NEOC Camping Trip

Let's face it - camping is tiring. There's the pre-trip organizing and packing. The jigsaw puzzle that is cramming all things camping related into our tiny Prius. Camp set up. Sleeping poorly in a tent on a hopefully well-inflated air mattress 😂 Bugs. Weather. And in this case, 3 hours of driving, and a kiddo who was feeling a bit off the whole time. All those things and more. But it is worth it to be out in the woods together. Always.

This was our first camping trip of the season due to our Airbnb Southwest Harbor trip and Sam's two weeks at Y Camp. It was also our first time staying at the NEOC campground. It is in a great location, about 3 miles outside of the main park entrance, perfect for park access! The sites are nestled along Pockwockamus Pond, with a lodge that offers showers/bathrooms and potable water running on a generator during daytime hours. No cell service, so you really are "away." We were able to get wood and ice, and the lodge had a few taps of beer, some pool tables, fire place and a piano, although due to Covid, we didn't do much other than use the bathroom and take a shower. Mostly, I'd say this campground is a good jumping off point for the park for the NEOC rafting trips, but didn't quite offer the same straight-from-the-campground trail and park access that we enjoyed last summer at Abol Bridge so maybe not quite the perfect spot for us in terms of what we want most from a campground. But, there were some nice sites and decent amenities considering it's in the middle of nowhere.

Thursday

We stopped in Millinocket to grab breakfast to go for lunch at the AT Cafe. I got a good laugh out of the answers to these thru-hiker questions and had fun telling Sam the questions. Ha! Totally brought back all the memories 😂 Oh, and lunch was delish! 😋

We arrived at the campground around 1:00, and it sure is nice to have a capable almost-12-year-old to assist in camp set up these days! We settled into site #4 and got things all set up and organized before we headed up the road for a short hike. 

View of Katahdin from the edge of the lake right down from our campsite

We parked in the small lot just before the gatehouse and walked in on the Cranberry Pond Trail. Some lovely woods walking, although the bugs were quite prolific!

Bog bridges through the bushes out to Cranberry Pond

Cranberry Pond was lined with pitcher plants - so cool!

Mountain maple

So much winterberry seen

Edge of Rocky Pond

We looped back on the park road to avoid the bugs for a nice short walk to stretch the legs and enjoy a section of new-to-us trail. (2.8 miles walked)

Then it was back to the campground for dinner, a walk down to the dock and around the entire campground to check out the different sites and the farther reaches of the pond as the clouds rolled in and before the rain started.

Far reaches of the campground and the pond. 

Boggy and buggy but so many pitcher plants!

Saw a lot of this - I think it is pipsissewa. Pretty.

Dock view with Katahdin

Tons of these caterpillars all around the campground! I think it might be the Rosy Maple Moth caterpillar, which is really cool, as that is one pretty moth! 

And of course, All Dressed chips 😂

Rain started around 8:00 pm so the evening fire didn't last long and we hunkered down in the tent for an early night.

Friday

It POURED all night long. So much rain and a lot of it. Thankfully everything stayed dry although we woke up cold and feeling quite damp. All of us slept in and then we stayed under the pop-up tent attempting to stay dry, playing some games and making breakfast, as it alternately drizzled and rained. 

No Katahdin view

Soggy tent

Making pancakes and bacon in the rain

Sam finally retreated back to the tent to watch downloaded Netflix shows on the Ipad and eventually a little before 11:00 am, when the rain became more of a drizzle, Ryan sent me off on a run as I was going just a wee bit stircrazy! 😜 Looking at the map, we realized I could run from the campground over to the Golden Road and hit the River Pond Nature Trail that I had seen mentioned online and which did show up on our map. It was 0.7 miles to the main road from our campsite, 0.7 miles across the dirt connector to the Golden Road and then another 0.6 miles up to the turnoff for the trails. From there, it was a short run on a dirt road into the "parking lot," where I took the Tenderfoot Trail along River Pond. It was misty and drizzly and buggy and the trail, which was narrow and little used, was like a car wash on my legs due to all the rain, but the woods were lovely with a lot of mushrooms and bright bunchberries poking through the greenery. After about a mile, I took the Bluebird Trail to the dirt road that cut through the middle of the preserve and looped back that way. By then, the skies were clearing a bit and the deer flies were out. Oh yay! But still, a nice little exploration. And then it was back the way I came on the roads. (6.25 miles)

"View of Katahdin"

Still quite damp and a bit chilly when I returned, but at least the rain had stopped! We had nachos for lunch and then decided to head into the park for a short hike to salvage the day.

Camp nachos!

It had warmed up nicely and although there were some sporadic showers, it turned into a fairly decent afternoon. Due to the morning rain, we didn't have any trouble getting into the park, driving up to Abol Campground and parking there for a short hike into Little Abol Falls.

The trail started with a stream crossing at the edge of the campground and rose gently on an old road through the woods ending at the falls. On a warm day, I'm sure it would feel great to get into the shallow clear stream and it was quite pretty up there! Lots of neat mushrooms en route as well. (1.8 miles walked) 

I love the inside of the ghost pipes

Yellow Patches mushroom

Since we were out already and had the time, we decided to head a little further down the road and check out the NEOC main lodge, which is more of a resort site with the lodge, cabins, a restaurant, etc on the shore of Millinocket Lake. There was decent service en route and on site, so we spent a bit of time uploading our walks and checking email, etc and then wandered down to the shore. It was seriously breezy but the sun was shining and there was a nice view. Cool spot! 

Then it was back to the campsite for dinner and s'mores. Yum! 🔥

The evening light on the pond, even as the clouds rolled back down the mountain, was beautiful. 

Saturday

Another cold night with not a lot of sleep. Should have brought a second blanket and some additional warm clothes! Brrr! 

We wanted to get into the park for a hike and knew we'd have to get there early as it was Saturday and wanted to ensure we got a parking spot at the trailhead we wanted. Baxter is definitely a bit more difficult in that way, as they restrict the number of people in the park and then different parking areas fill up so you can't always get into the place you want. Of course, we were not attempting Katahdin so that made it a bit easier, but it still meant it was going to be an early morning!

The plan was to hike Sentinel Mountain, a mountain I hiked while 29 weeks pregnant with Sam almost 12 years ago!

Pregnant lady on the mountain 😂😂 #throwback

We basically got up, brushed our teeth, went to the bathroom and piled into the car and were on the road by 6:15. The line at the gate was long, but we were able to bypass almost all the cars since we were not waiting to get in to hike Katahdin. Woohoo. 

The trailhead for Sentinel is up at Kidney Pond, which is 11 miles into the park. On the narrow dirt road in a Prius, that sure takes a while 😉 But we got there, parked, got some breakfast and eventually got ourselves on the trail around 8:00 am. It was overcast, chilly and windy - I even had on gloves for a bit! Definitely not your typical late July weather!

The trail winds along the edge of the pond at the start, which was really neat, especially because we were treated to a sighting of a loon and chick to make up for the lack of Katahdin views on our way out. They were not bothered by us at all, and the bog bridges along the shore afforded us some really close views of them. Such a neat experience! 😍

😂😂

💗

I think these might have been unicorn mushrooms

Lots of cool moss and bluebead lilies

Hobblebush berries

Some cool coral mushroom patches

Black trumpets

Once we veered away from the pond, the trail meandered through some pretty woods, rising fairly gently until the final mile, where the trail became more rocky until it ascended to the edge of the Sentinel ledges. It was cloudy but the ceiling was high enough that we were able to enjoy some sweeping views out into the park. There were also some great blueberries along the summit loop. Yum! That 1/2 mile might have taken us a little bit longer due to all the berry stops 😋

Ledge views

Doubletop view

yum!

After we rounded the loop, we started our way back down. Scared up a little vole running across the trail, saw some more mushrooms and bribed Sam with a few swedish fish to keep going 😉😊

Love these little red waxy caps

I think this is dewdrop/false violet. Neat.

Love the purple

Once we got back down to the edge of the pond, we were thrilled to see that the skies had cleared and we had some wonderful views of Katahdin across the water 💖

Arrowhead in the shallow waters

We had lunch on the porch of the library and then headed back to the campground, stopping at Stump Pond to check out the views. Pretty!

Back at camp, as the sun was setting we wandered down to the dock to enjoy the pastel colors in the sky and the soft light hitting Katahdin. The winds had died down and it was just so beautiful! 

Sunday

A cold, clear night. I originally intended to get up to run in the morning, but I hadn't slept well again and after getting up to pee at 5:00 am, I crawled right back into the tent and fell asleep for another 2 hours, so I guess I needed it!

So instead, it was a quick breakdown of camp and we headed over to explore the Golden Road to the River Pond Nature Trail together before we headed home.

It was bright and sunshiney, and the views along River Pond looking at Katahdin were amazing! Of course, the bugs were also quite atrocious in the woods so you had to keep moving for sure!

We took the Blueberry Trail, but continued on past the old road that I had turned off onto on my run on Friday and connected up with the Foresters Trail, which was even less well-traveled than the other two trails. The trail traveled along up above the river, and was much more undulating than the flat Tenderfoot Trail. We took the offshoot on the River Diver's Trail down to the river's edge, which was replete with blowdowns but which did reward us with a cool split rock, a pretty view up river and a family of four river otters chattering out in the open waters. Really neat! 

It was a random loop and just a bit too buggy and with a few too many blowdowns to be enjoyable in its entirety but all in all, a nice way to get some amazing views of Katahdin and a few miles before we got back in the car to head south. (3.5 miles walked)

River otters!!

We stopped in Millinocket for lunch, hitting Subway first for Ryan and I and then going across the street to McDonald's for Sam's. And while we were eating in the shade in the parking lot, who should Ryan spot but Karl Meltzer?! I have no idea how he knew it was him, he is not super recognizable but it certainly was! When Ryan saw the Utah plates, he was like, that is DEFINITELY Speedgoat! I am getting out! Sam was mortified by her parents going up to a random dude in the parking lot to be ultra-fans, but we had a fun few minutes talking with him and he even had on his No Business 100 hoodie! Such a fun celebrity sighting and a very appropriate way to wrap up our trip 😍😎 And yes, we did ask him, and he said no, he is not going to run the AT again 😂😉 but he was headed up Katahdin the next day!