[at-l] Baxter State Park, Oct 14, 15, &16

[Snodrog5 at aol.com]

Saturday Oct 14. Class One Day on Katahdin. Frost lays heavy all the way  
from Greenville to Linda's Store at Abol Bridge. She's a tagging station for the  
moose hunt, and dozens of Polaroids of big bull moose hanging from the scale  
outside her store are posted by the AT register. Some real large moose, up to 
 1000 pounds with 90 inch antlers. Linda stays open until the end of  
November to serve the hunters. I wore safety orange on a hike on the AT beside  the 
river, the lower bridge is still out. Logging alongside Baxter's southern  
boundary fills the air with noise, smoke, and the pungent smell of fresh cut  
trees. Katahdin Stream campground is nearly full with end-of-season  campers. 
Hiked the old AT around Grassy Pond to Daicey, then the 'real' AT down  to Windey 
Pitch. Had good talk with Rangers about the AT hikers, they reported  no 
complaints regarding ATer behavior this season! Thrus started coming down off  the 
mountain, starting with No Pain, a hiker I've bumped into half a dozen  times, 
nice guy, off to do the CDT next year. No Pain had hooked up with a ride  to 
Bangor from a hiker he met on top. Hiker Karma! Minnesota Smith, Fish,  
Minnow,  Possum,  Dogwood, and Rainbow Kid all summited  on Saturday. Dogwood plans 
to give back to the trail by joining a crew back down  in Jersey. Possum was 
sporting a big Virginia-sized grin on her way  home. Dark fell a sudden, with a 
clear moonless sky full of countless  stars. Two headlamps wandered in, with 
Miyagi and Blue beneath. Good attitudes!  When the Ranger found a lean-to for 
them in the campground that night, the  Birches had seen their last thrus of 
the season. Blue said the Ranger checked  her in as GAMEr #487, Miyagi was 
#486, exactly 100 less than the 586 he was  given in Harper's Ferry. It was 28 
degrees at ten-thirty.
 
Sunday, October 15th. Class Two day on Katahdin. Hiked part of the new  
Traveler loop in the north of the Park on an empty trail, with  moose, deer, 
grouse, little flocks of mixed birds including red-breasted  nuthatches, ruby and 
golden crowned kinglets, canada jays, boreal chickadees,  and a bazillion 
juncos. Nice high hike through open woods. Back at KSC saw  Miyagi without his 
hiking partner walking FAST toward the closed Ranger cabin -  I headed over because 
I thought something might be wrong. Nothing was, just  hurrying off the 
mountain to meet up with an recent thru-hiker they'd met at the  summit who was 
coming around the mountain to pick them up and take them all the  way to 
Portland. More Hiker Karma! Not long after Blue came running - yes  running! - through 
the campground, across the bridge and up to the Ranger's  porch. They hustled 
out to the tote road to look for their ride. They missed by  minutes a huge 
bull moose strolling up the Ranger's driveway. The campground was  empty that 
night, just me and one other hiker - no thrus at all on Baxter Park's  last 
night of overnight camping. I went for a night hike into Dwelly Pond, just  a 
four mile loop, but very cool in the dark with just the stars to light the  way 
much of the time. Lots of moose poop and owls hooting. 29 degrees at  10PM.
 
Monday, October 16th. Class Three day on Katahdin, the Knife Edge is closed  
due to ice. The snowshoe hares are changing to white, one splotch at a time. 
The  sun rising behind Katahdin was putting on a spectacular lightshow. Up the  
AT past the Falls onto the ledges where several ravens were squawking at a  
sullen red-tailed hawk. Looking south and west from here you can see where the  
AT winds into the 100 Mile Wilderness. There's probably still dozens of 
hikers  moving north toward Katahdin out there. Back down at KSC I shook Ranger 
Bruce  White's hand for the last time this season, he still has several weeks of 
hard  work ahead, and I have to get home to start basketball practices. I'll 
see him  again in the Spring, when we start all this over again. 
 
Teej < trying to upload some pics