Sadie
New member
I have a hard time getting away hiking much these days with preschool age kids, but my husband has generously given me the opportunity 2 times in 2 weeks to get in some Maine hiking… last week was BSP, and this week I went solo to the Rangeley region to take on Saddleback and the Horn.
Weather report said Rangeley would be in the 70s and sunny, I guess I should know by now what the weather is in town isn’t what is up in the mountains, but I took that as a good sign and headed up Thursday night and stayed in Farmington, ME… just over an hour from Saddleback. This made for a relatively short drive Friday morning to the ski area to take the ski trails up.
As I approached the ski area, I came across a checkpoint with people in yellow T shirts… a Bluegrass Festival going on all weekend and even though it was only 8:30 and nothing started till 3 PM, I had to pay $10 to park and a Tyvek wrist band as admittance to the festival! Not a big deal, but I guess the ski area wasn’t going to be deserted as I had expected!
I hit the trail at ~8:45 and walked through the festival area and biergarten being set up while people buzzed around setting stuff up. There were even some tents set up on the bottom part of the ski trail. As suggested in some trip reports, I headed up Grey Ghost trail and followed that to the top.
As I headed up, the weather was getting windier and greyer! Ski trails were in better than average condition for a ski trail, no ankle twister erosion pits I’ve seen on many other ski trails. Grey ghost seemed well traveled by hikers. There were tons of Lupine plants on the ski slopes… Spring lupine season must be beautiful on these trails!
Just to the right behind the quad chair lift station at the top, there is a short hiking trail with yellow markings that connects to the AT. At this point, the weather had gone south, dark fog blowing up over the mountain with pretty strong winds. There were no views at this point, just dark gray. From the base of the mt to the top of Saddleback took ~ 1 h 10 m.
I didn’t linger with the strong wind, so I moved on towards the Horn. I could see absolutely nothing to the East, but could see the lake at least to the West. Trip to the Horn was 50 minutes from Saddleback. Trail was really nice, the ledge was all great footing and the trail was beautiful with the Krummolz and alpine type plants. The Horn was windy and foggy as well.
When I came down back towards Saddleback, I got better views along the ridge so that made the day
! But Saddleback peak was still well socked in with heavy fog. A wooden post along the AT was a good marker to indicate where to turn off back towards the ski area. I followed signs for a “Mountain trail run” much of the way down and then reconnected with Grey ghost. Total trip was just under 4 hours.
Weather was fine at the base (more crowds were coming for the festival!), it was just at the top of the peaks that was really a bit miserable with fog and wind. Good day, but I’m getting a bit of a complex that I’m cursed for bad weather hiking in Maine! #60 & 61/67!!
Weather report said Rangeley would be in the 70s and sunny, I guess I should know by now what the weather is in town isn’t what is up in the mountains, but I took that as a good sign and headed up Thursday night and stayed in Farmington, ME… just over an hour from Saddleback. This made for a relatively short drive Friday morning to the ski area to take the ski trails up.
As I approached the ski area, I came across a checkpoint with people in yellow T shirts… a Bluegrass Festival going on all weekend and even though it was only 8:30 and nothing started till 3 PM, I had to pay $10 to park and a Tyvek wrist band as admittance to the festival! Not a big deal, but I guess the ski area wasn’t going to be deserted as I had expected!
I hit the trail at ~8:45 and walked through the festival area and biergarten being set up while people buzzed around setting stuff up. There were even some tents set up on the bottom part of the ski trail. As suggested in some trip reports, I headed up Grey Ghost trail and followed that to the top.
As I headed up, the weather was getting windier and greyer! Ski trails were in better than average condition for a ski trail, no ankle twister erosion pits I’ve seen on many other ski trails. Grey ghost seemed well traveled by hikers. There were tons of Lupine plants on the ski slopes… Spring lupine season must be beautiful on these trails!
Just to the right behind the quad chair lift station at the top, there is a short hiking trail with yellow markings that connects to the AT. At this point, the weather had gone south, dark fog blowing up over the mountain with pretty strong winds. There were no views at this point, just dark gray. From the base of the mt to the top of Saddleback took ~ 1 h 10 m.
I didn’t linger with the strong wind, so I moved on towards the Horn. I could see absolutely nothing to the East, but could see the lake at least to the West. Trip to the Horn was 50 minutes from Saddleback. Trail was really nice, the ledge was all great footing and the trail was beautiful with the Krummolz and alpine type plants. The Horn was windy and foggy as well.
When I came down back towards Saddleback, I got better views along the ridge so that made the day
! But Saddleback peak was still well socked in with heavy fog. A wooden post along the AT was a good marker to indicate where to turn off back towards the ski area. I followed signs for a “Mountain trail run” much of the way down and then reconnected with Grey ghost. Total trip was just under 4 hours. Weather was fine at the base (more crowds were coming for the festival!), it was just at the top of the peaks that was really a bit miserable with fog and wind. Good day, but I’m getting a bit of a complex that I’m cursed for bad weather hiking in Maine! #60 & 61/67!!
