Your Mountain is Waiting

Okay okay...I admit it, I was skeptical at first. Maine? Mountains? Are you sure they're not just hills? I mean I like to think I know mountains when I see them. Even as we were driving into Baxter State Park in northern Maine I still wasn't sure what loomed ahead were actual mountains. It was beautiful up there but the magnitude of the mountains wasn't immediately apparent. Maine's mountains are very sneaky. They don't give even a hint of foreboding nature until you are right there. I have been told that Maine is 90% forest and that it is the "pine tree state". I believe it. I have never seen so much green! We drove into our campsite after driving for 6 hours and finally set up our tents and made the area home for the next two nights. Jess reserved a group site so there were 14 of us total, most of whom I'd never met before but everyone was great! Five of us got there early, the rest came later that first night. I borrowed a little one-person tent from Will and it was the cutest, smallest tent I think I've ever seen! Me and my tent became the joke of the trip but really I fit in it perfectly! I could just lay down completely with my head touching on end and my feet touching the other end of the tent. Since I will be doing a lot of camping this summer with the rec camp I might look into buying my own cute little tent once I start getting paid. Anyways I was totally content with my little humble abode for the weekend. It was all I needed and it allowed me to fit everything I needed for the weekend into two backpacks of modest size. I'm trying to be all about simplicity these days, having only what I need and very little else so I tried that out this weekend.

We got to the campsite in the afternoon so we had several hours to set things up and hang out and enjoy the natural that we were in the midst of! We went to bed not long after the sun went down but I didn't fall asleep until maybe midnight or so. I got a few hours of sleep before waking up at 4:15 with the sun and some very loud and persistent birds. I can't even remember the last time I was awake at 4:15am! Yikes. I didn't actually get up though until about an hour later. So we had breakfast, got ourselves ready for a day of hiking and set off for the start of the trail and were on our way by a little after 6.

The first part of the hike was along a trail that led to Chimney Pond, a beautiful area with Mount Katahdin as the backdrop. This first part took us about three and a half hours, making frequent stops to accomodate for the varying degrees of hiking levels we were all at. I didn't mind the extended time spent on this part of the hike because it allowed me to conserve energy for the more strenuous part of the hike after the pond. The only part that I found extremely unpleasant were the flies that seemed to follow us everywhere and swarm around us. There were also plenty of mosquitoes. BUT an amazing thing happened within only the first hour or so of hiking! We saw a moose! A pretty good sized thing (although they're all pretty huge) with antlers and everything. This was the second moose I'd ever seen. The first was last summer in Colorado. What a cool thing to see though! Many people who have lived in Maine for years and years haven't seen a moose so I guess I lucked out!

We reached Chimney Pond around 9:30am which is about the time I'd be waking up on any other day but I'd already been awake for six hours by then! Most of our party elected to call it good at the pond so Jess, Ben and I forged ahead on our own to conquer Katahdin. Now we could see the mountain we were about to climb from the lake, but like I said, Maine mountains are very tricky. They don't make it obvious just what you're in for. Jess had done the hike once before but as she said, it's not even possible to really describe the hike, you just have to see for yourself what it's like. We started off and were really cruising along and then we hit the actual mountain, where the "trail" was simply a matter of climbing over giant boulder after giant boulder for several hours and the trail markers were blue spray-painted lines on random boulders every couple yards. I want to know whose job that was to do the hike and decide which boulders would make the trail for people to follow. At some points we wondered if the chosen path was a joke, like "Haha let's see what kind of ridiculous things we can make these people climb over, around, and under!" at one point I said to Jess "Hey, remember what it felt like to walk upright?" She said "nope, I can't even remember that far back" it had been hours of climbing up boulders at an unbelievably steep angle and there was no other way but to use both hands and feet like awkward monkeys. The views, however, were completely amazing.

We made it to the top many hours later and ohhhh boy was that view unbelievable! Definitely worth it. We took pictures, rested a little while, then headed back down via a different trail (partially for a change in scenery, and partially because as difficult as it was going up our chosen trail, going down it would have been practically unthinkable) but alas, our new trail was equally rocky. We were essentially dragging our asses down a rockslide. The rocks were often unstable and at awkward places and angles so that we still didn't get to experience upright locomotion for many more hours. In addition, as is the case in downhill hiking/crawling, all three of us were experiencing the wonders of your toes being smashed against the front of your hiking boots to the point where you really wouldn't be surprised to take your shoes off and discover that your toes have been worn down to little nubs and nothing more. Eventually we decided it would be more efficient to describe what DIDN'T hurt, instead of what did. But once again, I must stress, that despite the pain and complaints, the views were incredible and I really did enjoy the hike and I believe Jess and Ben felt the same.

After many many hours of climbing/crawling/sliding/hiking we made it back to the parking lot around 7:30pm where we were indescribably glad to have a ride waiting for us to take us back to the campsite a couple miles down the road. We all climbed into the truck bed and instantly fell asleep. We got out of the truck at the campsite and hobbled over to the campfire, ate some dinner, and basically passed out an hour later. I slept through the night and only woke up once around midnight when it started to rain. I absolutely love the sound of rain on my tent, as long as I'm safe from getting wet, which I was so even that little interruption to my deep slumber was just fine with me!

I think I will venture to say that this 13-hour hike was the longest, and most difficult hike of my life. Well done, Maine, you really do have mountains! It was also one of the most beautiful hikes. I am still amazed at how green the forest was, how clear the water was, and the views from the top of the mountains was incredible. Some facts for you all about the area I was in are such:
-Baxter Peak, one of (or maybe THE) tallest mountains in Maine is, at its summit, 5,267 feet in elevation
-the elevation of Maine's highest point is almost the same elevation as Boulder, CO
-Mount Katahdin is the end of the Appalachian Trail (seems like kind of a cruel joke to those who hike the entire 2,178.3 mile trail to come to the end and still have this enormous rocky mountain to climb)
-hikers are required to bring flashlights or headlamps with them on the hike because is is so common to not finish the hike until after dark, even when starting at 6am!

Today I am sore all over but completely satisfied with my weekend of camping and hiking! Now I will hobble over to the grocery store to buy food, then do some laundry and try to get some other things accomplished today, as I only have a couple more days before my job actually starts and I will probably be constantly busy and exhausted from all the fun!

Last night Jess and Ben and I went to visit Jess' brother Zach in the hospital, where he is because of an unfortunate incident a week ago with a tree branch and his leg. He's doing well now, but could use everyone's good thoughts!

Thanks for reading my epic tale. To see more pictures, go here!