sapblatt
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After last years great time we planned again - this time the trip included me, LarryD, Rols, Tuco, Marty and Jason Berard. Sadly, some issues came up and Bobby had to cancel - hopefully we will get back next year and get Bobby up to Baxter. This year our group had a couple of different itineraries and plans - and it all clicked very nicely - starting with our recon/planning meeting in April at Hooters in Saugus - they have marvelous meeting facilities 
OK - I am going to be briefer than last year - and my cohorts are going to contribute to this thread - and I will repost and add video and photos as I get time to get them up - this is what we did:
Thursday 9/10 - We drove up to the Matagamon Gate via Patten - about 320 miles from the Boston area - 3:30 AM departure got us up into the park around 10 AM. Later in the day we checked into our Lean Tos at South Branch (what an incredible spot) and we hiked to the ledges on the Middle Fowler Trail and then hung out at camp - Larry fished while Jason and Marty kayaked - two of our lean tos were right on the lake - about 20 yards from the shore - beautiful! The cookout that night was spectacular – if you are not a vegan – it was what will be known as the Great 2009 Grilled Charred Dead Mammal feast - high quality dogs, Kielbasa and steak – and not everyone was using cutlery!
Friday 9/11 – Larry, Rols, Tuco and me did the Traveler Loop in the recommended counter-clockwise direction – this hike is as tough as a normal day hike gets – it is in the vicinity of doing three northern Presi’s in a day. 10.6 miles, 3700’ of gain and loss – lots of above tree line travel and incredible views. The ascent is very steep and has lots of slab – the descent off of Peak of the Ridges is also very tough. The heat was doing me in as we approached North Traveler and I was rapidly losing my sense of humor – I think everyone was beat – too many ups and downs! After the summit we took a break and headed down – it was nicer to be descending – this side is a pretty tough descent as it is on a lot of loose rock/gravel/stone – I spilled once – but it is short and we were back to camp in about 10 ½ hours – respectable. Marty and Jason out and backed North Traveler as they had a big day planned for Saturday and then they hung out at camp.
Saturday 9/12 – On this morning we went our separate ways for a few days. Larry I had a very remote backpack planned – we really liked the backpacking part of the trip last year and this year went about as far out as you can go in BSP. We hit the Wadleigh Brook Trail for a three day loop while Marty was going to finish up the hundred highest with a killer day on Fort, Coe and the Brothers while Rols and Eric (Tuco) finished up the NE 67 on North Brother. I will let them fill in on the details – but I will tell you that they all accomplished their goals!!! As for what Larry and I set out to do I will have to say our 8.6 mile day was about the toughest flat hike I ever care to do. The trail starts out innocently enough but quickly becomes overgrown (but incredibly well blazed – like everything at BSP) and then it gets boggy. Then around 2:30 it got “interesting.” We crossed the Wadleigh Logging Road and took a break at the Blunder Pond/Bog Picnic Area – which apparently is used by logging crews. After we breaked and crossed the road we had the trail abruptly hit an area that had been decimated by recent clear cut logging operations. This is part of the Scientific Management Area and is not quite as protected as the rest of the park. We followed a straight line through the clear cut for what seemed like a mile then it all ended and intersected – and there were no flags or blazes. We got back to the logging road and the picnic area and calmly made a plan – we would go up the road until we found the brook that should lead to Hudson Pond and our shelter – if that failed we would aim off from the road just west of where the logging road forked and take a 280 degree heading which should in fairly short order hit the trail north of the logging area. If this did not work after one hour (we started at 4 PM) we were going to reverse course to 100 degrees and head back to the road and picnic area for the night and hike out in the morning. Amazingly – it worked like a charm – after about15 aim offs towards various trees we intersected the trail right at a blaze and were on our way – less than a mile to the shelter – what could possibly go wrong. Well – beaver activity could happen. Half mile plus detour through thick spruce and mud – I worked on new profanity combination and once swung my trekking pole at a tree like I was Willie Mays – after we broke out of that mess we were beat up and exhausted – but made it into camp well ahead of nightfall – not a good trail for night travel.
Sunday 9/13 – The larger group rested and regrouped after their big summit day and Larry and I got up and saw a moose in Hudson Pond and had breakfast and made tracks for Little East Lean To. We were on the trail around 7:30 and found this day to have much better terrain and footing – we pretty much did two miles per hour all day even after the rain started – it poured for our last two hours to the shelter, but everything stayed dry and it went well. We took a break at the Webster Stream Lean To and then soon after had to put the pack covers on. We passed an abandoned logging camp and saw parts of old Army wires that were used for radar experiments years ago. The trail followed the every growing/flowing stream and got is to Little East around 12:30 – good to be out of the rain. Here we saw two very large bald eagles about where the stream becomes Matagamon Lake, and eventually the East Branch of the Penobscot River. By 3 PM the rain had stopped and we headed back to the rather amazing “Grand Pitch” waterfall which is a bit more like Niagara Falls than most falls in the northeast – incredible stuff. Footing near it is rather scary – not a place to slip and fall. I shot a video of this fall and a lot of pics that I will post.
Monday 9/14 – The crew at Abol not wanting to rest upon their laurels (and hardy handshakes) decided to hit Kathadin via the Hunt Trail – glad to hear them tell me about – even more glad to have not done it! Larry and I got packed up and another early start southeast on the Freezeout Trail along the lake (beautiful – may Loons) to the junction with the Frost Pond Trail which we would hike back towards our car. The Frost Pond Trail was rough going for the first mile or so – very wet and muddy – I post-holed over my knee and snapped a trekking pole as I smacked into a log –nuts – probably the end of my over used gaiters as well – Larry suggested that I send them to the Hiking Hall of Fame! We stopped at the shelter to take a break and then ascended the nearly 1300 foot Wadleigh Mountain – which had more ups and downs than either of us cared to deal with after the prior three days! We made it over the non-descript “viewpoint” and cooked lunch on the trail before heading out for our last couple of miles. An interesting side note is that when we came out of the forest at a logging road a park vehicle passed us by and the two people got out to be sure we were OK (a very relative term – we are far from OK) We talked to the two men for about 15 minutes about our trip and our love of the park – we also let them know about the issues we had on the Wadleigh Brook Trail. As we were getting ready to leave we introduced ourselves and the ranger turned out to be the Park Director Jensen Bissell who spent a great deal of time telling us about the remote areas of the park – it was just great to speak with him – very nice and knowledgeable man. The young man he was with was a reporter for the Bangor newpaper who was doing an in depth article about the remote areas of the park. He took our picture and our names and the article will probably be in the paper in the next few days. As Larry pointed out – not only was the Park Director on hand to greet us on our return to civilization, we also had the media. You can imagine the disappointment we both felt when we got back to MA and there were not welcome signs!
Tuesday 9/15 – 6 AM up and out – shower at a campground and on to the AT Café for an average breakfast that took way too long to get to us – it was not busy and we were there an hour – see how quickly we return to being snippy city types? Easy ride home (at least for me – Larry was driving) back home by 1:30 PM.
A great trip with great guys – although we did not talk about this much I think we all spent a bit of time thinking about our friend, and Marty’s best friend Ray Loring who was working on the hundred highest with Marty and Jason a year ago when he died on Peak Above the Nubble. I am really glad to see that Marty finished the Hundred Highest and that Jason was there with him.
Another hearty congrats to also to Rols and Tuco who finished the NE 67!
When do we start planning next year? Northwest Basin is calling!
Pics and videos and more comments to follow.
OK - I am going to be briefer than last year - and my cohorts are going to contribute to this thread - and I will repost and add video and photos as I get time to get them up - this is what we did:
Thursday 9/10 - We drove up to the Matagamon Gate via Patten - about 320 miles from the Boston area - 3:30 AM departure got us up into the park around 10 AM. Later in the day we checked into our Lean Tos at South Branch (what an incredible spot) and we hiked to the ledges on the Middle Fowler Trail and then hung out at camp - Larry fished while Jason and Marty kayaked - two of our lean tos were right on the lake - about 20 yards from the shore - beautiful! The cookout that night was spectacular – if you are not a vegan – it was what will be known as the Great 2009 Grilled Charred Dead Mammal feast - high quality dogs, Kielbasa and steak – and not everyone was using cutlery!
Friday 9/11 – Larry, Rols, Tuco and me did the Traveler Loop in the recommended counter-clockwise direction – this hike is as tough as a normal day hike gets – it is in the vicinity of doing three northern Presi’s in a day. 10.6 miles, 3700’ of gain and loss – lots of above tree line travel and incredible views. The ascent is very steep and has lots of slab – the descent off of Peak of the Ridges is also very tough. The heat was doing me in as we approached North Traveler and I was rapidly losing my sense of humor – I think everyone was beat – too many ups and downs! After the summit we took a break and headed down – it was nicer to be descending – this side is a pretty tough descent as it is on a lot of loose rock/gravel/stone – I spilled once – but it is short and we were back to camp in about 10 ½ hours – respectable. Marty and Jason out and backed North Traveler as they had a big day planned for Saturday and then they hung out at camp.
Saturday 9/12 – On this morning we went our separate ways for a few days. Larry I had a very remote backpack planned – we really liked the backpacking part of the trip last year and this year went about as far out as you can go in BSP. We hit the Wadleigh Brook Trail for a three day loop while Marty was going to finish up the hundred highest with a killer day on Fort, Coe and the Brothers while Rols and Eric (Tuco) finished up the NE 67 on North Brother. I will let them fill in on the details – but I will tell you that they all accomplished their goals!!! As for what Larry and I set out to do I will have to say our 8.6 mile day was about the toughest flat hike I ever care to do. The trail starts out innocently enough but quickly becomes overgrown (but incredibly well blazed – like everything at BSP) and then it gets boggy. Then around 2:30 it got “interesting.” We crossed the Wadleigh Logging Road and took a break at the Blunder Pond/Bog Picnic Area – which apparently is used by logging crews. After we breaked and crossed the road we had the trail abruptly hit an area that had been decimated by recent clear cut logging operations. This is part of the Scientific Management Area and is not quite as protected as the rest of the park. We followed a straight line through the clear cut for what seemed like a mile then it all ended and intersected – and there were no flags or blazes. We got back to the logging road and the picnic area and calmly made a plan – we would go up the road until we found the brook that should lead to Hudson Pond and our shelter – if that failed we would aim off from the road just west of where the logging road forked and take a 280 degree heading which should in fairly short order hit the trail north of the logging area. If this did not work after one hour (we started at 4 PM) we were going to reverse course to 100 degrees and head back to the road and picnic area for the night and hike out in the morning. Amazingly – it worked like a charm – after about15 aim offs towards various trees we intersected the trail right at a blaze and were on our way – less than a mile to the shelter – what could possibly go wrong. Well – beaver activity could happen. Half mile plus detour through thick spruce and mud – I worked on new profanity combination and once swung my trekking pole at a tree like I was Willie Mays – after we broke out of that mess we were beat up and exhausted – but made it into camp well ahead of nightfall – not a good trail for night travel.
Sunday 9/13 – The larger group rested and regrouped after their big summit day and Larry and I got up and saw a moose in Hudson Pond and had breakfast and made tracks for Little East Lean To. We were on the trail around 7:30 and found this day to have much better terrain and footing – we pretty much did two miles per hour all day even after the rain started – it poured for our last two hours to the shelter, but everything stayed dry and it went well. We took a break at the Webster Stream Lean To and then soon after had to put the pack covers on. We passed an abandoned logging camp and saw parts of old Army wires that were used for radar experiments years ago. The trail followed the every growing/flowing stream and got is to Little East around 12:30 – good to be out of the rain. Here we saw two very large bald eagles about where the stream becomes Matagamon Lake, and eventually the East Branch of the Penobscot River. By 3 PM the rain had stopped and we headed back to the rather amazing “Grand Pitch” waterfall which is a bit more like Niagara Falls than most falls in the northeast – incredible stuff. Footing near it is rather scary – not a place to slip and fall. I shot a video of this fall and a lot of pics that I will post.
Monday 9/14 – The crew at Abol not wanting to rest upon their laurels (and hardy handshakes) decided to hit Kathadin via the Hunt Trail – glad to hear them tell me about – even more glad to have not done it! Larry and I got packed up and another early start southeast on the Freezeout Trail along the lake (beautiful – may Loons) to the junction with the Frost Pond Trail which we would hike back towards our car. The Frost Pond Trail was rough going for the first mile or so – very wet and muddy – I post-holed over my knee and snapped a trekking pole as I smacked into a log –nuts – probably the end of my over used gaiters as well – Larry suggested that I send them to the Hiking Hall of Fame! We stopped at the shelter to take a break and then ascended the nearly 1300 foot Wadleigh Mountain – which had more ups and downs than either of us cared to deal with after the prior three days! We made it over the non-descript “viewpoint” and cooked lunch on the trail before heading out for our last couple of miles. An interesting side note is that when we came out of the forest at a logging road a park vehicle passed us by and the two people got out to be sure we were OK (a very relative term – we are far from OK
) We talked to the two men for about 15 minutes about our trip and our love of the park – we also let them know about the issues we had on the Wadleigh Brook Trail. As we were getting ready to leave we introduced ourselves and the ranger turned out to be the Park Director Jensen Bissell who spent a great deal of time telling us about the remote areas of the park – it was just great to speak with him – very nice and knowledgeable man. The young man he was with was a reporter for the Bangor newpaper who was doing an in depth article about the remote areas of the park. He took our picture and our names and the article will probably be in the paper in the next few days. As Larry pointed out – not only was the Park Director on hand to greet us on our return to civilization, we also had the media. You can imagine the disappointment we both felt when we got back to MA and there were not welcome signs!Tuesday 9/15 – 6 AM up and out – shower at a campground and on to the AT Café for an average breakfast that took way too long to get to us – it was not busy and we were there an hour – see how quickly we return to being snippy city types? Easy ride home (at least for me – Larry was driving) back home by 1:30 PM.
A great trip with great guys – although we did not talk about this much I think we all spent a bit of time thinking about our friend, and Marty’s best friend Ray Loring who was working on the hundred highest with Marty and Jason a year ago when he died on Peak Above the Nubble. I am really glad to see that Marty finished the Hundred Highest and that Jason was there with him.
Another hearty congrats to also to Rols and Tuco who finished the NE 67!
When do we start planning next year? Northwest Basin is calling!
Pics and videos and more comments to follow.
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