Klondike Question

Considering it's mentioned in the Maine Mountain Guide, how often do people actually venture into the Klondike at Baxter State Park? I know the Guide makes note of its "remarkably beautiful pond," but the place always struck me as having the reputation of being so incredibly densely wooded that it wouldn't be much fun to hike through. When I was up at Baxter last year, out of curiosity I asked one of the rangers about it. He started off by saying something like "Back in the day, the timber barons logged everywhere in northern New England at one point or other. However, it's so remote and difficult to get to, no one ever logged the Klondike." He then begged me not to wander in there. Believe me, I didn't need any convincing. I guess I never understood why anyone would want to go through all the effort to go tramping around in there, especially since there are so many majestic peaks in Baxter to visit. After all, it's not like there's even a canister in the Klondike.

Um..., there isn't, is there?

Good question... I've often wondered what it's like in the Klondike. My guess is that it is seldom visited but that someone on this board has been in there.

Nate said:

how often do people actually venture into the Klondike at Baxter State Park? I know the Guide makes note of its "remarkably beautiful pond," but the place always struck me as having the reputation of being so incredibly densely wooded that it wouldn't be much fun to hike through.

Click to expand...

look at the topo maps / aerials on terraserver. The name and the remoteness & bog/swampiness of the terrain make me wonder if it's a whole bunch of muskeg like in Alaska or Yukon or something. (but I've never been there & don't intend to)

Note Klondike Pond is higher & further east towards Hamlin Peak, not in the Klondike itself.

On our trip to Barren, we bushwacked along the edge of the Klondike, it was the best going of the day, fairly open woods from the OJI/Barren col to the base of Barren. We also had some great views of a small pond from OJI. We bushwacked north of it, maybe if we had more time, and energy, we would have paid a visit.

Klondike in foreground in this VFTT of Mt Coe. Looks like a mix of spruce/fir [pretty thick], marshes/streams, only a little deciduous wood along the margins of the marshes.

There is an account in an old Appalachia of descending to Klondike Pond, I believe the authors were allowed to camp there.

It looks to me like the bushwhack from the O-J-I Trail to Northwest Basin Trail is maybe 50% longer than the RT bushwhack to Barren but with a whole lot less elevation gain, of course the NW Basin is not near anywhere
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=19&n=5087320&e=502090&s=100&size=l&datum=nad83

If I lived closer to Baxter Park I would probably have tried it by now, I think a lot of non-bushwhackers overrate things. Forest Canyon in Rocky Mtn NP has a fearsome reputation among rangers so I went with my sister when she couldn't find anybody local. Parts were tedious but we were never in any danger.

The Klondike??? You must be qwazy to want to go there!

In all seriousness, several of us members of this site have talked about doing a winter trip there (mainly following the frozen stream beds). It actually seems like an easier trip in winter than in the other seasons... I have seen Klondike Pond in the winter from high above and it looks beautiful! Bet it's much more spectacular being there...

According to Stephen Clark, the Klondike got it's name from the famous Penobscot native American, Joe Francis. Francis felt that it reminded him of the Canadian Klondike. Francis hunted moose there and had a lean-to between the Owl and Barren. Clark suggests 3 possible routes into the Klondike, one from the OJI/Coe side, one from the Klondike Pond and one from Wassataquoik Stream. We saw a slide on the east side of Coe going down into the Klondike on our trip to Barren. By going in via this slide you would avoid the horrible conditions in the OJI/Barren col. That said, I have no idea what the conditions are on Coe to reach that slide.

I have no idea what the conditions are on Coe to reach that slide.

Click to expand...

I didn't see the slide from the top of Coe, but I was thinking along the same lines yesterday when I saw it on the map. There's an easy trail up to the top of Coe (via the South Slide or via the OJI link), and the distance to the slide is pretty short. The summit of Coe is right on treeline - there's a couple of bare boulders, surrounded by a small krummholz zone and then spruce. The trip from the summit to the slide looks steep and nasty to me (spruce is the worst) but short and probably not much worse than Barren.
summit of Coe (Barren below at left)

Nartreb, Clark, in his guidebook suggests approaching the 1932 east slide by slabbing from the top of the Mt. Coe Slide, not from the summit. BTW, you can clearly see the 1932 east slide in the pics I posted on my Barren trip.