As I sit down to FINALLY write this posting, the whole trip seems a little surreal. Like it was a dream. A really challenging and awesome dream, but a dream nonetheless. I feel so blessed to have been able to take such trips like this, and experience the United States in a natural and un-commercialized way. It breaks my heart to know that most people in our country do not take the time to appreciate the natural beauty that surrounds us, that they have embraced only the material side of life. This especially holds true for the children. Their lack of exposure and appreciation for the natural world will surely be more damaging than we have even imagined. Sigh. Okay, I'll jump down off of my soap box and get to the good stuff.
Baxter State Park sits in the center of Maine and is the result of the work of Percival Proctor Baxter, the governor of Maine during the early 1920s. Thankfully he had the foresight to protect this land by creating a state park. The placard to the left very clearly demonstrates his feelings about humans and their short-sightedness.
Mt. Katahdin is the highest point within Baxter and also the state of Maine at 5789 ft. It is the northern terminus, or starting point for the Appalachian Trail. For those of you unfamiliar, the Appalachian Trail is one of the longest continuously marked footpaths in the world. It measures roughly 2,180 miles in length and stretches over 14 states, ending at Springer Mountain, Georgia. Approximately 2.3 million people hike a portion of the trail each year. We just wanted to get to the starting point.
For the rest of this posting, I have posted captions under the photos. I hope you enjoy the view :)
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| This was a moose track near our camp. We sat out for almost an hour and watched a young moose make his way around the edge of the lake. It was Scott's first moose encounter & although we didn't get any good pics of the moose itself, we were finally able check that off of Scott's bucket list |
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| Our first clear view of Katahdin from the trail. |
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| Because we made our reservations so late (apparently March is late for a July trip), we had to camp 3 miles from the base of the mountain. This photo is us just arriving at Chimney Pond, at the base of the mountain. |
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| And so it begins... |
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Along the left side you can see the ridge known as the Knife's Edge. The name is self-sufficient.
We did not hike there. |
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| Seriously, this is the trail. |
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A little lichen for our trip (the green stuff in the forefront). This stuff was everywhere on the granite and since we experienced a torrential downpour halfway up (we hunkered down & covered what we could),
climbing from that point on was even slower. |
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| Scrambling over granite...this was what it was like the whole way. |
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| The view was so worth the effort! |
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| We made it! |
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I imagine this must be what the coast of Ireland looks like. Scott's bit of wisdom as we gazed out,
"Nope, wouldn''t be able to get a tank up here." |
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| Mt. Hamlin, the second highest peak and a stop on our way down. |
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| At a rest point, Scott left his camera on a rock. This was his shot of me once he retrieved it. |
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This was supposed to be the easy way down. Notice the very narrow edge in front of me.
No real trail, just a lot of careful scrambling. This would prove to be brutal on our knees... |
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| More climbing anyone? |
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We finally reached the tree line on the way down but the trail was an
old stream bed and no easy task to descend. |
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We broke camp and left at sunup (we were on the trail at 0600) and 9.5 hours later
we finally reached the parking lot of our camp. 13 miles round trip.
Now we just had to drive 3.5 hours to get to my brother's house for the night... |
Baxter State Park sits in the center of Maine and is the result of the work of Percival Proctor Baxter, the governor of Maine during the early 1920s. Thankfully he had the foresight to protect this land by creating a state park. The placard to the left very clearly demonstrates his feelings about humans and their short-sightedness. 
