Aug is Get My Life Back month.

It looks like I'll be closing my business next month. I'm burned out from dealing with teenagers all day, and I haven't had any time for my non-working life... So my plan for August is to take some time off and hike around New England. I want to explore some new areas. I've never been to the Green Mountains so I want to spend a few days hiking there. Maine is another spot I've never been hiking in. Does anyone have suggestions for hikes in these areas? Are there any good guide books and trail maps you can suggest for Maine and Vermont?

I might buy a new DSLR too to take hiking. Photography is another thing I've been lacking these past 3 years..

Congrats! I am jealous...
Most of my hiking is in NH...
Green MOuntain Club has a guidebook for the Long Trail and surrounding areas...Camel's Hump is a fave of mine...
Maine has been on hold for me (two little kids - too far of a drive...)
Baldfaces look great - and are covered in the AMC WMG...AMC also has a Maine Mountain Guide that I have read, but not hiked - lots of good stuff in there.
Have fun!

Probably the best VT guidebook is the Day Hiker's Guide to Vermont. The Long Trail Guide is good, but the DHG is far more comprehensive.

Mongoose -

Here are some of the many great hikes in Maine that I have done:

Baxter State Park - Katahdin and about 50 other great hikes!
Tumbledown Mountain/Little Jackson - Weld
Bigelows - Stratton
Goose Eye via Wright Trail loop - Ketchum, just north of Bethel
Saddleback and the Horn - Rangeley
Mt. Abraham - Kingfield
Baldpates/Table Rock - Grafton Notch
Mahoosuc Notch/'Mahoosuc Arm - Maine/NH border (off Success Pond Road)
Grafton Loop - Grafton Notch
Rumford Whitecap - Rumford/Andover

Some of these are dayhikes and some can be combined into backpack trips. Many are on or close to the Appalachian Trail. Many have great blueberry picking in late July through mid-August, too! The AMC White Mountain Guide will help you with this. I also strongly suggest getting the DeLorme Maine Atlas and Gazeteer, to help you find some of the roads less traveled.

Marty

The mahoosucs is a hike I need to do. I hear about it alot, but I've never been there. What about maps for these places in Vermont and Maine? I always take a tyvek map along with me on any trip.

Good, AMC-style maps are hard to find for VT. The long trail guide comes with a couple maps of the camel's hump and mansfield areas, along with a statelong small map and the DHG has maps on the pages for individual hikes. You may have to print them out from a map site or someone's gps tracks as well if you're looking for maps of lesser-traveled hikes.

Mongoose said:

The mahoosucs is a hike I need to do. I hear about it alot, but I've never been there. What about maps for these places in Vermont and Maine? I always take a tyvek map along with me on any trip.

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For Maine, the AMC Maine Mountain Guide comes with maps, which should suffice. You can also get the Maine Appalachian Trail maps, which are a bit more detailed and durable.

The Mahoosucs rock. Some of the hikes I listed previously are in the Mahoosucs or across Grafton Notch.

Marty

#1: BSP
#2: Mahoosucs
#3: Everything else

#1 BSP
#2 Bigelow/Rangley area
#3 Mahoosucs
#4 Acadia
#5 Other stuff

SherpaKroto said:

#1: BSP
#2: Mahoosucs
#3: Everything else

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You didn't mention the Adirondacks, so here's a few ideas.
Take a look at the mountains and trails in the Ausable Club(AMR). You might want to look at Hurricane, Noonmark, Jay Range, Dix Gothics, Haystack.

VT peaks

sapblatt said:

Green MOuntain Club has a guidebook for the Long Trail and surrounding areas...Camel's Hump is a fave of mine...

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Camel's Hump is great. Mt. Mansfield in Stowe VT is also a lot of fun. The Wilderness Map Company makes a great map of the Long Trail. Look for the "revised second edition."

Roxi

Here's my suggestion.

1. Take a trip up the Maine coast. Spend a day and night in Camden and hike in Camden state park. Some gorgeous hikes and views of the ocean here. I lived in the area for 3 + years, so I know. Drive over to Acadia and Bar Harbor the next day, about and hour and a half drive. Spend a couple of days here and hike Cadillac from the West Face trail at Bubble Pond and hike the Precipice trail and the Beehive if you feel adventurous. Take some time to enjoy Sand Beach and also the restaurants and bars of Bar Harbor. Drive north after this and spend a day in Gulf Hagas. No mountains to climb here, but some beautiful waterfalls and a nice river ravine called Maine's Grand Canyon. Go up to Baxter after this and hike Mt Katahdin. Do it from roaring brook or Abol slide, or do both. But make sure you do the knife edge.

2. If you are headed to Vermont from Baxter, stop over in Western Maine and hike the Bigelows. One of the best loop hikes anywhere in the Northeast. It has great ridgelines, a beautiful pond, and just wonderful nature. Spend a night at Horn's Pond if possible.

3. Vermont- Camel's Hump and Mansfield. Other hikes are decent, but these are the best. I also recomend driving thru the northeast kingdom or route 100. Pretty drives.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Enjoy this new found freedom in life, you have worked hard to get to this point, so smell the roses.

Congrats on your upcoming life change -- downshifting and decompressing can be really good things, and getting outside to clear your head and plan your next steps is a solid way to do it. Kudos for taking care of yourself!

You didn't mention backpacking, but what about few days on the Long Trail in Vermont?? If you decide to plan a few days, pm me and I'd be happy to try and coordinate to shuttle you back to your starting point, should you decide to hike in the Central VT area near where I live. There is an OK map put out by the GMC that highlights the entire LT and most of its side trails. The book Pamola mentioned is a good one. Some of my favorite VT day hikes are Shrewsbury-Little Killington-Killington-Pico traverse, The Monroe Skyline traverse of the LT from Lincoln Gap to Appalachian Gap, and Camel's Hump.

Some of my favorite day hikes in Maine included a loop through Mahoosic Notch to Old Speck (includes a road walk on a dirt logging road), The Bigelows including Cranberry Peak, anything in the area of Saddleback-Sugarloaf-Crockers. All can be found on the AT Section Maps of Maine.

I second the motion to get you into NY, the Daks are special, and offer a distinct wilderness feel all thier own.

I would strongly suggest that you pick up a copy fo the Delorme Maine and Vermont atlas. It has most of the trails you might think of hiking marked plus a nice section in the front that calls out "special places". They also have GPS grids for locating trailheads.

Half the challenge in rural Maine and VT is finding the trailhead as the roads are typically back roads that may or may not have good signage. Having the Delorme books can cut down on wrong turns. They are also good for finding "shortcuts" but make sure that you understand the map index as some of the "shortcuts" are logging roads!

Mt Abraham in Maine is worth checking out, its near Mt Bigelow and is probably #2 on my list for the Sugarloaf area. It tends to be less crowded than Bigelow.

Saddleback and the ridge via the ski slopes is a nice stretch above treeline.

Check out the Baxter State Park website. A small percentage of the campsites are reserved for Maine residents until a couple of weeks before the date, if a Mainer doesnt grab a site, then anyone can. Worth a try especially for some of the lesser known sites. The hike from Russel pond south thru the Northwest Basin and up over Baxter peak and down the Knifes edge is without a doubt one of the greatest hikes in the Northeast if its nice weather. Unfortunately unless you can score a site at Russell or some of the outlying sites nearby the night before, its just not doable.

peakbagger said:

I would strongly suggest that you pick up a copy fo the Delorme Maine and Vermont atlas. It has most of the trails you might think of hiking marked plus a nice section in the front that calls out "special places". They also have GPS grids for locating trailheads.

Half the challenge in rural Maine and VT is finding the trailhead as the roads are typically back roads that may or may not have good signage. Having the Delorme books can cut down on wrong turns. They are also good for finding "shortcuts" but make sure that you understand the map index as some of the "shortcuts" are logging roads!

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Ah, one word about mountain roads and map books:

The DeLorme New York book describes a road over Jay Mountain pass in the eastern 'Daks at least slightly inaccurately and we had a "fun" time getting our Honda minivan over it. To the vehicle's credit (to say nothing of my mad driving skills), we scraped through with only wounded psyches. "We" entailed having my wife and four kids in the car. They weren't amused, and I learned that the better part of valor sometimes means turning back.

Our adventure could be your free beta.

Congratulations on your business efforts and best wishes for a great break!

I definitely plan on camping all the time. Why spend money on a room when there's a perfectly good flat spot of dirt to sleep on.

Here's a rough plan:

Home
Acadia
BSP
Mahoosucs
White Mountains
Green Mountains
Home

That's a big trip, over 1100 miles according to google maps. Maybe that's a bit much for one trip; I don't like driving. I could split it into just Maine, and then NH and Vt on the next trip. Hmm.. anyone want to go on a road trip?