baxter state park

(Note: one of the readers of this blog contacted me earlier today to say that--I'm reading between the lines here--they could really care less whether or not I make cheese and would rather see the pictures from our trip to Baxter State Park, and that I should "stop slacking" and just post them already. So, here you go!)


A couple weekends ago, Mom, Dad, Tyler, Dan, and I headed up to Baxter State Park in northern Maine to camp and hike in the Katahdin range. I think this was our first family camping trip in probably 15 years, so it was quite an occasion! We piled everything into our old van, but only got as far as downtown for breakfast before realizing that it was a pretty stupid idea. The van was creaking, the tires were compressed, and we all had a bad feeling that the van would break down somewhere along the way. So we headed back to the house to divide ourselves into two cars.



When we got to the Katahdin Streams campground, Mom, Dad, Tyler, and I went for a walk while Dan studied and tended the fire. On the walk, we noticed a barred owl way up in the trees - Mom's first owl, according to her bird book that she's been making notations in for the past 30 years. Her little book reported that the last time she encountered an owl was hearing one screeching in Glacier National Park 27 years ago!

The first night, quite a few hikers came down off the mountain late after miscalculating how long the hike actually takes, and wandered into our site, lost in the dark. Dad offered to drive a couple women down to their campsite, since it was several miles away and they had to bring their car back up to pick up an injured hiker. One of the women was so grateful that she offered to pay Dad for the ride! The first night was pretty cold, and I think Tyler might have suffered the most. He was sleeping in Mom’s old down sleeping bag from high school, which he compared to sleeping in a big nylon tarp. We considered huddling for warmth the next night, with Tyler as the Big Spoon... but, um, no.

On Sunday, we woke up to whoops and hollers from the thru-hikers. The Appalachian Trail runs from Georgia all the way up to Maine and ends on Katahdin. Thru-hikers typically start in April in Georgia and end in October in Maine, so the weekend we were there a lot of them were finishing their 6 month journey. Mom stood outside our lean-to, giving high fives to the hikers as they came along the trail. One of them took a running start for his high-five, and, Mom reported, nearly took her hand off with his enthusiasm. Mid-morning, we headed up Owl Mountain, which has a beautiful 360 view of the park and looks directly across at Baxter Peak.

Looking over at Katahdin

Me and the Mountain Man

Dad hangs out on the summit

Dan squeezes between boulders on his way down

Dad works his way down the boulders

Sunday night, we cooked steak and potatoes on the grill, and then marshmallows on the coals. Dan roasted us perfectly brown, toasty marshmallows, but was dismayed to find out that Mom and I like them burnt! Dad foisted whiskey on his son-in-law (of course).

What else to tell you? Three random things:

1. Mom tried DESPERATELY to get us to eat leftover pumpkin pie, to no avail.

2. Both mornings I woke up early, and both mornings one of my parents came wandering over to the lean-to I was sharing with Tyler and Dan and brought me a cup of hot tea. This was wonderful, and I think I may always take my parents hiking with us from now on.

3. On the summit, the group vote decided that I looked the most like a hobo wearing long underwear under my hiking shorts, and then the guy next to us stood up and we all saw that he was wearing exactly the same thing as me... Patagonia long underwear, cargo hiking shorts, down vest… he actually didn't seem amused.