Day 7: Home and Finale

8:02am
I'm up, showered, packed, and ready to go. It's a beautiful sunny day. I slept great - probably something to do with being showered and sleeping in a bed. John's also up and ready, so we'll see what the motel breakfast looks like, then hit the road back to Bangor.

12:45pm
Uneventful morning. The motel breakfast was exactly what I expected from a run-down motel, so we availed ourselves of McDonald's, then hit the highway back to Bangor. We made great time, and the first stop was Goodwill. It turned out to be right around the corner from the Quality Inn where we spent our first night, and we quickly donated the air mattresses.

It was still mid-morning, and we had nothing to do until our 3pm flight. I remembered seeing a sign for an L.L. Bean outlet, and it turned out to be nearby. We spent at least an hour ogling the gear and clothes - and there were some great deals. I picked up a lightweight rain jacket for $20.

Then we found an unattended dumpster in the back of a shopping center and emptied the remaining food and trash from the car. The stop after that was Dunkin Donuts, where we relaxed for an hour with coffee and our phones. Then we got lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings - I'd never been there, but it was good. Now we'll go to the airport.

7:15pm
Home and all is well. The flight was on-time and uneventful. I was on the right-side window again, and had some nice views of Long Island, NYC, and the Jersey shore. Eric picked us up, and we're glad to see that he's feeling much better. We picked up John's car at Eric's house, and he brought me home. That concludes Maine '13.

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Final Thoughts

Cadillac Mountain, Acadia N.P.

It's now a few weeks later. My trip reports are written, photos are organized, and an album of the best pics is posted to Facebook. This trip was...different. In some ways, it was defined by who wasn't there. I guess we'd been lucky, in that this was the seventh year of an annual boys' trip, and no one had ever had to cancel before. That was probably beating the odds, as we all have jobs, responsibilities, etc. But the odds caught up with us this year, first with Ted, and then with Eric.

That said, it was still a great trip. We saw some places and did some hikes that I will long remember. Acadia is beautiful, and its reputation is well-earned. The classic rocky coastline views are worth the trip. And it's very much a place where you can bring the non-camping family. We camped in the National Park, but there are plenty of very fancy and less fancy hotels in and around Bar Harbor.

Note the new stickers!

For exactly that reason, I liked Baxter State Park better. It's way out in the woods, and it's only for campers and hikers. The hiking wasn't always easy, but the views of woods, mountains, and lakes was frequently breathtaking. My Sunday hike to Hamlin Peak was harder than I expected, but I won't say I regret it - the views coming down Hamlin Ridge were just gorgeous at every step.

John and I made the best of it, and didn't let events we couldn't control ruin the trip. We were sorry about those who couldn't be there, but we still had a great time and saw and did the things we intended to do.

Finally, I can hardly express how much I enjoy having a guitar with me on these trips. Playing at a campsite is just fantastic.

The next step will be to gather with everyone and talk about thoughts for '14. Stay tuned.

Day 6: Katahdin Lake

8:10am
We're breakfasting in a light rain. John was up at 7:15, and I rolled out of the sack a few minutes after that. I slept well, and it wasn't as cold as the night before - I didn't have my sleeping bag zipped up all the way, and I didn't have my wool cap on. I was vaguely aware of the sound of rain in the night. We'll still hike - we both feel good after our long hikes yesterday, and a light hike today will loosen up the legs and feel good.

9:41am
The car is packed and we're ready to go. John was talking to some folks at the next lean-to, and asked if they wanted our camp chairs, air mattresses, or cooler. They declined at first, but then came over a few minutes later to ask if the offer still stood. Of course it did, and they took our camp chairs and our cooler. That's great, and now the air mattresses will be the only things we'll donate to Goodwill tomorrow. It's still raining lightly, but the sky looks lighter. Lean-to #7, Roaring Brook Campground was a great campsite.

The trailhead to Katahdin Lake is a few miles up the road, on the way back to the park entrance. We'll park there, hike, then continue the drive out of the park and back to Millinocket.

I filmed a video tour of our lean-to, linked here and at the bottom of this post.

9:59am
Katahdin Lake trailhead. Happily, it's not raining now. I'm wearing long hiking pants, a short-sleeve polypro shirt, and my rain jacket (which I'll undoubtedly take off in a few minutes.)

11:23am
Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camp. It's been a very nice hike, and we're now at the lake sitting in Adirondack chairs enjoying the view of lake, woods, and mountains while we have a sandwich and a drink and a rest. This is an interesting little lakeside camp - a few rustic cabins, some canoes, and an outhouse. We were wondering whether this is a private camp, or part of Baxter State Park - and I think it has to be part of the park. It doesn't matter, there's no one here, and we haven't seen a soul since starting our hike. It hasn't rained since we started, and the sky looks like it may even be clearing. It was warm enough hiking that I didn't need a jacket, but there's a wind whipping off the lake, and my jacket is on while we're sitting here. It's chilly enough that John, who never passes up an opportunity for a swim, isn't tempted by the lake.

11:49am
South Katahdin Lake lean-to. This is another spot a few tenths of a mile up the lake shore. We're heard some funny water bird calls, and think it must be a loon. There's a wooded island offshore, and a big bald eagle is perched in a dead tree. Gorgeous.

1:05pm
Rest break at Martin Pond Lean-to. John and I are in full agreement that this might be the nicest campsite we've ever seen. The six person lean-to is in a pine woods looking out over Martin Pond. The views are beautiful, and there's even a canoe here! It's about 2.5 miles to the trailhead, so it wouldn't be a tough hike in with gear and supplies. We could even decide to make a second trip to haul some beer and ice (or a guitar) in to the camp.

We've been moving at a good pace - I think we're both happy to have flat ground to walk on after yesterday's orgy of rocks, and we're really striding. We had some trail-finding difficulty soon after leaving the Katahdin lean-to. The trail just seemed to end, and John finally figured out that it went across a stream on a dam of sticks (possibly a beaver dam?)

1:50pm
Back at the trailhead. Fantastic hike. It really felt good to stretch out the legs and stride. It was a beautiful trail - mountain, lake, and forest scenery - and mostly flat. Just what the doctor ordered! The day is now gorgeous - sunny, warm, blue sky. No sign that it was gray and rainy this morning. We didn't see anyone on the trail all day. We'll now head out of the park and back to Millinocket, where we have two motel rooms reserved (from when we thought it would be four people.)

2:55pm
Pamola Motor Lodge, Millinocket. It's a seedy little roadside motel, but it looks like the Ritz to me right now. We'll unpack everything, letting things get as dry as possible, then re-pack for the flight home tonight. But first, a hot shower!

11:05pm
I'm about to turn lights out. I'm pretty much packed and ready to go. We went back to the laundromat we found on Saturday and did another load of laundry. No sense in packing wet smelly clothes. Then we found the Appalachian Trail Cafe and had a filling dinner.

There were a number of A.T. hikers who had obviously just gotten off the trail - most likely thru-hikers, as this would be the time of year when someone who started in Georgia in the spring would be finishing their thru-hike. Personally, I find the idea of hiking 2,100 miles less daunting than managing 6 months away from job, bills, obligations, etc. John noted, I think correctly, that the age distribution of thru-hikers is probably a reverse bell curve - it's kids right out of college who don't have any responsibilities yet, and older folks in their 50's and 60's whose heaviest responsibilities are behind them.

It's hard to believe we fly home tomorrow. Baxter was amazing.

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Just as with yesterday's hike, my phone ran out of battery, so I filled in our approximate route in purple. We hiked the loop in a counter-clockwise direction.

Total distance: 7.4 miles
Elapsed time: 3:51

Day 5: Hamlin Peak (Coming Down)

(Continued from here)

Looking down the Hamlin Ridge Trail

12:45pm
I've come a very short way off the summit and down the Hamlin Ridge Trail. I'm finally protected from the roaring wind, so I'm stopping to take a few pics, and even my first ever mountain-top video. The view of the mountains and the forests and the lakes is awe-inspiring. The trail goes right down the ridgeline, so I'll have views at every step of the way. But now that I look closer, it's not actually a trail - it's a path over big boulders. Unless that changes as I get lower on the mountain, it means that I won't be walking - I'll be picking every step from boulder to boulder. I'm sure-footed (*knocks wood*) and am good at rock hopping - but that means slow going. As the ranger predicted, I haven't seen another soul since taking the fork to Hamlin.

1:12pm
The views continue to be everything I could hope for, but the trail is slow, hard going. It's a steady downhill over boulders, and I'm being slow and careful. A false step could mean a fall and maybe an injury, and there's no one on this trail but me. I'm feeling a little weak, so I'm going extra slow. This is harder than I thought. I've taken some good slow looks into the North Basin, but I haven't seen any wildlife.

1:41pm
I'm feeling a little bit of despair at how far *down* there still is to go. I've been giving up elevation steadily over the last hour, but I'm still up on the ridge, and pretty far above the valley floor. I'm not feeling great. I've taken some extended looks into the basin, and as much as I willed some black dots to be moose or bear, I don't think they were.

2:08pm
Junction of the main trail from Chimney Pond to Roaring Brook Campground. Thank goodness. Now I know exactly where I am and how far I have to go (a little over 3 miles.) The last 45 minutes or so were not pleasant. I was feeling weak and I'm running low on water, and I wasn't sure how far there still was to go. The ridge trail was beautiful, but much harder than I thought.

I even started having thoughts about the possibility of having to spend the night on the trail. (I never thought it was likely, but I did start thinking about some "what if's".) I'm prepared - but I could be more prepared. I do have my emergency survival kit with me, but I should have another set of warm clothes in my pack, and I should have brought more water. I also noted with alarm that my cell phone was getting low on battery, so I turned it off (to save a little bit of battery for if I really did need to try to send a message for help.) That's why there's a section of purple on my GPS track. The red line ends where I turned the phone off. I drew in my estimate (in purple) of how I connected back to the main trail.

3:30pm
I'm back home at lean-to #7, and very happy to be here. The last three miles were long and hard and rocky - but I was no longer worried. I was back on the main trail and never went too long without passing other hikers. Many had full backpacking gear and were heading to Chimney Pond Campground to camp (as there's no road access - you have to park at Roaring Brook and backpack in.) I was almost out of water, so now I'm going to drink a lot of water, and then drink some more water, and then get out of these wet clothes and into some dry cotton...and then maybe lay down for a short nap. John isn't back, and I'm wondering where he is and how he's doing.

4:35pm
I've changed and napped and am feeling much much better. But I'm starting to worry a little about John, mostly because of the text message I got from him - specifically, the "may try Hamlin" part. I can imagine him feeling good, deciding to go from Katahdin over to Hamlin, then down the ridge trail I came down. If he fell, there'd be no one to help him. Or he might run out of daylight - it took me much longer to come down the ridge trail than I would have thought from looking at a topo map. I'm not super worried...just a little worried.

5:12pm
He's still not back, and now I'm a little more worried. He's been gone for 10 hours. I've walked up to the trailhead to watch people coming off the trail. I'm commiserating with a woman in a car who's driven here to pick up her daughter after a hike of a few days. We're reassuring each other that everything will certainly be fine.

I just saw the ranger, and asked him what the procedure is for a hiker who doesn't return. He said to come back and see him tomorrow morning when he comes on duty at 6:30am. That makes sense - there's nothing they can do once the sun goes down. They have to wait until morning.

It's silly to wait here, I'll go back to camp.

5:45pm
John just walked into camp, thank goodness. He said I shouldn't have worried...but I couldn't help it, especially since I didn't know his route. It turns out he didn't do Hamlin too - he went to the start of the Knife's Edge, pronounced it "crazy", and turned around and retraced his path back down. He saw a moose close-up, and I'm green with envy. I didn't see any moose or bears.

6:43pm
We have a fire going, and dinner will be soon. The menu is hot dogs and leftover sausages from last night. That was a strenuous day (damn, I used the "s" word again...but it's the right word.) Much more than I intended. In hindsight, I should have avoided the Saddle Trail and the Slide. I should have *ascended* the Hamlin Ridge Trail, just going up as far as I felt like (not necessarily all the way to the summit), then turned around and came back. I would have had a good hike and seen the spectacular views. But it all worked out.

John is very happy, as he should be. He didn't feel good about not summiting Marcy last year, and I think he wanted to see if he could still do a hike like this. He also stunned me by saying that he didn't stop once going up the Slide. I bet I stopped 20 times.

I may not have mentioned this yet, but this campground has no facilities. Pit toilets, no showers, no running water. Our running water is Roaring Brook (and the two big jugs we brought with us.) Also, no trash collection. You pack out your own trash. We're washing up with Wet Wipes, which does the job - but I'll admit I'm fantasizing about a hot shower.

We're both joking about where we feel on the "Sanford" scale. I think we're both at about a "medium Sanford." On our first boys' trip (2007, to the Southwest), Phil was so tight after the first big day of hiking, that I joked he was hobbling around like Fred Sanford in "Sanford and Son". Since then, the mark of how you feel after a hard day of hiking can be measured on a scale of "no Sanford" to "light Sanford" to "full Sanford." (See this trip report, three paragraphs from the end.)

8:30-ish
Sack time very soon. Dogs and sausages were delicious, then we sat at the fire and reviewed our hikes. It's not as cold tonight as it was last night, and sleeping should be good.

The plan for tomorrow is get up, pack up our gear and load the car. There's a hike to Katahdin Lake which isn't too long, and more importantly, is mostly flat. We'll leave the campsite, make the short drive to the trailhead, do our hike, then leave the park and drive to Millinocket, where we have a motel room reserved (presumably with hot showers.)

Today was a very good day - tough, but rewarding. Nite nite.

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Total distance: 9.8 miles
Elapsed time: 7 hours

Day 5: Hamlin Peak (Going Up)

8:24am
I'm finished a quick breakfast and I'm dressing and prepping to go. John was up at 6:00 and left for his Katahdin hike before I was out of the sack (around 7:30.) It was a cold night - I had my sleeping bag fully zipped up and had a wool cap on. I slept really well and really needed it.

I have a tentative plan for today, but I'm going to stay flexible in case my plan is too ambitious, or my body decides it's had enough. I'm going to follow John for some of his hike. The first leg is 3.3 miles to Chimney Pond. This looks innocuous on the map, but the rangers told us there's 1,300 feet of elevation gain. The next 1.1 miles is up The Saddle, with the last half mile (called The Slide) being a very steep rock climb. Once up onto the ridge, John will turn left and climb 0.9 miles to the summit of Katahdin. I will turn right and climb 1.1 miles to the summit of Hamlin Peak, which is 500 vertical feet shorter than Katahdin.

My hope is that this will be less strenuous, but will still have some good hiking, good climbing, and good mountaintop views. If I get there, I can come down the Hamlin Ridge Trail, which the ranger said offers great views, plus the possibility of wildlife sightings. We'll see. It looks like a nice sunny day, and I'm in long hiking pants and a short-sleeve polypro shirt. I have a fleece jacket and my Gore-tex rain jacket in my pack, along with gloves and a wool cap, sandwiches and Powerbars, two Gatorades, and a full water bladder. Off we go.

9:34am
I've stopped for a short break. It's a perfect sunny cool day, and the mountain and forest views are gorgeous. So far it's been a tough rocky uphill trail - hard work and slow going.

One very surprising note. I turned my phone on back at the trailhead, in hopes of capturing a GPS track of today's hike. I just looked to make sure it's getting the track, and to my astonishment, I have cell phone and internet connectivity. I have notifications for e-mails and text messages. How is that possible? I'm not going to Facebook from the Maine woods, but I will check messages to make sure everything's okay at home (and I'm assuming the absence of hair-on-fire messages is a good sign. :-))

10:35am
Chimney Pond Campground. That was a tough and strenuous first leg. (I know, I'm not supposed to use the "s" word, but there's no other word for it - that was a tough, rocky, uphill hike.) There's a sign-in station here - you're supposed to log when you're leaving and where you're going, in case you don't come back and they have to go out and rescue you. I also logged my start from Roaring Brook, and I'm now signed in here too. I note that while John logged his start from Roaring Brook, he didn't sign the log here.

I had a short, pleasant talk with the ranger. He told me I'll likely be all on my own if I go to Hamlin, as everyone wants to bag Katahdin. That's perfect, I love solitude. He asked if I had water, layers of clothing, and a light. I answered "yes" to everything, even though I may not actually have a light. I couldn't find my headlamp when packing at home, so I've been wearing a little flashlight on my belt. But I've misplaced it since leaving Acadia. Maybe it's in the bottom of my pack (which was my hope/assumption when answering "yes" to the ranger.)

Oh, as I was on the trail approaching the campground, I passed two hikers coming the other way who asked me if I'd seen the moose. Moose?!? I had to answer that I hadn't. Apparently one had been seen this morning near a pond I'd just passed. Damn...I would have loved to see him!

10:55am
Rest break, Saddle Trail. The rocky uphill started as soon as I left Chimney Pond. It looks like it continues to get steeper. I'm wondering if this was a good idea...but I do feel good, and the weather couldn't be more perfect. I'm sweating freely (which I always do on a climb), and am taking frequent sips of water. My mantra for the day is "we shall see." I'm not putting any pressure on myself to get to a summit or complete a hike. Whatever happens, happens.

11:55am
Ridgeline, top of the Saddle Trail. Holy f&^k. That was just plain *brutal*. Maybe the toughest climb I've ever done...or at least the steepest unrelenting rock climb. I probably sat down and took a short break and a few gasps of air about every 50 feet. And I wasn't the slowest hiker on the trail. For a while, I was hearing female conversation ahead of me. As I got closer, I realized they were speaking French. I think it was a mother and daughter, maybe 55 and late 20's. I passed the mom, who was struggling, and a while later I passed the daughter, who had stopped to wait for her mom and was shouting encouragement down to her. I was momentarily tempted to wow them with my high school French, but all I could think of was "Ou est la salle de bains?" Ah well. In hindsight, the phrase I wanted (with Google Translate's help) was: "Belle journée, n'est-ce pas? Je pense que je suis sur le point de mourir."

As soon as I got to the ridge, I was exposed to a ferocious cold wind from the west. I took my shirt off for a few minutes to dry the sweat, but then I put it back on, and also put on my fleece jacket and gloves. The views are amazing in all directions. I can see my trail to Hamlin Peak, and it looks like a gentle uphill walk. The trail to Katahdin, in the other direction, also looks like a fairly gentle uphill walk. Last night, John said that if I got to this point and felt good, that maybe I'd decide I couldn't resist Katahdin. I do feel good, but it's not tempting. This has already been more strenuous than I intended, and now that I'm here, I'll do the lower peak, then come down the Hamlin Ridge Trail, which shouldn't be too bad.

The French-speaking ladies finally made it up The Slide and gave me a smile as they started off to Katahdin. I wonder how John is doing? I'll end my break and start for Hamlin.

12:38pm
Summit of Hamlin Peak. Wow wow wow! That last mile wasn't bad - there were a couple of rocky climbing stretches, but it was mostly an uphill walk. The wind never let up, and still hasn't - I'm on the ridgeline and exposed to the west, and it's blasting me. It's a clear sunny day, and the views in every direction are amazing.

I looked at my phone to check the GPS and was stunned to see a text message from John, from just a few minutes ago! From the summit of Katahdin!!! It was a bit garbled, but seemed to say this: "Leaving Katahdin summit. May try Hamlin." Good for him! I texted back that I was at the summit of Hamlin, and had done the 5.5 miles in a little over 4 hours.

I stopped to eat a sandwich and drink in the views. To the west, I can see miles and miles of forest, seemingly all the way to New Hampshire or Quebec. To the east, I can probably see to the Atlantic coast. Katahdin is visible from Acadia on a clear day, so the coast should be visible from here. Katahdin is *massive*, and dominates the sky to the south. I'm thrilled for John that he's up there.

Looking down the Hamlin Ridge Trail

The Hamlin Ridge Trail is clearly visible in front of me - it follows the ridgeline down, with rocky drops on both sides. The drop-off to the left goes down into the North Basin. The ranger yesterday said the basin is covered with two-foot-tall scrub, so any interesting wildlife (i.e., bears or moose) will be clearly visible.

I still feel pretty good, but that climb did take something out of me. I'll rest here for a little longer, than start hiking down.

(Continued here)

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Here's my GPS track of the day. It starts at Roaring Brook Campground, on the far right. It goes to Chimney Pond (not following the purple path, which was my return route on the clockwise loop - and I'll explain the purple later.) After the steep ascent of the Saddle, it goes right to Hamlin Peak. John went left from that point, and got to Baxter Peak (the summit of Katahdin.) If you keep going, you get to South Peak, then traverse the Knife's Edge to Chimney Peak, then come down the ridge.

I realized as I was taking pics from the summit of Hamlin, that my phone also has a video camera. So I did my first ever video tour, here, and below. And yeah, now I know that you should turn your camera to portrait mode for YouTube, not landscape. Oh well.