MEB
New member
Earlier this week I spent a few days in Baxter State Park with Paul (husband) and Rachel. Every time I’ve gone to Baxter it’s been to hike Katahdin and to go across the Knife Edge. Needless to say I was really excited about climbing something different for a change.
We arrived on Monday and set up camp and did a few short walks, one was to Katahdin Stream Falls and then another into Big Niagara Falls. Arriving back at the campsite we enjoyed a nice campfire and some burgers and went to bed early.
At 5:00 a.m. I was awakened by my alarm clock and rolled out of my sleeping bag to start making breakfast. It was still fairly dark out and I was surprised to see so many other people already up and heading up the Hunt Trail. Around 6:45 we all got in the car and headed off to the Marston Trail head which was about 20 minutes down the road. Paul was supposed to be coming along on this hike but he was having a lot of trouble with one of his ears and did not sleep very much the night before. So he drove us to the trailhead and then went back to try and get some sleep.
Just before 7:30 Rachel and I headed off down the Marston Trail. In no time at all we reached the junction with the Coe Trail and headed up that for our first summit of the day. The slide section just below the summit was fairly steep and I was thankful the slabs were dry and that we had chosen to do the loop in this direction. On the summit the views were impressive and the weather could not have been better. We lounged around and ate and then headed off to South Brother. I found this section of trail very enjoyable and we soon reached the spur path that led up to S Brother. This was another somewhat steep section and there were a few rocky areas that were kind of tricky to get around. Again the views from this summit were simply beautiful. We did notice though that clouds were starting to roll in. I was not too worried as the forecast was for a partly cloudy day.
Continuing on we reached the junction with the Marston Trail and from here it was less than a mile to North Brother. It started off relatively flat but that soon ended and again we climbed up another fairly steep section. We reached the summit around noon time and spent over an hour taking in all the views. I had originally planned to make the trip over to Fort but I’ve not done a lot of bushwhacking so I decided I would just have to come up again some other time! At this point the clouds appeared to be getting darker and we could see some isolated showers off in the distance so we decided to head down.
The traveling was very nice, not too many rocks and roots. Soon we reached a small overlook which looked down onto a pond and at this point it started to sprinkle. No big deal and I thought it would just pass by. Wrong!! By the time we reached the pond the sprinkle turned into a steady rain and then the skies opened up! I can’t remember the last time I had seen rain come down so hard and fast. Thankfully, there was no thunder or lightening. Scurrying along as fast as we could the rain did not let up and soon the trail was a small river. Paul had planned to pick us up at 4:30 and we started crossing our fingers that he might just be early and waiting for us.
After what seemed like forever I caught a glimpse of the parking area and saw the truck! Yahoo! And, of course wouldn’t you know it, the rain stopped and the sun came out! We were soaked and everything in our packs was just a wet. We loaded up our packs and headed back to the campsite which surprisingly was completely dry! The mini-monsoon we encountered fortunately missed that area! We made a nice campfire and began drying ourselves off.
The next morning Rachel and I got up at 5:00 a.m. again and we headed up to The Owl. We had some ok views but unfortunately the morning fog did not burn off until we got back to the campsite.
Here are some pictures from our trip. http://community.webshots.com/user/mbaross
p.s. After going to the doctors they discovered Paul had a hole in his eardrum! Ouch! Despite his agonizing discomfort he managed to have a great trip too. After resting he hiked up Sentinel Mountain and had his fill of blueberries!
-MEB
We arrived on Monday and set up camp and did a few short walks, one was to Katahdin Stream Falls and then another into Big Niagara Falls. Arriving back at the campsite we enjoyed a nice campfire and some burgers and went to bed early.
At 5:00 a.m. I was awakened by my alarm clock and rolled out of my sleeping bag to start making breakfast. It was still fairly dark out and I was surprised to see so many other people already up and heading up the Hunt Trail. Around 6:45 we all got in the car and headed off to the Marston Trail head which was about 20 minutes down the road. Paul was supposed to be coming along on this hike but he was having a lot of trouble with one of his ears and did not sleep very much the night before. So he drove us to the trailhead and then went back to try and get some sleep.
Just before 7:30 Rachel and I headed off down the Marston Trail. In no time at all we reached the junction with the Coe Trail and headed up that for our first summit of the day. The slide section just below the summit was fairly steep and I was thankful the slabs were dry and that we had chosen to do the loop in this direction. On the summit the views were impressive and the weather could not have been better. We lounged around and ate and then headed off to South Brother. I found this section of trail very enjoyable and we soon reached the spur path that led up to S Brother. This was another somewhat steep section and there were a few rocky areas that were kind of tricky to get around. Again the views from this summit were simply beautiful. We did notice though that clouds were starting to roll in. I was not too worried as the forecast was for a partly cloudy day.
Continuing on we reached the junction with the Marston Trail and from here it was less than a mile to North Brother. It started off relatively flat but that soon ended and again we climbed up another fairly steep section. We reached the summit around noon time and spent over an hour taking in all the views. I had originally planned to make the trip over to Fort but I’ve not done a lot of bushwhacking so I decided I would just have to come up again some other time! At this point the clouds appeared to be getting darker and we could see some isolated showers off in the distance so we decided to head down.
The traveling was very nice, not too many rocks and roots. Soon we reached a small overlook which looked down onto a pond and at this point it started to sprinkle. No big deal and I thought it would just pass by. Wrong!! By the time we reached the pond the sprinkle turned into a steady rain and then the skies opened up! I can’t remember the last time I had seen rain come down so hard and fast. Thankfully, there was no thunder or lightening. Scurrying along as fast as we could the rain did not let up and soon the trail was a small river. Paul had planned to pick us up at 4:30 and we started crossing our fingers that he might just be early and waiting for us.
After what seemed like forever I caught a glimpse of the parking area and saw the truck! Yahoo! And, of course wouldn’t you know it, the rain stopped and the sun came out! We were soaked and everything in our packs was just a wet. We loaded up our packs and headed back to the campsite which surprisingly was completely dry! The mini-monsoon we encountered fortunately missed that area! We made a nice campfire and began drying ourselves off.
The next morning Rachel and I got up at 5:00 a.m. again and we headed up to The Owl. We had some ok views but unfortunately the morning fog did not burn off until we got back to the campsite.
Here are some pictures from our trip. http://community.webshots.com/user/mbaross
p.s. After going to the doctors they discovered Paul had a hole in his eardrum! Ouch! Despite his agonizing discomfort he managed to have a great trip too. After resting he hiked up Sentinel Mountain and had his fill of blueberries!
-MEB
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