Gulf Hagas, Me

[Johnny Appleseed]

100 mile wilderness lies the most beautiful spot of my thru hike on the AT. It is called Gulf Hagas. A 5 mile loop that is not part of the AT. It has big cliffs, tons of waterfalls that are fairly big, headwaters, grotto pool for swimming. I walked out of there mesmerized. If you pass this up at least know you are missing something very special. The next best place on the AT for me was the presidential range.

Do not pass this by unless you have to. Trail is not difficult/taxing.

[Tinker]

I agree. Due to time restraints, when I hiked it in 2008, I only went part of the way around the gulf. I entered the wilderness and went to the left maybe a mile, to a very deep gorge and took a movie from top to bottom. The trail is very easy, too. The problem is that I thought I'd be walking along the river, but, due to concern about overuse and erosion (I guess), access to the river itself is only at established viewpoints. Another poster recently suggested doing what I did accidentally as being the best way to enjoy the best of Gulf Hagas. If I had a special someone to share it with (my wife doesn't hike anymore), I would have made sure to leave more time to savor it.

[Tinker]

Just to make it plain as can be, that "special someone" I was referring to IS my wife!

[Pedaling Fool]

100 mile wilderness lies the most beautiful spot of my thru hike on the AT. It is called Gulf Hagas. A 5 mile loop that is not part of the AT. It has big cliffs, tons of waterfalls that are fairly big, headwaters, grotto pool for swimming. I walked out of there mesmerized. If you pass this up at least know you are missing something very special. The next best place on the AT for me was the presidential range.

Do not pass this by unless you have to. Trail is not difficult/taxing.

When are the lifeguards on duty

[weary]

Gulf Hagas is truly a remarkable place. It was popular in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Then resort hotels were built and a railroad passed within 10 miles. Guides took tourists in horse-drawn carriages to witness the canyon and its waterfalls. But the iron smelter that built the access roads, went out of business, along with the railroad. Slowly knowledge of Gulf Hagas disappeared, except for a few hikers.

The trail around the rim of the canyon, with side trails to the edge of the stream, was reopened by volunteer crews, when the Appalachian Trail was pushed through Maine in the early 1930s. A story I wrote about 1970 was among the first to appear in the state newspapers since the demise of easy access.

The publicity since then has drawn thousands of visitors. What better to spur popular interest than a "secret canyon" that you can reach via a logging road, and a seven-mile round trip walk. MATC now employs a summer caretaker to educate walkers about "leave no trace" principles, and to encourage them to obey the restrictions against camping.

The area was once owned by a logging company. It was purchased by the Nature Conservancy, and is now owned by the National Park Service.

I've walked Gulf Hagas at least a dozen times. It never has had a life guard. I argued against a brief, and luckily a failed proposal, to line the canyon overlooks with iron railings.

The upper end of the canyon is connected by a two-mile trail to AMC's Little Lyford Pond camps. AMC has restored an 1800s sporting camp. The result is also worth a visit. A visit to Little Lyford is like returning to a different era. The half dozen or so camps are heated by wood stoves, and lit by kerosene lamps. AMC supplies the wood. The building and maintaining of the fires are left to to the occupants.

Winter is a popular time at Little Lyford. Ski trails connect the camp to other restored sporting camps in the region.

I think a sale is going on this month. One can stay at the camps and get three meals for around $80. Best of all, the road isn't plowed. You have to ski or snowshoe in (around 8 miles, as I remember.)

Weary

[Pedaling Fool]

...It never has had a life guard. I argued against a brief, and luckily a failed proposal, to line the canyon overlooks with iron railings...
Weary

My post about lifeguards was a tongue-in-cheek remark.

When I was there in ’81 there was almost no one (other than us hikers), as opposed to when I went through there in 2006 there were tons of tourists, surprisingly a lot of them were foreigners. I heard there’s a parking lot somewhere near the trail where they all park; there is no more 100-mile wilderness.

It seems only a matter of time…

[weary]

.....I heard there’s a parking lot somewhere near the trail where they all park; there is no more 100-mile wilderness.

It seems only a matter of time…

There are two parking lots. The most popular is just a few hundred yards off the trail, where it crosses the Pleasant River. Most users drive up Route 11 from Monson and follow the signs to Katahdin Iron Works. The parking lot is on the right, a few miles beyond the Iron Works smelter.

The second takes the same road off Route 11, but bears right at the Gulf Hagas sign, and then left after crossing White Brook. That route avoids fording the the river. I use that parking area when the water is high and the Gulf Hagas water falls are especially dramatic.

I certainly enjoyed hiking the Gulf more before the crowds converged. But people will protect only those places they know and have grown to love. I was criticized by some hikers when I wrote extensively about Bigelow 40 years ago, but those stories made the gathering of signatures on petitions for a referendum possible, and probably were the reason the referendum passed by a narrow margin.

Bigelow, like Gulf Hagas, has far more crowds these days. But the alternative would have been a new town on the slopes of the mountain -- a town developers had dreamed would become the "Aspen of the East."

Even with knowledge, only a tiny percentage of hikers support the mountains they profess to love.

The Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust struggles to get the funding needed to protect the cluster of High Peaks between the Mahoosucs and Bigelow.

Weary www.matlt.org

[Johnny Appleseed]

Thank you weary for informing me of the past. I only know I love it today, so knowing the history and now a side trail is more then welcome. When I went all I saw were 2 people taking pictures from weyerhauser or some paper company for advertising photos. The trail was clean and the area seemed like tourists have treated it perfectly.

I asked every thru hiker I saw and no one went there. I found it odd because the thru hikers are looking for stuff just like that, but they ALL missed it. They did not know of the beauty and some I think did not believe me on the description.

Of course I saw a rock in the ground shaped like a naked heavy set woman half protruding from the ground. People thought I had lost it, but it was before virginia I think so deep woodsitis had not set in. No one saw it, but all walked over it. I have pictures and I need to scan them and post them. The chest part felt real, ok I am setting myself up for more jokes, but it is true.

[Pedaling Fool]

How did Gulf Hagas get to be such an attraction?

I understand the beauty part of the attraction, but it was in the middle of nowhere.

Did someone or an organization actively set out to make it such a popular attraction?

[Tinker]

How did Gulf Hagas get to be such an attraction?

I understand the beauty part of the attraction, but it was in the middle of nowhere.

Did someone or an organization actively set out to make it such a popular attraction?

Your questions are answered above.

[Pedaling Fool]

Your questions are answered above.

I was hoping Weary would elaborate.

Not sure if it was just his story combined with word-of-mouth or something more organized.

[Tinker]

Gulf Hagas was popular years ago when logging was active in the area. Apparantly the loggers' word of mouth was enough, and the logging roads were used to get there. Now that the AMC has a newly redone camp nearby, I'm sure more and more folks will be coming. The good part is that you won't find too many AMC members trashing the natural beauty with cigarette butts, "Kleenex" etc.
I'm sure Weary has much, much more info. on the subject.

[Pedaling Fool]

I'm also curious if the parking lots were built as part of the anticipation of the crowds if this was an organized effort to attract visitors or if it was in response to an unplanned increase in vistors.

[weary]

I'm also curious if the parking lots were built as part of the anticipation of the crowds if this was an organized effort to attract visitors or if it was in response to an unplanned increase in vistors.

The parking lot on the east side has always been there -- at least since the area began to be harvested seriously in the late 1960s. It's where I drove to on my first visit. A guy who lived in a one-room tarpaper shack had shown up one day with an invitation to a trip that he said would show me a marvelous set of canyons and waterfalls that almost no one knew about.

No other reporter in Maine paid any attention to the guy. He drove an old car, donated I later I came to understand by a lady friend. Even worse he was missing a couple or three front teeth, had no visible occupation, and worse of all, no environmental credentials that anyone had heard about.

Well, I went, and wrote about this secret place -- to my regret. I later learned it was in the MATC guidebook -- first published 30 years previously -- and had always been known by people willing to walk this strange new "Appalachian" trail that almost no one either then or by the time my story appeared had heard about.

But the story stirred curiosity. That was unique. Not because of the skill of the writer, but because it was easily accessible. Afterall, I wrote about the parking lot where I had parked.

As the logging companies extended their reach into unharvested areas -- the main road from KIW was extended, eventually all the way from Brownville to Greenville. And as the tourists that some think I may have helped inspire followed, the company built a second parking lot on the west side of the Pleasant River to keep tourists from blocking their logging trucks.

I would regret my involvement more, except the Nature Conservancy in one of its early Maine investments, bought the Hermitage, an ancient sporting camp at the entrance to Gulf Hagas. Sadly TNC quickly tore down the historic camps, but the US Department of the Interior then intervened, calling the area an historical and ecological treasure. The federal agency eventually acquired ownership. I don't know whether it bought the area, or just that the Nature Conservancy was tired of coping with the tourists that were arriving in ever increasing numbers and gave it too them.

Anyway, it remains a remarkable part of the Appalachian Trail and long distance hikers should plan on visiting Gulf Hagas if at all possible.

Weary

[Askus3]

I remember reading about the Gulf Hagas in the travel section in the Sunday New York Times sometime in the 70s. Good article. Always said when I hike the AT up there, I would take the excursion to see that place. As far as why AT thru-hikers, don't go there. That is an easy one - it is Sept. and they have 2,000 miles under their heels and they have tunnel vision and Katahdin is all they want to see - like "Pikes Peak or bust" and nothing else matters. Southbounders just want to keep moving to get past the fords and black flies, they have too much ahead of them to let detours interrupt their progress. So Gulf Hagas is for tourists, dayhikers and AMC Lyford guests. I recommend Gulf Hagas as a great rainy day diversion if you are stuck in Baxter for several wet days.

[mudhead]

Nasty place in the rain. Smooth slate rocks. Extra greasy.

[Shutterbug]

The parking lot on the east side has always been there --...

Only a few people know that there is access to Gulf Hagas from the west end too. My first visit to Gulf Hagas was on a blue blaze trail that comes from a road on the west end. I don't remember the name of the road, but we came from Kokadjo.

[RockDoc]

I detoured through GH in Sept 09 on my 2nd trip through the HMW.
I'm afraid I didn't understand what the fuss was about, it was a mildly pretty canyon that's all, IMHO. I guess it depends what you are used to.

One thing that I did not like was that the trail kept you far away from being in contact with any actual water. It runs you up and down and up and down, and has a few marginal viewpoints, but (except at one stream crossing near the beginning) it never offers you a chance to stand on the shore of the creeks.

This is by design, of course. You can't let PEOPLE get TOO close to nature!

[weary]

.....One thing that I did not like was that the trail kept you far away from being in contact with any actual water. It runs you up and down and up and down, and has a few marginal viewpoints, but (except at one stream crossing near the beginning) it never offers you a chance to stand on the shore of the creeks.

This is by design, of course. You can't let PEOPLE get TOO close to nature!

The trail was originally laid out in the late 1800s, when the canyon was accessible by the trains and horse carriages serving the resort hotels that had been built up around Katahdin Iron Works. The trail reflects what business efforts from long experience knew what the tourists wanted.

As near as I can tell, the present configuration pretty much followed the 1880s pattern when it was rebuilt by volunteers when the Appalachian Trail was pushed through Maine in the mid 1930s. The only change since has been the construction of a cut off trail back to the AT so that those hiking the so called 100-mile-wilderness did not need to retrace their footsteps.

I know of no evidence that the trail in anyway was an effort to keep people from getting "TOO close to nature."

It's basically a rim trail, with side trails leading to the shore where practical. A lot of the shore of the stream is a high slate bluff, or a scramble over giant boulders, not something that most would consider good hiking.

Weary

[mudhead]

I'm afraid I didn't understand what the fuss was about, it was a mildly pretty canyon that's all, IMHO. I guess it depends what you are used to.

I understand and respect this opinion. The best parts for me are the two ends.


But then I am a sucker for a swimming spot.