Brambor
Well-known member
Late Friday afternoon I picked my son Dagen from school and after his violin lesson we headed up to Millinocket. We arrived around 8PM, found Appalachian lodge and set ourselves on a couple of bunks in their bunkroom.
Next morning we grabbed a breakfast at the Appalachian Cafe.
Enjoyed some hiker humor art:
...refilled our thermoses with coffee and tea and headed towards Abol Bridge.
The forecast was initially for frozen mix. I have been doing snowdances all week and the gods rewarded us with a forecast of snow and some frozen mix.
Based on the forecast we elected to bring waxless skis and thus eliminated the trickery of rapidly changing temperatures over the next few days.
We set out onto Abol trail, passed a couple guys pulling sleds. One on snowshoes and one with skins on skis. They were heading to Roaring Brook campground, a 13 mile trip that I thought might be quite a challenge with wide skis with climbing skins.
It was snowing. Yay! Baxter State Park does not appear to be suffering from shortage of snow. My son found out quickly after taking a pee break off the trail and falling chest deep into soft snow. His ski's got tangled up under the snow. I had to pull him out and it wasn't easy.
The trail was broken by snowmobiles with a few hints of ski tracks here and there. We enjoyed the kick and glide and the thrill of a few tight cornered downhills.
Then we joined the Perimeter Road and proceeded to ski past the Togue Gate and towards Roaring Brook Campground. Snow increased on intensity and for about 30 minutes it hit us with icy rain. No problem. Our skiing effort kept our layers warm as well as the sweet hot tea and coffee we sipped at various times.
We reached Avalanche Field just about exhausted, luckily the next 3.3 miles to Katahdin Pond featured a lot of thrilling downhills with a few nice uphills.
This was our first time at Katahdin Wilderness Campground. We rented a cottage only; we carried our sleeping bags and food in our backpacks.
Sunday morning was sunny. I made Prosciutto with eggs over easy for breakfast and then we headed on a ski trip across Katahdin lake.
After a few exhausting bushwacks at the opposite shore we called the idea a fail and headed back to the cabin.
Dagen made Risotto for lunch and then we headed back out to ski to Martin Ponds Leanto. The trail was snowed over. After a short while the trail started to ascend steeper. As long as we skied where the trail was packed a few days before we were ok but any deviation from the 3 foot path resulted in comedy central. One herringbone attempt featured a nice ascending faceplant into deep snow. At that point I switched to snowshoes while Dagen showed brilliance by staying on his skis the whole way to Martin Ponds.
The view at Martins Ponds is one of the best of the Katahdin range. We basked in the sun for a while, ate some smoked oysters with bread and dried cherries. Life was good.
The trip back was a breeze.
Evening was spent reading Nat Geo magazines from 1970's.
Dagen made a unicorn snow sculpture.
I was studying maps at the lodge library.
Monday morning was time to return home. We treated ourselves with a snowmobile ride to Avalanche Field from where we then skied back to Abol Bridge. Chatted here and there with a group of skiers who did the Baxter Park Traverse - that is a trip I would love to do.
Our tracks on the first day
Next morning we grabbed a breakfast at the Appalachian Cafe.
Enjoyed some hiker humor art:
...refilled our thermoses with coffee and tea and headed towards Abol Bridge.
The forecast was initially for frozen mix. I have been doing snowdances all week and the gods rewarded us with a forecast of snow and some frozen mix.
Based on the forecast we elected to bring waxless skis and thus eliminated the trickery of rapidly changing temperatures over the next few days.
We set out onto Abol trail, passed a couple guys pulling sleds. One on snowshoes and one with skins on skis. They were heading to Roaring Brook campground, a 13 mile trip that I thought might be quite a challenge with wide skis with climbing skins.
It was snowing. Yay! Baxter State Park does not appear to be suffering from shortage of snow. My son found out quickly after taking a pee break off the trail and falling chest deep into soft snow. His ski's got tangled up under the snow. I had to pull him out and it wasn't easy.
The trail was broken by snowmobiles with a few hints of ski tracks here and there. We enjoyed the kick and glide and the thrill of a few tight cornered downhills.
Then we joined the Perimeter Road and proceeded to ski past the Togue Gate and towards Roaring Brook Campground. Snow increased on intensity and for about 30 minutes it hit us with icy rain. No problem. Our skiing effort kept our layers warm as well as the sweet hot tea and coffee we sipped at various times.
We reached Avalanche Field just about exhausted, luckily the next 3.3 miles to Katahdin Pond featured a lot of thrilling downhills with a few nice uphills.
This was our first time at Katahdin Wilderness Campground. We rented a cottage only; we carried our sleeping bags and food in our backpacks.
Sunday morning was sunny. I made Prosciutto with eggs over easy for breakfast and then we headed on a ski trip across Katahdin lake.
After a few exhausting bushwacks at the opposite shore we called the idea a fail and headed back to the cabin.
Dagen made Risotto for lunch and then we headed back out to ski to Martin Ponds Leanto. The trail was snowed over. After a short while the trail started to ascend steeper. As long as we skied where the trail was packed a few days before we were ok but any deviation from the 3 foot path resulted in comedy central. One herringbone attempt featured a nice ascending faceplant into deep snow. At that point I switched to snowshoes while Dagen showed brilliance by staying on his skis the whole way to Martin Ponds.
The view at Martins Ponds is one of the best of the Katahdin range. We basked in the sun for a while, ate some smoked oysters with bread and dried cherries. Life was good.
The trip back was a breeze.
Evening was spent reading Nat Geo magazines from 1970's.
Dagen made a unicorn snow sculpture.
I was studying maps at the lodge library.
Monday morning was time to return home. We treated ourselves with a snowmobile ride to Avalanche Field from where we then skied back to Abol Bridge. Chatted here and there with a group of skiers who did the Baxter Park Traverse - that is a trip I would love to do.
Our tracks on the first day
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