Danielle
New member
After spending all our weekends in October painting and getting our new place ready to move into instead of being out hiking, we finally moved in last weekend! So, instead of unpacking today, we decided to go out and enjoy this nice, crisp November day. The boxes could wait 
We chose Tumbledown, as we hadn’t been up there before and we figured it likely wouldn’t have as much snow as other higher peaks. Of course, that being said, as we were searching for and attempting to find all our gear in amongst the boxes and chaos, we neglected to find our Yak Trax, which we had said we should bring “just in case.” Oh well.... we would survive, right?!
After a nice drive up north, we parked our car at the Brook Trail and walked the 1.4 miles up to the start of the Loop Trail. Four trail maintainers were out ahead of us and we enjoyed their labors on the lower part of the trail – thanks guys! While they were eating lunch, we passed them and continued up the steep, rocky trail. At one point, it seemed to turn from trail to stream bed, so Snowman turned back to make sure we weren’t off trail… he saw a few faded blazes and it seemed like we were indeed on track, so up again we continued, carefully negotiating the icy rocks. After a few side turns (we ended up at Fat Man’s Misery unknowingly) and a bit of offtrail manueverings, we continued up the trail/stream until we hit a dead end… no place to go. Crap… around we turned. Back down the stream bed until we ran into the woman from the trail crew with a chainsaw. She told us she knew the trail headed up the stream bed and then through some sort of lemon squeeze. Who knew? We followed her back up to our supposed dead end. Turns out, it wasn’t a dead end--- we had to go THROUGH the boulders. The way was covered with ice, but the metal rungs helped us through, although I had to do some acrobatics to get myself up (I’m just too short sometimes!).
Then, finally, we were at the top, where we hit snow. Not much, but enough to cover the trail. We wandered the ridge, taking in the gorgeous views and enjoying the windless afternoon, although it was pretty chilly, so we ate our bagel sandwiches while we walked toward the pond. There were a few spots where those before us had butt-slid down some of the ledges, and a few sections where we wished we had found those Yak Trax! So, slowly, we made it to the pond. Almost entirely iced over, it was a beautiful and quiet spot. Then, down the Brook Trail, following the rocky old logging road back to the car. Took us a bit longer than anticipated, but a great hike!
As we drove back to the coast, wandering through the Maine hills and small towns, the sky turned purple, pink and orange, and the moon, big and low on the horizon, came out. What a day
You can view our photos here:
http://homepage.mac.com/daniellenryan/OtherAdventures/PhotoAlbum340.html
We chose Tumbledown, as we hadn’t been up there before and we figured it likely wouldn’t have as much snow as other higher peaks. Of course, that being said, as we were searching for and attempting to find all our gear in amongst the boxes and chaos, we neglected to find our Yak Trax, which we had said we should bring “just in case.” Oh well.... we would survive, right?!
After a nice drive up north, we parked our car at the Brook Trail and walked the 1.4 miles up to the start of the Loop Trail. Four trail maintainers were out ahead of us and we enjoyed their labors on the lower part of the trail – thanks guys! While they were eating lunch, we passed them and continued up the steep, rocky trail. At one point, it seemed to turn from trail to stream bed, so Snowman turned back to make sure we weren’t off trail… he saw a few faded blazes and it seemed like we were indeed on track, so up again we continued, carefully negotiating the icy rocks. After a few side turns (we ended up at Fat Man’s Misery unknowingly) and a bit of offtrail manueverings, we continued up the trail/stream until we hit a dead end… no place to go. Crap… around we turned. Back down the stream bed until we ran into the woman from the trail crew with a chainsaw. She told us she knew the trail headed up the stream bed and then through some sort of lemon squeeze. Who knew? We followed her back up to our supposed dead end. Turns out, it wasn’t a dead end--- we had to go THROUGH the boulders. The way was covered with ice, but the metal rungs helped us through, although I had to do some acrobatics to get myself up (I’m just too short sometimes!).
Then, finally, we were at the top, where we hit snow. Not much, but enough to cover the trail. We wandered the ridge, taking in the gorgeous views and enjoying the windless afternoon, although it was pretty chilly, so we ate our bagel sandwiches while we walked toward the pond. There were a few spots where those before us had butt-slid down some of the ledges, and a few sections where we wished we had found those Yak Trax! So, slowly, we made it to the pond. Almost entirely iced over, it was a beautiful and quiet spot. Then, down the Brook Trail, following the rocky old logging road back to the car. Took us a bit longer than anticipated, but a great hike!
As we drove back to the coast, wandering through the Maine hills and small towns, the sky turned purple, pink and orange, and the moon, big and low on the horizon, came out. What a day
You can view our photos here:
http://homepage.mac.com/daniellenryan/OtherAdventures/PhotoAlbum340.html
