Packin' Baxter, 9/04 - 9/07 (part 1)

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ferrisjrf

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9/04: Katahdin
9/05: Traveler Loop
9/06: Wassataquoik Lake
9/07: South Turner

Gillian and I drove up Thursday night and stayed at a tent site at Big Moose Inn. Tried somewhat unsuccessfully to sleep through the early morning sounds of logging trucks speeding by on the Golden Road. We met Mardi at the south gate and a little while later, the three of us were headed up towards Katahdin via Chimney Pond and the Saddle Trail. Beautiful day to visit Baxter and Hamlin Peaks.

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Mardi had other plans for the rest of the long weekend, so we bid farewell to her at Hamlin, and headed towards North Peak, which turned out to be well worth the side trip. I'm not sure why the North Peaks Trail was closed, but I think I'd like to explore the area sometime in the future. Anyway, from North we headed over towards the Northwest Plateau and picked up the Northwest Basin Trail.

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After soaking up the amazing views from the Northwest Plateau, we descended quickly down to Davis Pond (below left). The lean-to was empty, but due to Baxter's awesome rules, we still had another 5 miles to go before we could rest our feet. Regardless, the whole area was beautiful, and we enjoyed fast-packing between Davis and Russell Ponds, particularly the Turner Brook crossing (below right).

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Upon arriving at Russell we talked to the Ranger for a while, and he made a comment along the lines of, "After Katahdin today, tomorrow is gonna seem pretty boring, ha?" Well, we were hoping to prove him wrong, so we quickly set up camp, had some dinner and drinks, and went to sleep under the stars...awaking to a gorgeous Saturday morning.

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Saturday was really to be the crux of the weekend. We started out around 8AM headed north down the Pogy Notch Trail. A couple hours later, we arrived at Upper South Branch Pond, and took a little break before heading up the Center Ridge Trail. The entire ridge was awesome, with the highlights probably being Peak of the Ridges and The Traveler.

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...although North Traveler (and all points in between) wasn't that shabby either.

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We got back to Russell Pond about 12 hours after starting. The Ranger was apparently a little worried about us. It seemed that he had asked every other camper about our whereabouts, so we had to explain our trip to a number of passersby the next morning...most of whom seemed to have no idea what we were talking about when we mentioned "The Travelers"...
 
Packin' Baxter, 9/04 - 9/07 (part 2)

Sunday was supposed to be the "vacation" day of the weekend, and it worked out perfectly. We got going at about 10:30AM and headed west. Checked out Six Ponds (below left) before heading out to Wassataquoik Lake (below right), where we grabbed a canoe and spent the day paddling around the lake and just relaxing.

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We checked out Green Falls while we were in the area, before heading back towards Russell. There’s a nearly complete lack of “dead and down” wood within 0.1 miles of the campsites, so we stopped a short distance up the trail on our way back, and loaded up with as much wood as we could carry.

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Monday was another day to sleep late. We appeared to be the last folks to leave the campground, taking the Wassataquoik Stream Trail (below left) back towards Roaring Brook, getting a sweet view of South Traveler in the process (below right).

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We finished the weekend by taking a side trip up to South Turner. What a cool, steep trail...with a peak that was well worth the trouble.

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Overall, I’d have to rate this among the best four days of backpacking ever. The weather was perfect, the bugs were minimal, and we pretty much avoided all the Labor Day crowds…which was probably the best part.

Jason
 
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Great report and pics as usual/I was thinking of you guys enjoying the beautiful weather all weekend.
 
Nice trip but you hogged all the good weather. If it's rain and crap when I get there you both get red squares.

And what's up with worrying that poor Ranger?
 
Nice report and beautiful pics. Baxter can be amazing or a cold blowy pain in butt, depending on how you hit it....glad you guys got the former.
 
Nice trip but you hogged all the good weather. If it's rain and crap when I get there you both get red squares.

Anytime anyone wants, I'll trade those funny little squares for 4 days of mint weather in Baxter. PM me if interested.

Jason
 
had a great time hiking with you two on friday and I'm glad to hear that you got to the travelers and met your pond-hopping goals!
 
I think you can change your avatar to “winner” after that trip. :)
Congrats you two.
 
Overall, I’d have to rate this among the best four days of backpacking ever. The weather was perfect, the bugs were minimal, and we pretty much avoided all the Labor Day crowds…which was probably the best part.

Jason

Ditto...I haven't been on quite as many backpacks as Jason, but this was definitely the weekend to go - perfect weather and a full moon to boot.

I'd taken the Dudley and Cathedral trails up Katahdin in the past so it was fun to take the Saddle trail up the side of the mountain this time - just gorgeous views. So glad we could coordinate hiking together Mardi!! We met a couple of friendly characters on the way up who gave us a few laughs, including two guys visiting all the way from Seattle. Baxter must be pretty special!! Rainier, smainier :p We met an organic farmer from Indiana who told us all about his farm and the 114,000 hardwoods he had planted. He was excited about his plans to continue on from the summit and hike the 100 mile wilderness....

The hike along the Northwest Plateau was really special - I'd never hiked it before and again the panoramic views were amazing. After dropping down the steep trail to the Davis Pond lean-to it was so enticing to drop packs and stay there....but Baxter rules don't allow for the first night of a backpack, as it's considered too far to hike in....sooo....we reluctantly walked by the comfy lean-to.... to hike another few miles to Russell Pond campground.

The Travelers from Russell was a challenge for me but well worth it and Jason had never been on the them so we had to get them in :) and besides he had to scope it out for winter...

It's really nice that the park has canues placed around the many lakes and ponds...just learned about that recently. The paddle around Lake Wassataquoik was so peaceful and the water so clean!

Wonderful weekend!! Here's a few pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gillian.gould/090903_Baxter#
 
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wow, awesome trip!! so awesome that i don't have a smart-ass reply. dang.
 
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