Bald Pates via Millinocket, ME and Kingston, NY - 11/2

[Tom Rankin]

Yeah, not your usual approach. We left after work on Wednesday and drove up to near Portland, ME, where we stayed with my son for the night. Leaving early, we headed up to Millinocket to make some reservations for BSP this winter. We just barely got what we wanted. As it was almost Noon, we decided against hiking in BSP. So we drove to Bethel by a slightly circuitous route, hitting a few brewpubs along the way (Sea Dog and Geaghan's in Bangor, (that's Ban-gor, according to several locals! ), and Sunday River near Bethel), and staying at a cheap motel. In the morning, we set off for the Bald Pates. We met what I HOPE is the last SOBO, still in Maine in November! He said he was going to try to keep winter behind him! I told him he'd better run fast! The trail was wet and muddy, and there were tons of small sticks and a few large blowdowns. It kind of looked like we were the first ones on it after the storm. We passed the annoying side hill section and then headed UP an amazing staircase of stone to West Bald Pate. From here, we could just barely see East. At this point it got windy and cold! We layered up and made our way carefully up the slick face of East. At the top, it was foggy and windy, with a few flakes of snow. We retraced our steps, carefully, and headed back to NY. A long way for one peak, but there were a few other nice attractions along the way.

 

[TDawg]

Just got up Baldpate recently myself (my first visit,) what a fantastic peak.

And I agree, the MATC really outdid themselves with the rock-work up West Baldpate above the shelter. Had to have been a ton of manhours invested there.

 

[natron]

agreed the rockwork going up w. baldpate is great! I remember in the good old days that section being very eroded/slick and using trees on the down was mandatory.