Kathy and I have been home from our trip to Maine for about a week so it’s about time I wrote up a trip report.Once we realized we could go to Maine Kathy sat down with the trail maps and put together an itinerary for us.She worked out how far to hike each day and where to spend each night, and we followed that plan.There were 3 things we hoped to accomplish on this trip.First was to hike the 115 miles from Katahdin Stream Campground in Baxter State Park, second was to summit Mt. Katahdin, and third was to hike to the top of Wildcat D mountain from Pinkham Notch Visitor Center in New Hampshire.
On Saturday August 1 we drove the 650+ miles to Millinocket, Maine where we had a reservation at the AT Lodge for 1 night.It’s in a lovely old house and is run by thru hikers Ole Man and Navigator with the help of some younger thru hikers.It seems to be well kept and well run.The next morning we were on the 2nd shuttle of the day into Baxter State Park where we needed to register with a ranger at Katahdin Stream.Part of the paperwork was a slip we were each issued that we had to deposit in a box as we left the park.With the paperwork done we were on our way and enjoyed the 9 mile trip through the park, past lakes, streams, and woods, to the edge of the park where we had our first feet wet stream crossing.Then it was the better part of a mile on roads to the Abol Pines state camp site.A state facility right on the edge of a river, very nice but it is a pay site.We woke a little after 5 the next morning and broke camp and ate breakfast.Then it was a short road walk to the start of the Hundred Mile Wilderness.The first few days of hiking were mostly level, with usual ups and downs, past many scenic lakes and ponds.Our first major climb was that of Whitecap Mountain.Luckily for us about half way up there was a shelter area where we would spend the night.The only problem was that we didn’t find anyplace to set up our tent there and spent the night in the shelter with mice running around and over us, oh well.The next morning took us to the summit of Whitecap where the views were outstanding in 360 degrees.After Whitecap the trail took over several more mountains.Since we knew we were going to take 12 days to complete our walk we had arranged for a food drop in the Hundred Mile Wilderness and that worked out exactly as planned.The rest of the hike was really uneventful and we completed each day as Kathy had planned it out.Since last year’s hike was ended by a problem with my foot and ankle I was very conscious od how my feet were feeling, but all in all I felt pretty good for our entire hike.Loosing weight and being in better physical condition from last year really allowed me to enjoy this hike more than I was expecting.We walked into Shaw’s Hiker Hostel during the afternoon of day 12 and we were lucky enough to be able to get a private room.Showers, laundry and pizza were our priorities for the day and it all fell into place nicely.We had their breakfast the next day and then caught a shuttle back to the AT Lodge where we had left our car.
We had almost a week to kill before our reservation to camp in Baxter park the night of the 19th.We found a simple and cheap campground in Greenville and played tourist for that time.We rented kayaks one day, to use on Maine’s largest lake, Moosehead Lake.Another day we rented an ATV and played on local trails, another day we wandered through the shops in town and another day we went for a cruise on the lake….you get the idea.
On the 19th we went to Baxter park but got there too early to set up our tent.To kill time we went for a hike, what else!Then we set up our tent and generally lounged around until it was time to go to sleep.Like other days we awoke between 5 and 5:30, broke camp, ate breakfast and drove over to the day use parking lot at Katahdin Stream Campground where the Hunt Trail/AT went up Mount Katahdin.We set out about 6:30 AM with a forecast of a sunny day with an 8 to 10 mile an hour wind at the summit, PERFECT!We hiked up, excited that we’d finally finish the northern half of the AT, but it wasn’t to be.Once we were a few miles into it, and got above tree line you come to a section where you aren’t really hiking, instead, your crawling over large boulders using iron bars embedded in the rock to use as hand and foot holds.That was no surprise and we were expecting it.But what was a surprise was the wind, I estimate that it was in the 30 to 40 MPH range.There I was hanging on to a bar and my feet were being blown out to the side.I didn’t feel safe and decided to say so and told Kathy I wasn’t going any farther, in fact was going back down.She decided to join me and we went back down.I know others had gone up before us and I’m sure others did after too.I’m not even disappointed, I made the right decision for me.We’ll just have to go back to Maine again.Then it was back to spend another night in the AT lodge.
Some of you know that Kathy and I have a ’78 VW Bus as a hobby car.Well, Ole Man, at the AT Lodge has an early 70s VW Bus that had belonged to Earl Shaffer.I told him if he ever wants to sell it to keep us in mind.His reply, “Everything is for sale if the price is right”.I laughed and told him that his definition of “right” is probably a lot different than mine.
After our night at AT Lodge we drove to Gorham, NH expecting to find a room in one of the many motels in town.I was surprised to see No Vacancy signs at every one of them despite Covid 19.So what’s a hiker to do…we drove down route 2 to the Rattle River Hostel.We spent the night there amid a large number of hikers.Compared to the AT Lodge and Shaw’s this place was on a different level, notas nice.But it was only one night so no problem and the next morning we arrived at the AMC Visitor’s Center in Pinkham Notch about 6:30.Even at that time we got one of the last spots in the main parking lot.We put our packs together and crossed the road headed for the AT and Wildcat D.A short way in we came to a sign that said the trails on Wildcat were closed for restoration.Huh?We discussed what to do and decided not to go up even though we are sure many people are.Since we’d have to come back north one more time anyway why not give the trail a break.We then spent the next couple of days working our way home.We took miles and miles of back roads avoiding hi-ways until we couldn’t delay their use anymore.
We’ll that’s our story.Here’s some general information.Temperatures when we woke in the morning were usually in the low to mid 50s with the day time temperatures in the 70s.Water was no problem at all and once our filter stopped working we drank it right from the streams, rivers, and ponds with no problems.We had a couple of night time rain storms and a number of light, short, rain showers in the afternoons. If you need a place to stay I can highly recommend the AT Lodge in Millinocket and Shaws in Monson.I’d consider the Rattle River Hostel a step down, but not bad.We were about the slowest ones out there and there were a lot of people out to hike the Hundred Mile Wilderness, not just AT hikers, and most were going northbound.We saw lots of people everyday including families with young children.All in all I’m considering this a successful hike despite we only achieved 1 out of our 3 goals.
On Saturday August 1 we drove the 650+ miles to Millinocket, Maine where we had a reservation at the AT Lodge for 1 night.It’s in a lovely old house and is run by thru hikers Ole Man and Navigator with the help of some younger thru hikers.It seems to be well kept and well run.The next morning we were on the 2nd shuttle of the day into Baxter State Park where we needed to register with a ranger at Katahdin Stream.Part of the paperwork was a slip we were each issued that we had to deposit in a box as we left the park.With the paperwork done we were on our way and enjoyed the 9 mile trip through the park, past lakes, streams, and woods, to the edge of the park where we had our first feet wet stream crossing.Then it was the better part of a mile on roads to the Abol Pines state camp site.A state facility right on the edge of a river, very nice but it is a pay site.We woke a little after 5 the next morning and broke camp and ate breakfast.Then it was a short road walk to the start of the Hundred Mile Wilderness.The first few days of hiking were mostly level, with usual ups and downs, past many scenic lakes and ponds.Our first major climb was that of Whitecap Mountain.Luckily for us about half way up there was a shelter area where we would spend the night.The only problem was that we didn’t find anyplace to set up our tent there and spent the night in the shelter with mice running around and over us, oh well.The next morning took us to the summit of Whitecap where the views were outstanding in 360 degrees.After Whitecap the trail took over several more mountains.Since we knew we were going to take 12 days to complete our walk we had arranged for a food drop in the Hundred Mile Wilderness and that worked out exactly as planned.The rest of the hike was really uneventful and we completed each day as Kathy had planned it out.Since last year’s hike was ended by a problem with my foot and ankle I was very conscious od how my feet were feeling, but all in all I felt pretty good for our entire hike.Loosing weight and being in better physical condition from last year really allowed me to enjoy this hike more than I was expecting.We walked into Shaw’s Hiker Hostel during the afternoon of day 12 and we were lucky enough to be able to get a private room.Showers, laundry and pizza were our priorities for the day and it all fell into place nicely.We had their breakfast the next day and then caught a shuttle back to the AT Lodge where we had left our car.
We had almost a week to kill before our reservation to camp in Baxter park the night of the 19th.We found a simple and cheap campground in Greenville and played tourist for that time.We rented kayaks one day, to use on Maine’s largest lake, Moosehead Lake.Another day we rented an ATV and played on local trails, another day we wandered through the shops in town and another day we went for a cruise on the lake….you get the idea.
On the 19th we went to Baxter park but got there too early to set up our tent.To kill time we went for a hike, what else!Then we set up our tent and generally lounged around until it was time to go to sleep.Like other days we awoke between 5 and 5:30, broke camp, ate breakfast and drove over to the day use parking lot at Katahdin Stream Campground where the Hunt Trail/AT went up Mount Katahdin.We set out about 6:30 AM with a forecast of a sunny day with an 8 to 10 mile an hour wind at the summit, PERFECT!We hiked up, excited that we’d finally finish the northern half of the AT, but it wasn’t to be.Once we were a few miles into it, and got above tree line you come to a section where you aren’t really hiking, instead, your crawling over large boulders using iron bars embedded in the rock to use as hand and foot holds.That was no surprise and we were expecting it.But what was a surprise was the wind, I estimate that it was in the 30 to 40 MPH range.There I was hanging on to a bar and my feet were being blown out to the side.I didn’t feel safe and decided to say so and told Kathy I wasn’t going any farther, in fact was going back down.She decided to join me and we went back down.I know others had gone up before us and I’m sure others did after too.I’m not even disappointed, I made the right decision for me.We’ll just have to go back to Maine again.Then it was back to spend another night in the AT lodge.
Some of you know that Kathy and I have a ’78 VW Bus as a hobby car.Well, Ole Man, at the AT Lodge has an early 70s VW Bus that had belonged to Earl Shaffer.I told him if he ever wants to sell it to keep us in mind.His reply, “Everything is for sale if the price is right”.I laughed and told him that his definition of “right” is probably a lot different than mine.
After our night at AT Lodge we drove to Gorham, NH expecting to find a room in one of the many motels in town.I was surprised to see No Vacancy signs at every one of them despite Covid 19.So what’s a hiker to do…we drove down route 2 to the Rattle River Hostel.We spent the night there amid a large number of hikers.Compared to the AT Lodge and Shaw’s this place was on a different level, notas nice.But it was only one night so no problem and the next morning we arrived at the AMC Visitor’s Center in Pinkham Notch about 6:30.Even at that time we got one of the last spots in the main parking lot.We put our packs together and crossed the road headed for the AT and Wildcat D.A short way in we came to a sign that said the trails on Wildcat were closed for restoration.Huh?We discussed what to do and decided not to go up even though we are sure many people are.Since we’d have to come back north one more time anyway why not give the trail a break.We then spent the next couple of days working our way home.We took miles and miles of back roads avoiding hi-ways until we couldn’t delay their use anymore.
We’ll that’s our story.Here’s some general information.Temperatures when we woke in the morning were usually in the low to mid 50s with the day time temperatures in the 70s.Water was no problem at all and once our filter stopped working we drank it right from the streams, rivers, and ponds with no problems.We had a couple of night time rain storms and a number of light, short, rain showers in the afternoons. If you need a place to stay I can highly recommend the AT Lodge in Millinocket and Shaws in Monson.I’d consider the Rattle River Hostel a step down, but not bad.We were about the slowest ones out there and there were a lot of people out to hike the Hundred Mile Wilderness, not just AT hikers, and most were going northbound.We saw lots of people everyday including families with young children.All in all I’m considering this a successful hike despite we only achieved 1 out of our 3 goals.
