (including the tent) out to dry.  Unfortunately, we had no spare dry clothes so some clothing had to dry on our bodies. Dave found a bit of a laundry line hanging from a tree....

 

Dave's lucky I don't have a photo featuring his underwear hanging from the line.

...and I resorted to hanging my assorted garments from branches.

Yes, that's my underwear among the brightly colored bandanas, socks, t-shirt, and pant legs!

It was at this point that I began to notice all of the moose tracks and moose poops decorating our trails and campsites, but more on that later.... we spent the evening drying out, avoiding being eaten alive by bugs (they continued to get worse the dryer it became), eating a hot dinner of rehydrated ready-made camp meals, and falling asleep to the sound of coyotes. No, David assured me.  We had nothing to fear.  They didn't sound like they were actually hunting...just wound up.  I fell asleep picturing a pack of wild dogs feeding off each other's excitement much like a locker room full of football players pumping each other up and chest-bumping prior to taking the field at a football game.  "Yeah! Let's go out and eat some small rodents! Woohoo!"

To be continued.... 

Dave's Visit...Day 1

Months ago I asked my brother to come up and do a backpacking trip with me. Dave's a Wildlife Biology grad from Colorado State, a hunting guide with work experiences in Maine, Virginia, and Wyoming, a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) survivor, and a Field Camp Outdoor Leadership School (FCOLS) group leader among many other qualifications including being a good, patient teacher to this girl who's never backpacked before.  

For our trip, Dave selected a trail called the Grafton Loop.  The 38 mile Loop begins in Grafton Notch State Park near Bethel, Maine.  Portions of the trail overlapped with the Appalachian Trail before the Loop branches off to continue through private lands.  To view more details, visit the Maine Appalachian Trail Club.

Day 1

I was only able to take one photo on the first day. After we missed a turn in Newport we took an hour long detour through Dexter and a whole bunch of towns I'd never been to before. We ate lunch at the Chicken Coop in Mexico and arrived at the Grafton Notch parking lot around 3:00.  A quick and blurry photo was taken and then we were off to the Baldpate Lean-To.  The hike was grueling for me as I have not done much hiking, it was all uphill, and I had a 50 lb. pack on my back!  We made a snail's pace of 1 mph for about 2.5 miles (remember I mentioned Dave's patience?!) and arrived at the Lean-To just as rain started to spittle. We got the tent up and ate some ramen noodles with cheese and pepperoni and managed to get our dishes done just before it began to pour....and it would continue to pour for the next 20 hours or so....

stay tuned for more.... 

Just like old times in Maine

So, I lied! I have exactly two pictures from the whale watching experience in May!

I believe this was the "terminal dive" of a Fin Whale. As it was the first whale watch of the season for the Bar Harbor Whale Watching Company, they assured us that if we didn't see any whales, we could have a free return ticket to come back and try again another day.  The relief in the guide's voice was audible as the first whale was sighted...now the company wouldn't have to comp tickets to a boat full of people!  We didn't see much of the whales up close though what we DID see reminded me of images of sea serpents from "the world is flat" era of map-making.  Long, smooth, slick humps decorated with a single small fin that lazily cut through the water.  So....we didn't see the breaching humpbacks, but atleast we saw something that proves there are whales to be found!  

And really the whole point was to play with my sister!  We completed the day with a handful of Whale sightings, a handful of Seal sightings, many Tern sightings which elicited a handful of jokes from the guide ("one good tern deserves another" har har), and bunches of Puffin sightings.  

The following day we drove down the coast to hike near Lincolnville and grab dinner in Rockland.

Mer took many pictures as usual...and tried various yoga poses which you can view from her blog.  

 I just enjoyed the view...including the new windmills on Vinalhaven.  

 

Whale Waching

So, I'd love to post some amazing photos of my very first whale watch, but 

a) it was apparently, the first whale watch of the season so rather early! and 

b) my little camera made the whales look like miniscule porpoises. 

So, I will forward you to my sister's lovely blog to see the best accounting of our adventure. And NO....we didn't go camping.  It was just a little too cold...especially after a trip across sea at 33 knots with the wind blowing! 

http://mermont.typepad.com/makinguse/

Enjoy!

A homemade latte...

I received a belated Happy Birthday card from Starbucks, tempting me to head up to Hogan Road for a free drink...but I decided to save it for later and dig out my Spanish coffee pot.   

Ideally, I'd have a gas stove or an open fire to cook with, but electric will do.  Speaking of open fires, it is now clear to me that this little pot will have a place in my camping gear this summer.  It makes potent coffee with minimal coffee grounds and you can pretty much place it in the flames or ashes and it will do its job.  I'll just have to learn to like my coffee without milk.  

For the perfect iced latte:

Fill the bottom with water to just below the pressure valve.

Fill the filter with espresso grounds...

 

Attach the top and turn up the heat...within minutes a rich espresso will percolate...

Listen for the gurgling sound when all the water's used up.  The pot smells awful if it continues burning.

Pour espresso into receptacle of your choice (for me it's a Ball jar)...

 

Beautiful, rich, and dark!  Add the milk next to cool off the espresso a bit.  The concentration takes a bit of practice.  I like really strong iced lattes so I look for a specific milky coffee color that's appropriate to me.  You can always add more milk as you drink it down....and don't forget the melting ice will water down your concoction...

 

 With milk added, the drink is cooler so the ice will last longer.  Add ice and a straw and you're done!  If you like sugar I suggest adding it to the espresso before you make the drink cold!

 

  

Add a sunny day outdoors and the book of your choice.  Very relaxing!

One thing to be aware of....if you choose to take this drink on the road, say to work or class, people might give you odd looks and ask if you're drinking coffee brandy.  

 

Happy Birthday to Me!

I forgot to mention, yesterday was my birthday.  A big one. A new decade. The 3-0 birthday.

 

 
 I thought it might be a good excuse to try the Sampler ... it's really only equivalent to maybe 3 beers?  (Wow, my hands look enormous!)

And Sam and Amy had an especially good time ;) 

Home away from home!

I bought my tent two years ago when I worked for LL Bean and it has been stowed in my closet ever since.  With this summer's plans involving lots of camping, I thought I should pull the tent out and make sure I know how to put it together!

 

It's a tent for two!  

With a rain cover and space for bags and boots!

It's long enough to fit 5'10" ....

... and tall enough to put my feet on the ceiling!

This should be fun!  Maybe I should try a night out in my backyard? The resident skunks might have an issue with that...