While we've been up and around Baxter the past two summers for camping trips, both times we have stayed outside the park. Which means, you know, important things like access to toilets and running water, and possibly electricity and cell phone service. This year, we decided we wanted to stay in the park. It's a more rustic experience as it means being truly off-grid, and while some may grumble at Baxter's very specific regulations, the rules do ensure that Baxter remains a very special and unique place to visit. So, following the camp's rolling reservations, four months in advance, we booked a site at South Branch Campground up in the northern part of the park for late July. We had been up there exploring when I was pregnant with Sam for a day hike, but have always stayed in the southern part of the park. This was going to be a new experience for all of us!
Thursday
We were on the road by 9:00 am and stopped in Patten for lunch at Debbie's - delish! - before continuing on out into the wilderness until we reached the park entrance. From there, we still had a ways to go on the dirt road until we hit the turn-off for the campground. You really are out there!!
Gabe, the very friendly park ranger, met us to discuss the rules and regulations and check us in. He also cheerily asked us all about ourselves and proceeded to remember Sam's name for the rest of our stay there. Impressive! We got ourselves settled into site 31 and got everything set up, but realized while doing so, that the fuel regulator arm of the stove was broken and the propane tanks would not attach, which meant no stove and no cooking of anything. Aie. Ryan may have had a bit of a panic attack over this but I managed to convince him that we would be able to cook (almost) everything over the fire and no one would die or starve. And so with that settled, we set out to wander around the campground and down to check out the pond. (0.6 miles walked)
We had to get a new mat for the tent entrance. This one cracked us up 😂
Such a pretty view!
💕
I think this is water lobelia. It was so pretty right at the water's edge
We then drove a short ways back up the road and headed out on the trail down to South Branch Falls. Definitely not a lot of usage on this trail, and we should have worn our swim suits, as the pools sure looked inviting and it was hot! Lots of bunchberries. (1.0 miles walked)
The water looked so nice!
After dinner of Otto's pizza reheated over the campfire - yum! - we headed back down to the pond for another look before returning to relax and play some cribbage back at the campsite before bed. (0.55 miles walked)
Resident snowshoe hare
Swamp candle along the edge of the pond
A fair number of little frogs and minnows flitting about in the shallows
Friday
It rained hard overnight but we awoke to clearing skies. We headed down to the pond to check the bulletin board for the weather report (gotta go old school here with no internet access, and yes I just stopped logging the campground walks on Strava, but I'm guessing we added at least a few extra miles over the course of our time there just walking to and from the pond!) and then went back to camp to get ourselves organized for the day.
We set out around 8:45 am to hike the loop over South Branch and Black Cat Mountains. We did this hike when I was pregnant with Sam, but I honestly don't remember the hike at all! I do remember coming out to the pond though. And all I could think of while we were hiking on Friday was, what were we thinking? 😂 I guess we were 13 years younger then. Aie. In any event, this was a really fun loop and a very rugged one at that.
You start right off the bat by crossing the outlet at the end of South Branch Pond. We all got wet feet 😉😆
Then it was a nice meander through some pretty forest, with lots of wet branches and leaves on the side of the thin ribbon of trail and many slick rocks underfoot. Bunchberries, ghost pipe, blue bead lilies and lots of neat moss and lichen to be seen.
Love all the moss
After a little bit, the trail started to climb in earnest, with some seriously steep pitches too! We were rewarded with a few views along the edge of the ridge, but South Branch Mountain summit was treed in. Along the way, we saw many piles of moose poop and a lot of stretches of hobble bush and ferns that seemed like prime moose habitat, but all we ended up seeing the whole hike was one grouse, one garter snake and two toads 😅😆
This was one very fat toad!
Eventually, we got to the open summit of Black Cat Mountain, with some amazing views out over the pond and farther out into the park, where were could see the clouds gathered atop Katahdin. Also some lovely bunchberry, blueberries and fire pink in bloom. Oh yes, and more moose poop! Apparently, the moose like the summit vistas too 😉😊
So pretty!
💖
Looking out to Katahdin in the distance
From atop the ridge, we followed the edge of the mountain down through a scree field and into the woods, where we continued to drop towards the pond.
We came out into the open to an overgrown bog bridge section traversing the upper stream into the pond, where the joe pye weed was in full bloom. So pretty.
The final few miles of the hike were along the far edge of the pond, although we meandered up into the woods and along some cliffs before dropping down to the pond edge and then finished up with a final flat one mile stretch back to the campsite. It was a full day, but a great hike and even better, we all had fun! (6.7 miles walked)
We spent the afternoon relaxing at the campsite, where Sam ensconced herself in her hammock, I took up my book and Ryan took a nap 😴, before cooking up some sausages over the fire and playing a few rounds of cribbage. We took one final walk down to the pond as the light faded and then called it a night.
Evening light on the pond
Saturday
Saturday morning we headed up the road to Trout Brook Farm to hike Trout Brook Mountain. Another beautiful day and another lovely hike, this time just a bit shorter! It was a fun loop with some great views, rocky ledges and lots of blueberries, but also being at lower elevation, it meant a lot of bugs too. (3.3 miles walked)
Lots of wall hawkweed in the lower wooded areas
So many pretty bunches of bunchberries!
And lots of blueberries to snack on!
Such pretty views. So many ponds and so much wilderness!
We drove down into the campground to have lunch after our hike and then picked up life preservers, paddles and a canoe and headed out onto Trout Brook for an afternoon canoe, which had been suggested by Gabe the ranger as a fun and different spot to get out on the water. The fields down near the water were filled with joe pye weed, meadowsweet, aster, goldenrod and were just magical.
😍
We paddled out through a short tributary onto the river and then into a large inlet, which almost looked like a separate pond and canoed along the edge a bit before turning around to paddle back. In theory we could have paddled all the way out into Great Lake Matagamom, but let's face it, I am happiest when I am exploring on my own two feet and while I am a reasonable swimmer and like water (or at least looking at water 😄), I am not a strong paddler and coming back to the put-in spot going upstream and with a very stiff headwind was reasonably unnerving! However, it was a fun exploration, just not my chosen mode of travel 😆😉 (2.0 miles canoed)
So much blue and green
When we got back to South Branch, Ryan headed out for a run while Sam and I relaxed at the campsite. It had gotten pretty warm out so when Ryan came back, he was ready for a dip in the pond, although he could not convince Sam to get in any farther than her knees 😉
Quite the setting for a dip!
Evening view
Sunday
Got up before the sun rose and headed out for a run at 5:15 once there was a bit of light. I headed up the Middle Fowler Pond Trail to Barrel Ridge. It was nice, reasonably runnable, if slightly overgrown (which was the theme of the trip for all the trails we went on!), terrain for a few miles, then it became more of a run/hike. Passed over a few open ledges and then dropped down into a dip before the final steep hike up to the rocky summit of Barrel Ridge. Beautiful early morning light and some good blueberries to snack on too! From there, I backtracked the way I came in and got back to camp before anyone else was out of bed. A nice way to start the day. (6.1 miles)
Morning light
Trailside snacks! 😋
After breakfast and coffee, we packed up camp, said our goodbyes to Gabe and then headed towards the park gate, stopping at Horse Mountain for one final hike. A reasonably mellow hike through some reasonably benign woods up to a wooded in summit and then out a long spur trail to a ledgy overlook. Lots of mosquitos, and no horses, seen. (3.3 miles walked)
Stiff clubmoss. Saw a lot of this in the woods.
East spur overlook
Goodbye, Baxter! Until next time.
We stopped just outside the park along the lake for some lunch, and then a little ways down the road for an ice cream at Shin Pond Village before making the long trip home. It was a really fun camping trip, filled with some great hikes, lots of blueberries, some good games of cribbage and a lot of time together enjoying the outdoors 💗
And because it's the end of yet another month, here's the running tally...
July wrap-up:
207.3 miles run
27.0 miles walked
4 full zero days
YTD:
1,249.2 miles run
175.01 miles walked
9.3 miles xc skied
30 full zero days
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