timmus
Well-known member
First of all, I need to go back in time and let you know that we had an argument about the peaks we would do in Baxter during Labor Day weekend. I needed North Brother for my 115, and JS (Motabobo) had some obscured traverse in mind since 2003. We decided to have a DICE challenge and the winner would get to choose the destination. Anyways, no matter what we would end up doing, I knew I was about to have a blast in Baxter.
Got up not too early Sunday morning, packed our gear and headed up the first peak of the day. Arm, JS and I were all in a very good mood, especially because the weather was perfect, sunny and chilly, and we had tons of stupid jokes and .exe stories to tell each other. I was in good shape because we hiked the Travelers for training the day before (and we miss MEB and Dr Wu by 10 feet). Fun day hiking with a group, lots of blueberries, laughs, butt crack showing (mine) and great meal at the end of the day. The views were great on the Travelers, but I have to admit that I was sometimes bored by the easy going trails, and I was definitely more excited about today’s trip. I was not alone; Arm said he felt just like a kid before getting into his first roller coaster ride.
Going up the Slide was fun, but I still feel unsafe stepping on rock slabs without any holds. It wasn’t wet; I just don’t trust my boots enough. I need to do more I guess. Soon enough we summited our first peak of the day, and we could see the route we were about to travel. We went down a little a on the trail, changed clothes (not Arm, he stayed in shorts and tee all day !), put protection glasses and smiled up to the ears. You guessed: I lost the dice challenge, and here I was, ready to whack all bushes between O.J.I. and The Owl. By doing this we would necessarily have to climb that 3696 ft mountain in between, but we didn’t really care about this one, really, because we are hipsters-hikers .
We entered the woods with JS leading, because he was our official GPS guy for the day. He did major planning at home, drawing lines and circles corresponding to thick spots and blowdown fields. After Arm’s turn I took the lead and headed toward the pond. It was very easy to go straight because the sun was shining right in front of me. But it didn’t take too much time before JS took the lead again.
We took a small break down there, it was getting pretty warm and the black flies were attacking us with no pity. We followed open spots along the 3000 ft contour line, dropping at 2800 at one point, just enough to say we put at least one foot in The Klondike. Then it was time to go up. Because JS had the Circles in his GPS, we knew where to go and not to go. But it seemed like we were not getting much elevation, and at one point I felt Arm was losing patience over The Circles… But we all agreed it did helped a lot, and this is how we made it all the way up without too much pain.
On our way up we found a tunnel into boulders and went in just for the fun of it. Fun pics (on Arm's camera). We were getting very close, and after climbing the summit rock we got welcomed by the most impressive view I never had in Maine. I assure you, being surrounded by Baxter’s greatest features, Katahdin, Doubletop, The Klondike (and Klondike Pond, so close !), the Travelers, and all the southwest lakes is one unique feeling. We did the canister ritual, took pictures and refuelled. JS and I had a surprise for Arm, a Shrek-shaped cookie for dessert. I had a princess and JS had the Pirate of the Caribbean. They tasted disgusting but we had a blast laughing at Arm playing with Shrek.
It was 2pm and we felt really good, so straight east we decided to go. We needed to drop about 700ft and go north of the col to avoid the cliffs. It was pretty thick, and I kept my forearms in front of my face all the way down. We took a break when we found a 6’X6’ opening, and this is where JS left his protection glasses. We were starting to feel the fatigue, but the spirit was still there. We each got our turns of leading, and we finally reached the col but no luck in terms of open woods. We discussed a little about the route to take but 2 on 3 wanted to go up right away and the other wanted to go further east and climb later.
I was getting worried about being on The Owl before sunset, so I was ready to push through any kind of (dead or alive) vegetation. When looking at this area on satellite images you can see grey waves. They are «dieback zones» and yes, they are nasty. If you stop at the Baxter State Park Headquarters in Millinocket, they actually have a picture of these waves, as well as a short explanation of this phenomenon, taken from Peter Marchand’s book, North Woods.
For the first time while bushwhacking I found myself breathing out loud at each required effort (like the tennis players), blowing air at the same time to chase the one zillion black flies that were going after my blood. Sweat was dripping and my long sleeves and pants were getting soaked. In these conditions, keeping balance on downed trees while holding on new growth trees is not easy, but when you see the 8ft holes below you, well, you just concentrate and proceed. I got into that kind of stuff before, like in the Sawtooth Range, but never for as long as 2 hours straight !
We crossed several dieback zones and we finally FINALLY got blessed by open woods. What a relieve ! We then gained couple of hundred feet easily, pushed through the last 0.3 mile left and found the trail. TRAIL !! That was a pretty exciting moment ! We climbed up and I think I can say that we enjoyed The Owl’s summit like no one else before. We were right on time, just before sunset. The views of Katahdin are great from there, and I am going to visit that summit again with no hesitation. We took our time, congrats ourselves and snapped many many pictures from the open sub-summit.
We hiked down overjoyed, letting the last drops of adrenaline flowing slowly in our tired bodies. We got out at Katahdin Stream campground at 8:15pm, the whole trip took us 13 hours : 6 miles on trails and 4 miles in the woods. Greatest trip ever, our group was simply the best. Did I mention that at one point we were pretending to be Wonder Woman, Superman and 6,000,000$ man ? This is just how you motivate yourself when going hardcore.
ACHTUNG ! : This trip report has no intention of influencing people to visit this area, please think twice before going, or you will be considered by the community as a wanna-be, or worst, a poser !
PICTURES
Got up not too early Sunday morning, packed our gear and headed up the first peak of the day. Arm, JS and I were all in a very good mood, especially because the weather was perfect, sunny and chilly, and we had tons of stupid jokes and .exe stories to tell each other. I was in good shape because we hiked the Travelers for training the day before (and we miss MEB and Dr Wu by 10 feet). Fun day hiking with a group, lots of blueberries, laughs, butt crack showing (mine) and great meal at the end of the day. The views were great on the Travelers, but I have to admit that I was sometimes bored by the easy going trails, and I was definitely more excited about today’s trip. I was not alone; Arm said he felt just like a kid before getting into his first roller coaster ride.
Going up the Slide was fun, but I still feel unsafe stepping on rock slabs without any holds. It wasn’t wet; I just don’t trust my boots enough. I need to do more I guess. Soon enough we summited our first peak of the day, and we could see the route we were about to travel. We went down a little a on the trail, changed clothes (not Arm, he stayed in shorts and tee all day !), put protection glasses and smiled up to the ears. You guessed: I lost the dice challenge, and here I was, ready to whack all bushes between O.J.I. and The Owl. By doing this we would necessarily have to climb that 3696 ft mountain in between, but we didn’t really care about this one, really, because we are hipsters-hikers .
We entered the woods with JS leading, because he was our official GPS guy for the day. He did major planning at home, drawing lines and circles corresponding to thick spots and blowdown fields. After Arm’s turn I took the lead and headed toward the pond. It was very easy to go straight because the sun was shining right in front of me. But it didn’t take too much time before JS took the lead again.
We took a small break down there, it was getting pretty warm and the black flies were attacking us with no pity. We followed open spots along the 3000 ft contour line, dropping at 2800 at one point, just enough to say we put at least one foot in The Klondike. Then it was time to go up. Because JS had the Circles in his GPS, we knew where to go and not to go. But it seemed like we were not getting much elevation, and at one point I felt Arm was losing patience over The Circles… But we all agreed it did helped a lot, and this is how we made it all the way up without too much pain.
On our way up we found a tunnel into boulders and went in just for the fun of it. Fun pics (on Arm's camera). We were getting very close, and after climbing the summit rock we got welcomed by the most impressive view I never had in Maine. I assure you, being surrounded by Baxter’s greatest features, Katahdin, Doubletop, The Klondike (and Klondike Pond, so close !), the Travelers, and all the southwest lakes is one unique feeling. We did the canister ritual, took pictures and refuelled. JS and I had a surprise for Arm, a Shrek-shaped cookie for dessert. I had a princess and JS had the Pirate of the Caribbean. They tasted disgusting but we had a blast laughing at Arm playing with Shrek.
It was 2pm and we felt really good, so straight east we decided to go. We needed to drop about 700ft and go north of the col to avoid the cliffs. It was pretty thick, and I kept my forearms in front of my face all the way down. We took a break when we found a 6’X6’ opening, and this is where JS left his protection glasses. We were starting to feel the fatigue, but the spirit was still there. We each got our turns of leading, and we finally reached the col but no luck in terms of open woods. We discussed a little about the route to take but 2 on 3 wanted to go up right away and the other wanted to go further east and climb later.
I was getting worried about being on The Owl before sunset, so I was ready to push through any kind of (dead or alive) vegetation. When looking at this area on satellite images you can see grey waves. They are «dieback zones» and yes, they are nasty. If you stop at the Baxter State Park Headquarters in Millinocket, they actually have a picture of these waves, as well as a short explanation of this phenomenon, taken from Peter Marchand’s book, North Woods.
For the first time while bushwhacking I found myself breathing out loud at each required effort (like the tennis players), blowing air at the same time to chase the one zillion black flies that were going after my blood. Sweat was dripping and my long sleeves and pants were getting soaked. In these conditions, keeping balance on downed trees while holding on new growth trees is not easy, but when you see the 8ft holes below you, well, you just concentrate and proceed. I got into that kind of stuff before, like in the Sawtooth Range, but never for as long as 2 hours straight !
We crossed several dieback zones and we finally FINALLY got blessed by open woods. What a relieve ! We then gained couple of hundred feet easily, pushed through the last 0.3 mile left and found the trail. TRAIL !! That was a pretty exciting moment ! We climbed up and I think I can say that we enjoyed The Owl’s summit like no one else before. We were right on time, just before sunset. The views of Katahdin are great from there, and I am going to visit that summit again with no hesitation. We took our time, congrats ourselves and snapped many many pictures from the open sub-summit.
We hiked down overjoyed, letting the last drops of adrenaline flowing slowly in our tired bodies. We got out at Katahdin Stream campground at 8:15pm, the whole trip took us 13 hours : 6 miles on trails and 4 miles in the woods. Greatest trip ever, our group was simply the best. Did I mention that at one point we were pretending to be Wonder Woman, Superman and 6,000,000$ man ? This is just how you motivate yourself when going hardcore.
ACHTUNG ! : This trip report has no intention of influencing people to visit this area, please think twice before going, or you will be considered by the community as a wanna-be, or worst, a poser !
PICTURES
