amstony
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- Apr 24, 2004
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So there I was waiting on Alpinista at 6:00 AM. She showed up and we transferred her hiking gear over to my car, parked her "Bug" in my garage and headed north to meet with Stevehiker at the park and ride in Bow, NH. We met, did another gear transfer to Stevehikers truck and it was off to West and East Baldplate in Maine. Of the 2 peaks, we really needed East Baldplate, which is a peak we all need for the New England Hundred Highest list.
As we cruised into Gorham, NH and picked up some trail food, we could see the snow on all the major peaks
and we knew todays hike would be a good one . After turning off Rt 2 towards Grafton Notch State Park we could easily see the snow on the summits of the 2 Baldplates! Upon reaching the State Park lot, Amicus was there to meet us, he had pulled in 10 minutes prior.
We geared up, and at 9:48 AM AMStony, Alpinista, Stevehiker, and Amicus headed up the AT towards the Baldplates to "conquer" another NEHH peak. It was 19 degrees and everything was snow covered all the way along the trail. There were several streams to cross, which had bad footing due to ice, ran a foot or more deep, and could be a hike stopper if you had water get into your boots. So we gingerly crossed the streams, poles were real handy here. Stevehiker, who borrowed my "back up" set of hiking poles from my car back in Bow was appreciative to have the poles at this point!
As we moved up the AT, we could hear what sounded like snowmobiles in the distance, this would lead to a surprise shortly further down the trail. After about a half hour several of us changed layers. We then crossed some more streams and passed through several blowdowns that had recently been cleared. Snow depths continued to increase as we gained elevation. At around 11:15 we ran into a real surprise- a Maine ATC 2 person trail crew was out clearing all the blowdowns with chainsaws and axes up to West Baldplate summit . Man had this made our hike easier!! These guys were awesome and later in the day we'd be very appreciative of the trail work. We spoke to them and thanked them for their efforts.
At around 11:30, at the 3100 foot level, Alpinista decided to bail on the remainder of the hike and return back to the trailhead. She had decided to go back since the snow depths were getting more and more difficult, blowdowns were a problem, and above all it was her first major hike since getting back from the Katrina disaster. We agreed and did not see a problem, since the trail crew was further back if she needed something and the 2 Maine ATC trailworkers would be coming to the summit. She wanted to see the AT lean to and some other things along the trail, and talk to the trail crew (she maintains a piece of Airline trail). She left me her camera to take more pics, since mine had just died in the cold...........
Amicus, Stevehiker, and I arrived on the East Baldplate summit at approximately 1230 after beating thru major blowdowns, moving along rock faces with pretty serious ice on them, and having to move off the trail on many occasions to avoid both or a combination of both. On the West Baldplate summit we looked at the time, 1230, and knew we were pushing our turn around time. We could see East Baldplate- "right over there", only 9/10 of a mile to the summit! The three of us jointly decided to go for it since we still had 4 hours of daylight and if the situation was OK we could make it.
As we moved off the summit the one thing we saw was no footprints, nothing along the trail. No one had been this way since it had snowed. We moved carefully down the backside of West Baldplate, arriving at the big ladder, covered in very thin ice, but surrounded completely by ice. We looked at it, talked about it, and decided to have a go. As it turned out it was an "easy " go. It took awhile but we reached the col between the 2 peaks, and were now greeted by a steady cold blast of wind which now never let up. The East Baldplate summit was staring us in our face.
At 1:30 PM we reached the second, small ladder and at this point we knew it was, as Stevehiker said "game over man". A huge chunk of ice was along the trail, the AT was practically gone from a very major blowdown, and a fast moving stream was down from the small cliff with no way around it. We'd have to cross all this- and then who knows what else- that was still in front of us.
We studied the summit route to our front on East Baldplate where you could follow pieces of the trail to the summit. We could see the ice glistening along the rock faces. We discussed it all- the 3 of us looked at the time, the diminishing daylight (3 hours at very best), minimal moonlight from behind the ridge, the high winds, increasing cold, the severely impaired route, and the ice on the ledges. At this point, no matter how we discussed it, we knew this hike, after all the hard work- was done- game over man. It had taken us 1 hour to go approximately 700 yards. If we went on we still faced a hike to the summit with unknown icing conditions, then back down, then back up W. Baldpalte and the AT to the trailhead. No one was getting to East Baldplate today on this route.
So reluctantly we headed back. The problems continued as I lost a stabilcer and could not locate it again on the trek back up W. Baldplate, Stevehikers Yak trax broke on the trail coming off W. Balplate summit, and Amicus nearly lost his stabilicers.
The good part was we met the MATC trail crew just below the summit finishing up their work. They'd cleared every blowdown from that point to the trailhead in Grafton Notch!!! This definitely speeded our descent, and I took off ahead arriving back at Stevehikers truck at 3:30 and Stevehiker and Amicus arriving back at 3:45 PM.
The best part here was Alpinista had warned up the truck, a Quebec hiker was being screamed at in French by his wife for changing clothes for all to see- he put on a blanket and continued, and we took some pictures for a group of girls having fun in the park. Then Amicus left for home, and Alpinista, Stevehiker, and I stopped at Sunday River arriving for dinner at 4:45.
It was very cold, windy, and the 1/4 moon was low- we were glad to have not continued onto East Baldplate. We'll make another go for it on another day!
As we cruised into Gorham, NH and picked up some trail food, we could see the snow on all the major peaks
and we knew todays hike would be a good one . After turning off Rt 2 towards Grafton Notch State Park we could easily see the snow on the summits of the 2 Baldplates! Upon reaching the State Park lot, Amicus was there to meet us, he had pulled in 10 minutes prior. We geared up, and at 9:48 AM AMStony, Alpinista, Stevehiker, and Amicus headed up the AT towards the Baldplates to "conquer" another NEHH peak. It was 19 degrees and everything was snow covered all the way along the trail. There were several streams to cross, which had bad footing due to ice, ran a foot or more deep, and could be a hike stopper if you had water get into your boots. So we gingerly crossed the streams, poles were real handy here. Stevehiker, who borrowed my "back up" set of hiking poles from my car back in Bow was appreciative to have the poles at this point!
As we moved up the AT, we could hear what sounded like snowmobiles in the distance, this would lead to a surprise shortly further down the trail. After about a half hour several of us changed layers. We then crossed some more streams and passed through several blowdowns that had recently been cleared. Snow depths continued to increase as we gained elevation. At around 11:15 we ran into a real surprise- a Maine ATC 2 person trail crew was out clearing all the blowdowns with chainsaws and axes up to West Baldplate summit
. Man had this made our hike easier!! These guys were awesome and later in the day we'd be very appreciative of the trail work. We spoke to them and thanked them for their efforts. At around 11:30, at the 3100 foot level, Alpinista decided to bail on the remainder of the hike and return back to the trailhead. She had decided to go back since the snow depths were getting more and more difficult, blowdowns were a problem, and above all it was her first major hike since getting back from the Katrina disaster. We agreed and did not see a problem, since the trail crew was further back if she needed something and the 2 Maine ATC trailworkers would be coming to the summit. She wanted to see the AT lean to and some other things along the trail, and talk to the trail crew (she maintains a piece of Airline trail). She left me her camera to take more pics, since mine had just died in the cold...........
Amicus, Stevehiker, and I arrived on the East Baldplate summit at approximately 1230 after beating thru major blowdowns, moving along rock faces with pretty serious ice on them, and having to move off the trail on many occasions to avoid both or a combination of both. On the West Baldplate summit we looked at the time, 1230, and knew we were pushing our turn around time. We could see East Baldplate- "right over there", only 9/10 of a mile to the summit!
The three of us jointly decided to go for it since we still had 4 hours of daylight and if the situation was OK we could make it. As we moved off the summit the one thing we saw was no footprints, nothing along the trail. No one had been this way since it had snowed. We moved carefully down the backside of West Baldplate, arriving at the big ladder, covered in very thin ice, but surrounded completely by ice. We looked at it, talked about it, and decided to have a go. As it turned out it was an "easy
" go. It took awhile but we reached the col between the 2 peaks, and were now greeted by a steady cold blast of wind which now never let up. The East Baldplate summit was staring us in our face. At 1:30 PM we reached the second, small ladder and at this point we knew it was, as Stevehiker said "game over man".
A huge chunk of ice was along the trail, the AT was practically gone from a very major blowdown, and a fast moving stream was down from the small cliff with no way around it. We'd have to cross all this- and then who knows what else- that was still in front of us.We studied the summit route to our front on East Baldplate where you could follow pieces of the trail to the summit. We could see the ice glistening along the rock faces. We discussed it all- the 3 of us looked at the time, the diminishing daylight (3 hours at very best), minimal moonlight from behind the ridge, the high winds, increasing cold, the severely impaired route, and the ice on the ledges. At this point, no matter how we discussed it, we knew this hike, after all the hard work- was done- game over man. It had taken us 1 hour to go approximately 700 yards. If we went on we still faced a hike to the summit with unknown icing conditions, then back down, then back up W. Baldpalte and the AT to the trailhead. No one was getting to East Baldplate today on this route.
So reluctantly we headed back. The problems continued as I lost a stabilcer and could not locate it again on the trek back up W. Baldplate, Stevehikers Yak trax broke on the trail coming off W. Balplate summit, and Amicus nearly lost his stabilicers.
The good part was we met the MATC trail crew just below the summit finishing up their work. They'd cleared every blowdown from that point to the trailhead in Grafton Notch!!! This definitely speeded
our descent, and I took off ahead arriving back at Stevehikers truck at 3:30 and Stevehiker and Amicus arriving back at 3:45 PM. The best part here was Alpinista had warned up the truck, a Quebec hiker was being screamed at in French by his wife for changing clothes for all to see- he put on a blanket and continued
, and we took some pictures for a group of girls having fun in the park. Then Amicus left for home, and Alpinista, Stevehiker, and I stopped at Sunday River arriving for dinner at 4:45. It was very cold, windy, and the 1/4 moon was low- we were glad to have not continued onto East Baldplate. We'll make another go for it on another day!
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