I survived a 7 day backpaking trip into the backcounty of Baxter State Park last week with Linda and a friend Meredith. All told we hiked about 25 miles, paddled a couple of miles, and viewed much flora and fauna (7 moose, 2 deer, and a couple of leeches!) As most Maine residents know, Baxter State Park is comprised of mostly wilderness with few roads and a few primative campgrounds. The park includes Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachin Trail. Katahdin includes several peaks and trails: Baxter peak, knife-edge tail, Hamlin peak and trail, and the notorious saddle trail.

Our trip began at Roaring Brook campground where Linda and I left our car, and met up with Meredith. Within the first hour at Roaring, we took a brief hike to Sandy Stream Pond where we were treated to a view of 4 moose (3 cows and a calf). A subsequent visit several hours later in the day showed that 3 of the moose were still present at the pond. We witnessed some bizarre behaviour from one of the adult moose which ran back and forth several times along the shore of the pond splashing water about madly. The other adult moose stood staring at the deranged moose and seemed as facinated by this behavior as we were. After several minutes the calmer moose started walking towards us, and when it got within 40 feet, we decided to give it a wide berth and return to camp. The following morning, we set out on a 5.5 mile hike to Wassataquoik stream and it’s leanto. The hike was failry un-eventful with the exception of catching a glimpse of another moose in a small pond. The hiking was not too strenous yet, the temperatures were around 80 deg during the day and 50 degrees at night with low humidity. Stream crossings were always a popular break from the monotony of the trail, and a chance to practice our balancing skills. The final mile of the hike had us “drafting” behind another couple of hikers in an attempt to pass them and optain the primo leanto for the evening. Our efforts paid off, and we were treated to a fantastic view of the stream from our shelter. We setup camp and after a pumping water, I had the pleasure of trying to remove a leach from my right foot. I felt like Humphrey Bogart in “The African Queen”, and freaked out. After several attemts I was unable to pull the little bugger from my skin. I stopped pulling and it simply let go and it slipped back into the stream on its own accord.  We returned to camp , took a bath in the stream, washed some of our clothes, and started dinner. We were carrying between 45-50 lbs of pack each, and we were eager to eat our way to a lower pack weight. But of course we also had to ration food for the later, strenous portion of the trip.
After a good meal and a restful night, set off for about 4 mile hike past Russell Pond, to arrive at the shelter on the island in Wassataquoik Lake. The state supplied canoes got us to/from the island, and gave us an opportunity to paddle the length of the Lake searching for the “Beach” for a little bathing and skinny-dipping.The next day had us retracing our steps a little to Russell Pond campground. Our leanto was on the far side of the lake, about 1/4 mile from the other other shelters.
A visit from the ranger resulted in some reminising by Linda and Meredith when they were stuck at Russell pond for several days due to heavy rains and high streams. The Ranger advised us of another couple of moose currently feeding in the pond on the other side of the pond. So we hot footed it over there for a gander before it got dark.The following morning we started out on the hike up the backside of Katahdin to Davis Pond. It was a long and strenous day of hiking ending in a walk through a high mountain blueberry patch, rain and plunging temperatures. I was feling a little hypothermic, so I immediatley climbed into my sleeping bag while Linda and Meredith went down to the pond for a chilly bath. That evening we were treated 40 degree temperature as we slept. The next morning we forced ourselves out of the sack, dried out as much as possible and continued our journey up the mountain to Davis peak and the alpine “tablelands”. We were very fortuante that day as we were spared from all rain storms around us, and after pumping water we started down saddle trail (which I absolutley detest due to the steep pitch and loose rock) to Chinney Pond. We spent another cold and rainy night at Chimney and the following day decided to exit the park a day early after getting soaked in a rain/sleet mixture visiting Pamola caves. All in all it was great trip! Looking forward to next year’s trip.

wow, well i gotta know if you went back this year?  And more importantly how did you get the nerve to get back in the water so quickly after your blood sucking experience?  what an awesome trip!

Excuse me. It’s important to begin a search on a full stomach.
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Regards :-D Carlisle.