TDawg
Well-known member
From Wednesday the 30th, to Saturday the 2nd, I was backpacking the section of the AT north from Maine Rt. 4 to Rt. 27, including side trips to Sugarloaf, Abraham, and Redington. I joined my sister Kristen, her boyfriend Phil, Phil's brother Ben, and their friend Spencer, all of whom are students at UMaine Orono. We had great weather and views everyday, overall we did 32.2 miles of the AT, including side trails (and herdpaths/bushwacks) the mileage was about 39.8 maybe (not sure the mileage out and back to Redington, maybe about 3?).
Day 1
I awoke at 4:30am after only 3-4 hrs of shut-eye (couldn't sleep) and was out of the house in MA by 5:30 after breakfast and coffee. I reached the trailhead at Rt. 4 at about 9:45 and was on the trail at 5 past. I was solo today and meeting the rest of the group at Poplar Ridge Shelter, they had started on Tuesday and spent the night at Piazza Rock Shelter after a short 2 mile hike. I had a 40 lb pack and I expected the hike today to be pretty strenuous, lots of ups and downs.
After passing Ethel and Mud ponds, I reached Eddy Pond at about 11:30 and had my lunch at a nice spot where the MATC Ridgerunner had a canoe stashed, I would later run into him on the trail and he told me they stock the pond with trout. What a great spot to float around on a canoe and fish all day, such a beautiful pond. It was a windy day today so I pulled out a layer from within my pack and stashed it within reach on top. After a good break I was on my way, here is where the real climbing would begin up the southern shoulder of Saddleback.
The climb went well and I was at the tree line with 45 minutes maybe, and wow, what a great view. Rangeley lake was beautiful as well as the mountains to the north and west, Mt. Washington was on the horizon with the Carters and I could pick out Jordan Bowl, Oz, and Aurora peak of Sunday River Ski area. I need to become more familiar with the western Maine peaks because I didn't know most of what I was looking at. I rounded a corner on a thru-hiker with his digi camera out taking a video, he was excited about his first view of Maine after days and days of actually being in Maine, I wished him luck, we would see many thur hikers through out the trip.
Upon reaching the Saddleback summit I was rewarded with views north to the peaks I would be climbing in days to come. I shared the summit with an orientation group from Bates College, who looked very cold, and for some reason weren't making use of a small rock wind fortress. I took advantage of their oversight and hunkered down behind the rock wall and out of the wind. I sat and enjoyed looking at Abraham while snacking and watering up. A cute college freshman (I assume) offered to take my picture for me and I gladly accepted. When trying to put it away, my map was almost swept away by the wind, but it was saved by one of the Bates trip leaders just in time. I also learned that the group from Bates was meeting another group from Bates (about 12-16 total) at the place I was staying that night (Poplar Ridge), so I wanted to get there ahead of them to get a good spot for a tent.
Up next was The Horn, I countinued on after informing a few kids as to where they should sit to get out of the wind, they quickly took my advice. The trial to the Horn is very nice and mostly out of the trees so views were great. I talked for a few minutes with a nice guy, Roger from Amherst, NH, I mentioned I took alot of pictures and had them online, he took down my picture URL and we wished eachother luck. Upon getting to the top, the views were awesome, and I shared the summit with VFTT member, whans, who was out with his kids on his way to Saddleback, nice to meet ya, whans!
Thanks for snapping a pic for me.
At this point I wasn't looking forward to another down, then another up, and it proved to be tough. Especially going up Saddleback Junior, which at the end of the day kicked my ass, I ran out of water 3/4 up it. The VFTT were real good again and I got a good look down into the Navy land and a unique look back at where I had come from. I sat behind the cairn, out of the wind for a rest and continued on to the shelter after a good rest, at this point I was beat. I arrived at the Poplar Ridge Shelter at about 5ish maybe and found my sister and her friends cooking dinner. I set up my tent and all my stuff behind the shelter, filtered water, cooked dinner, and didn't stay up too much after sundown, it had been a long day. The shelter was pretty full and there were people tenting pretty much everywhere you could. I couldn't help but think how illegal it would be for a scene like this to be happening in WMNF land. The Bates group was down the trail a ways so they weren't a bother to me at all.
Day 1 and Day 2 pictures enjoy...
Day 2 to come.......
Day 1
I awoke at 4:30am after only 3-4 hrs of shut-eye (couldn't sleep) and was out of the house in MA by 5:30 after breakfast and coffee. I reached the trailhead at Rt. 4 at about 9:45 and was on the trail at 5 past. I was solo today and meeting the rest of the group at Poplar Ridge Shelter, they had started on Tuesday and spent the night at Piazza Rock Shelter after a short 2 mile hike. I had a 40 lb pack and I expected the hike today to be pretty strenuous, lots of ups and downs.
After passing Ethel and Mud ponds, I reached Eddy Pond at about 11:30 and had my lunch at a nice spot where the MATC Ridgerunner had a canoe stashed, I would later run into him on the trail and he told me they stock the pond with trout. What a great spot to float around on a canoe and fish all day, such a beautiful pond. It was a windy day today so I pulled out a layer from within my pack and stashed it within reach on top. After a good break I was on my way, here is where the real climbing would begin up the southern shoulder of Saddleback.
The climb went well and I was at the tree line with 45 minutes maybe, and wow, what a great view. Rangeley lake was beautiful as well as the mountains to the north and west, Mt. Washington was on the horizon with the Carters and I could pick out Jordan Bowl, Oz, and Aurora peak of Sunday River Ski area. I need to become more familiar with the western Maine peaks because I didn't know most of what I was looking at. I rounded a corner on a thru-hiker with his digi camera out taking a video, he was excited about his first view of Maine after days and days of actually being in Maine, I wished him luck, we would see many thur hikers through out the trip.
Upon reaching the Saddleback summit I was rewarded with views north to the peaks I would be climbing in days to come. I shared the summit with an orientation group from Bates College, who looked very cold, and for some reason weren't making use of a small rock wind fortress. I took advantage of their oversight and hunkered down behind the rock wall and out of the wind. I sat and enjoyed looking at Abraham while snacking and watering up. A cute college freshman (I assume) offered to take my picture for me and I gladly accepted. When trying to put it away, my map was almost swept away by the wind, but it was saved by one of the Bates trip leaders just in time. I also learned that the group from Bates was meeting another group from Bates (about 12-16 total) at the place I was staying that night (Poplar Ridge), so I wanted to get there ahead of them to get a good spot for a tent.
Up next was The Horn, I countinued on after informing a few kids as to where they should sit to get out of the wind, they quickly took my advice. The trial to the Horn is very nice and mostly out of the trees so views were great. I talked for a few minutes with a nice guy, Roger from Amherst, NH, I mentioned I took alot of pictures and had them online, he took down my picture URL and we wished eachother luck. Upon getting to the top, the views were awesome, and I shared the summit with VFTT member, whans, who was out with his kids on his way to Saddleback, nice to meet ya, whans!
Thanks for snapping a pic for me.
At this point I wasn't looking forward to another down, then another up, and it proved to be tough. Especially going up Saddleback Junior, which at the end of the day kicked my ass, I ran out of water 3/4 up it. The VFTT were real good again and I got a good look down into the Navy land and a unique look back at where I had come from. I sat behind the cairn, out of the wind for a rest and continued on to the shelter after a good rest, at this point I was beat. I arrived at the Poplar Ridge Shelter at about 5ish maybe and found my sister and her friends cooking dinner. I set up my tent and all my stuff behind the shelter, filtered water, cooked dinner, and didn't stay up too much after sundown, it had been a long day. The shelter was pretty full and there were people tenting pretty much everywhere you could. I couldn't help but think how illegal it would be for a scene like this to be happening in WMNF land. The Bates group was down the trail a ways so they weren't a bother to me at all.
Day 1 and Day 2 pictures enjoy...
Day 2 to come.......
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The summit was great, it was still pretty windy so we took refuge at the chair/wind guard cairn thing and took in the views. Abraham was the middle of our trip so we could get a good view of where we had come from and where we would be going. Great views of Saddleback, Horn, Sugarloaf, Crocker, etc were to be had. 
