Lorraine's day in Baxter State Park

Monday 18 was the day we visiting Baxter State Park. This park is located in Maine and, while a state park, is managed by an independent body.

The park area is 50% lakes. The lakes vary in size from small to large. Trevor will do a blog for the day with arial  photos of the park.

I was the only member of our group to opt for one of the mountain climbs. There were two climbs that Mike, our tour leader, suggested although one would have taken around 10 hours so was not really an option. The other, a climb to the summit of The Owl, was very much possible and it is the one I did. I had been warned that there was some scrambling required so I was prepared for what I faced.

I was dropped off at the camping ground near the trail head, provided with a map of the area and my pick up time (5 o'clock). Then I was on my own, except for the other trail walkers, of course.

After signing the trail log I headed off. The first part of the trail (1.1 miles) tracked fairly close to the Katahdin Stream, a creek/river that rushed over rocks and provided a constant gurgle as background.

The first thing that struck me as I set out along the trail was the nunmber and variety of the fungi. Here are some of the photos I took.

The ground was covered by mosses. Stepping of the trail the ground was very spongy.

The trail was fairly rough. Rocks and tree roots were prevalent. The tree roots were a result of the very shallow top soil.

Fallen trees were quite common. The blue rectangle on the tree on the right is the trail maker for The Owl Trail

Yes, this is the track

Looking down on a section of track I had just climbed

 The trail was well marked with blue markers on trees at intervals of 10 to 20 metres.

I had some wonderful views over the park from some of the higher spots along the trail.

Some of the many lakes can be seen in this photo

A stream tumbled down the mountainside (from top left to middle bottom)

An interesting rock formation/cliff face near the top

Cloud beginning to come down ... an another stream coming down from the higher reaches

The group of four who greeted me on top of The Owl

When I reached the summit I was greeted by a part of four. One of the gents kinly took a photo of me on the summit.

Lorraine standing on the summit of The Owl

The summit of The Owl is above the treeline. Even so, some trees persist albeit in a drawf form.

The cloud rolled in and the rain began to fall. The party of four departed. I had planned to each my lunch but decided against sitting on a mountaintop in poor visability in the rain and packed up and headed down the mountain. If I thought that the climb was challenging enough the descent was even trickier as the rain made the rocks very slippery, the tree roots which were a hazard on the way up were even more so on the way down as the polished wood, when wet, was like glass. It was a fairly slow descent with risk minimisation the order of the day. Even so, there were times when my foot slipped. Fortunately I always had an acchor point.

On the way up I had encountered a section of track that looked like it was passing though a stream. I'm pretty sure that the water would have been much more if there had been heavy rain. Today it was just a nuicance.

Track or creek?

I was back at the trail head just on 2:30pm a little under 5 hours from when I had set out. That appears to be a fairly good time and was certainly great in the damp conditions.

After eating my lunch and sitting around for a while I decided to check out the Katahdin Stream Waterfall as I had a couple of hours to kill before Mike would be back to pick me up. The falls were a short distance further along the the Hunt trail just above the junction with the Owl Trail so was an easy hike within the time available.

If only they took away some of those nuicance trees that make taking photos golly difficult!

The philosophy within the Baxter state Park is to keep things as natural as possible. there are no sealed roads. Trails use natural materials to the greatest extent possible. All drinking water has to be carried in. There are no points at which you can access drinking water.

In the camping groundsthere are a number of lean-to shelters that can be hired. They come with a table and a fireplace. Wood can be purchased from the ranger station.

One of the lean-to camping sites in Baxter State Park

I was pleased to see Mike trundling up in the van and the shower on my return to our accommodation was most welcome.

I did get a lot of questions about my day. Were the rocks that had to be scrambled over as big as suggested i.e. shoulder high? Yes, they were and some were higher.

All up I had had a great day and would definitely do it again if I had the chance.