Baxter State Park, Oct 14, 15, &16

[TJ aka Teej]

Saturday Oct 14. Class One Day on Katahdin. Frost lays heavy all the way from Greenville to Linda's Store at Abol Bridge. She's a tagging station for the moose hunt, and dozens of Polaroids of big bull moose hanging from the scale outside her store are posted by the AT register. Some real large moose, up to 1000 pounds with 90 inch antlers. They don't post pics of the cows. Linda stays open until the end of November to serve the hunters, and keeps pretty busy. I wore safety orange on a hike on the AT beside the river, the lower bridge is still out. Logging alongside Baxter's southern boundary fills the air with noise, smoke, and the pungent smell of fresh cut trees. Katahdin Stream campground is nearly full with end-of-season campers. Hiked the old AT around Grassy Pond to Daicey, then the 'real' AT down to Windey Pitch. Had good talk with Rangers about the AT hikers, they reported no complaints regarding ATer behavior this season! Thrus started coming down off the mountain, starting with No Pain, a hiker I've bumped into half a dozen times, nice guy, off to do the CDT next year. No Pain had hooked up with a ride to Bangor from a hiker he met on top. Hiker Karma! Minnesota Smith, Fish, Minnow, Possum, Dogwood, and Rainbow Kid all summited on Saturday. Dogwood plans to give back to the trail by joining a crew back down in Jersey. Possum was sporting a big Virginia-sized grin on her way home. Dark fell a sudden, with a clear moonless sky full of countless stars. Two headlamps wandered in, with Miyagi and Blue beneath. Good attitudes! When the Ranger found a lean-to for them in the campground that night, the Birches had seen their last thrus of the season. Blue said the Ranger checked her in as GAMEr #487, Miyagi was #486, exactly 100 less than the 586 he was given in Harper's Ferry. It was 28 degrees at ten-thirty.

Sunday, October 15th. Class Two day on Katahdin. Hiked part of the new Traveler loop in the north of the Park on an empty trail, with moose, deer, grouse, little flocks of mixed birds including red-breasted nuthatches, ruby and golden crowned kinglets, canada jays, boreal chickadees, and a bazillion juncos. Nice high hike through open hardwoods. Back at KSC saw Miyagi without his hiking partner walking FAST toward the closed Ranger cabin - I headed over because I thought something might be wrong. Nothing was, just hurrying off the mountain to meet up with an recent thru-hiker they'd met at the summit who was coming around the mountain to pick them up and take them all the way to Portland. More Hiker Karma! Not long after Blue came running - yes running! - through the campground, across the bridge and up to the Ranger's porch. They hustled out to the tote road to look for their ride. They missed by minutes a huge bull moose strolling up the Ranger's driveway. The campground was empty that night, just me and one other hiker - no thrus at all on Baxter Park's last night of overnight camping. I went for a night hike into Dwelly Pond, just a four mile loop, but very cool in the dark with just the stars to light the way much of the time. Lots of moose poop and owls hooting. 29 degrees at 10PM.

Monday, October 16th. Class Three day on Katahdin, the Knife Edge is closed due to ice. The snowshoe hares are changing to white, one splotch at a time. The sun rising behind Katahdin was putting on a spectacular lightshow. Up the AT past the Falls onto the ledges where several ravens were squawking at a sullen red-tailed hawk. Looking south and west from here you can see where the AT winds into the 100 Mile Wilderness. There's probably still dozens of hikers moving north toward Katahdin out there. Back down at KSC I shook Ranger Bruce White's hand for the last time this season, he still has several weeks of hard work ahead, and I have to get home to start basketball practices. I'll see him again in the Spring, when we start all this over again.

Teej < trying to upload some pics

[Tramper Al]

Hi,

The former AT route that you walked immediately south of the Tote Road, Grassy Pond Trail, has been closed for some years, with signs on both ends indicating "keep off" the trail. When did it reopen?

[TJ aka Teej]

Grassy Pond Trail, has been closed for some years.

I feed the whiskey jacks too, Al. I stayed off it the first four or five years after it was closed. I think rerouting the AT along the new Grassy Pond Trail, around the back of the pond, through the old CCC camp and out to the Tote Road across from Katahdin Stream Campground would be a nice return to the old days. Eliminates that dangerous road walk, too.

[bfitz]

Perhaps next year....