Trip 2 Maine Final

8/8/2019 Trip 2 Maine Final

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Our Photo-trip to Maine

It was 3:15 am on Saturday, October 1st 2005 when Steve turned theignition key on his green Ford Explorer to start our trip to Maine. I was very

excited and looking forward to taking some good pictures and having some greattime in Maine. Steve and David have been going to Maine for a few years now.The Explorer was loaded with our camera gear and clothing for the week. Wetook turns driving the 650 miles to Millinocket arriving at Econo Lodge (formerlyKatahdin Inn) at about 2:15 in the afternoon. The drive was mostly uneventful.

Along the way we did notice that the color was still very green and that wasntvery encouraging. Anyway, we checked-in and hauled our stuff to the room. Wethen decided to check out the Baxter State Park and see if we can catch anymoose in the warm light of that Saturday afternoon. The south entrance of thepark is about 25 minutes drive from Millinocket. At the entrance we got ourseason pass and a bumper sticker that Steve had so craved for. The park ranger

told us that there were several sightings of the Moose in last few days.Encouraged by his words, we decided to take the dirt road on our right. It wouldtake us to the Sandy Stream Pond where the moose are generally known tohang out. We hadnt moved even 150 yards when we saw a moose on our left inthe swamps. It was a cow having her afternoon snack. Moose like to eat theplankton in lakes and ponds as they are rich in Sodium. We stopped a couple ofminutes to watch the cow moose as she disappeared into the woods behind. Wedrove for another 20-25 minutes to the Roaring Brooke camp grounds parkinglot. From here Sandy Stream Pond is a short 0.3 mile hike. One has to cross thewooden bridge over the Roaring

Brooke stream on the way to SandyStream Pond. It was here that thefamous moose photographer BillSilliker (also known as Bill Moose) diedwhile marveling at the surroundingbeauty. Sandy Stream Pond has asmall board-walk that is about 30feet long and 4 feet wide. Mostphotographers use this to set up theirtripods to hold their heavy and longlenses. We met a couple Alice and

Denny from Spokane, Washington who had flown in the previous night to takepictures of the moose. They told us that they had not seen any moose sincemorning. There were other photographers two friends from North Carolina andfew from Maine and Connecticut. We hung out there for a couple of hours butdid not see any moose. We decided to call it a day and headed back toMillinocket. At the hotel we took a shower that felt very refreshing. We decidedto have dinner at Scootic Inn restaurant which was a short drive from our hotel.


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Lemon chicken for me and a rack of ribs for David and Steve did the jobperfectly.

The next morning we were up at 3:30, in the car at 4:10 and at the parkentrance at 4:40 in the morning. It was pitch dark but even so, ours was theninth car in the line waiting for the gates to open at 5:00 am. Baxter has limitedparking and they do not allow any cars to enter once the parking lots are full andhence the lines in the morning. After driving up 7 miles on the dirt road and

lugging our gear on a short hike wewere at the Sandy Steam Pond at 6:00am. It was still twilight. The air wasfresh and cold. There was a lightbreeze. We could see the Katahdin andPamola peaks on our left and the SouthTurner Mountain peak on our right. Weset up our cameras on the tripods and

waited. The Sun came out paintingevery thing with its soft golden rays. Bythen there were seven photographerson the boardwalk. A few of us couldnt

resist the temptation of taking some landscape shots in the beautiful morninglight. There were a couple of ducks playing in the water but they were too far forme to get a good shot. David had his Canon EOS 1D Mark II with 600mm lensand a doubleron it but even he couldnt fill the frame with those birds. It was atabout 8:10 when we saw some movement in the woods across the pond. As Iannounced looking through my binoculars that it was indeed a bull moose, all thephotographers on the boardwalk immediately turned their bazooka lenses in the

direction where the moose was. As it came out of the woods to drink some waterfrom the pond, we could see his antlers shine in the morning light. The shuttersfired away in unison. This guy was not a large bull maybe 6-7 feet highweighing about 700 pounds and was over 150 yards away from us. Even withthe long lenses it was not possible for us to take a good portrait of this verystrange creature. He stayed for about 3 minutes before turning back into thewoods. From then until 11:00 am we did not see any moose on the Sandystream pond. We did some more landscape work.

We decided to go back to Millinocket and eat lunch. We had asumptuous meal at the Downtown Restaurant. We were back on the Tote Road

in the park at 2:00 in the afternoon. We headed towards the Katahdin campgrounds checking out various ponds along the way. We passed Grassy Pond,Stump Pond and as we were driving we heard a familiar sound it was thecall of nature for Steve. We had to find a suitable spot where Steve could go.We parked and Steve rushed into the woods. We could hear him cross the levelsof ecstasy as he relieved himself. As he emerged from the woods, he looked aliberated man. We decided to walk down the trail to the falls across Kidney


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Pond. It was a hike of about a mile and a half of very soft ground. At times wehad to walk on wooden planks with all our camera gear. One wrong step andyou had it. After about 25 minutes of walking up and down the trail we cameacross this huge rock that hung overon the side of the falls. We set up our

tripods and camera on the rock totake some pictures of the watergushing down the rocks. We spentabout 30 minutes on the rock andthen decided to go further down tothe bottom of the falls. The pathleading down was steep andprecarious but we made it. We spentanother 15-20 minutes down there.Water was cold. It looked beautiful as it burbled down into the stream. Be itNiagra or this one (called the little Niagra), waterfalls have always attractedpeople. The falls showcase the immense beauty as well as the shear power ofnature. As the sun went down, we decided to head back to the hotel. As wedrove on the Tote road we saw a bull moose with a big rack of antlers standingthe middle of the road. We slowed down but he saw us and disappeared into thewoods.

Back at the hotel we met Jack, an acquaintance of David from theCaving Club, who wanted to join us on the hike to Baxter peak on MountKatahdin the next day. After cleaning ourselves up, we decided to have someChinese food at Hang Wang restaurant. As we enjoyed the food, the waitresstold us about the 950 pound big Bull Moose that was killed by her thirteen year

old son on his first ever hunting trip with his father. They got over 500 pounds ofmeat out of that. Hunting for sustenance is probably alright but I prefer shootingwildlife with my camera instead of a gun.

Next day (Monday, October 3rd 2005) we woke up at 4:30 in the morningand decided to have breakfast at the Appalachian Trail Caf. We had a long dayahead of us and we wanted to eat well. As we ate, the owner lady talked aboutthe hikers coming down after completing the Appalachian Trail and their familiespicking them up. The Appalachian Trail starts in Georgia and ends here in Maineat the summit of Mt. Katahdin. Hikers start in late April or early May in Georgia towalk 2175 miles to complete the Appalachian Trail in early to mid October. Of

the 3,000+ people that set out on the trail every year, only about 20% actuallyfinish. Among those who do finish there a few crazy-heads who immediately turnsouth to walk back the trail. I am not sure if anyone has indeed finished theround trip on AT ever. We finished our breakfast and headed towards KatahdinStream Campgrounds. It was 7:30 when we started on the Hunt trail 5.2 milesup to the peak. We soon realized that this mountain was very unforgiving anddifficult. Our starting elevation was a little over 1,000 feet and the Baxter Peak is


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at 5,267 feet. It was a very steep climb. Within 10 minutes of walking, westarted feeling hot. Off came the jackets. Another 20 minutes brought us to theKatahdin Stream Falls. We took a 10-minute break here to remove some moreclothing layers as by this time we were sweating profusely. From this point on,the trail was like climbing a ladder only we had boulders instead of steps.

There was water running over the boulders making them slippery. Jack, who isan avid hiker, was way ahead of us.Three of us struggled as we hauledour bodies and back-packs up theboulders. With each turn we hopedfor some flat ground but there wasno respite. Among the three of us,David is the most active person interms of outdoor recreation but evenhe was slow on that trail. Steve andI have a very sedentary life-styleand this was taking its toll on ourbodies. As we climbed up, Stevewanted to turn back. I too wasntsure that at our pace wed be able to complete the hike before sun-down. Isuggested that we climb until 12:00 and then turn back whether or not wesummit Baxter Peak. Jack and David were determined to summit. At about 9:45we came across this huge rock that hung over the trail making something like ashelter or a cave. We climbed around it and then scaled it to get on the top. Theviews from here were gorgeous. We decided to eat some trail mix and energybars and drink some water here. After resting for about 10 minutes we started

climbing again. At this time we were about 2,700 feet and had completed about2.5 miles.

As we climbed up, the trail became steeper; boulders became larger andmore precarious. Steve said that his heart was pounding very hard and he couldnot take it anymore. I kept encouraging him to keep going. After about 25minutes and another 300 feet, Steve stopped and said that he is going back.Jack was a couple of hundred feet ahead of us. David wanted to continue andsummit. Since it was clearly evident that we would lose daylight on the wayback, I wasnt very keen to summit as I dont like climbing down steep bouldersin the dark. Moreover, Steve didnt have a flash-light and it would slow us down

further if used two flashlights for three of us. It is a rule that never hit the trailalone. So, I decided to turn back and accompany Steve back on the trail. Wewished David good luck and gave him the radio to be in contact with Jack whohad the other set and was way ahead of us. David asked us to wait for him atRoaring Brook Parking lot between 4 and 5 pm. As we came back, I told Stevethat there is no way David could complete the hike and be there at the parkinglot by 5 pm. With this pace, Id be surprised if he could summit before 1:30 andmake it back before 7:30 pm. Anyway, I and Steve made it back to the Katahdin


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Steam Campground parking lot by 1:00 pm. We rested for about 10 minutes andthen decided to drive around thepark to see if we can find any mooseor good spots for landscape. Wedrove on the Tote road stopping at

the Kidney Pond and then DaiceyPond. Both had nice views but therewere no moose. The Sun was toohigh up in the sky to give us anygood light for taking pictures. Wemet a group of 7-8 photographerswho had just driven in and werehoping to get some good moose

shots. We saw some nice log cabins near the Daicey Pond and decided to staythere next time. Not finding anything worth setting up the gear for, basically dueto harsh sun, we decided to go back to Roaring Brooke and wait for David andJack.

At the parking lot we met a couple of ladies who said that they saw acow moose and a calf up at the Sandy Stream Pond. We immediately took ourgear from the car and hauled it up to the pond but there was nothing going on.There were a few photographers who confirmed what the ladies had told us andsaid that the mother & calf were at the pond from 10 in the morning till about 3pm and were joined by a young bull for about 15 minutes in the afternoon. Wewaited until 4:30 at the pond but didnt see any moose. We decided to go backto the parking lot to wait for David and Jack. As we waited, sun went down anddarkness took over. One by one all the photographers and others left the park.

We were getting worried. The park-ranger came to check on us and we told herthat we were waiting for our friends David and Jack to come down Mt. Katahdinvia Helon Taylor trail. She assured us that they had a selected a very long andtreacherous route to do Mt. Katahdin and they are probably still up on the trail.

At about 7:00 pm we met a couple coming down the Helon Taylor. They lookedexhausted and bushed. Upon inquiring, they confirmed meeting David and Jackup at the summit at about 2:00 pm and mentioned that both of them wereheaded towards Knife edge. Knife-edge is a 1 mile jagged rocky trail about 3 feetwide in many places that is completely exposed. If you are in extremely goodshape you can do it in 1.5 hrs. With David, we knew it was going to take longer.

We were worried but having met someone who had seen them at the summitgave us some reassurance. Minutes passed by. The parking lot grew quieter anddarker. At 7:40 we saw a couple of flash-lights coming down the trail. Our hopessoared but as the lights came closer, we could make out that they were notDavid and Jack. Nonetheless, we approached them to inquire about David andJack. Both looked spent. One of them, a 55 year old gentleman said that hewished he had done this hike 30 years ago. They confirmed passing David andJack and mentioned that David had seemed to be struggling a bit. They said that


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if David and Jack have flashlights then they should be down in about half anhour. We went back into the car to wait. It was getting cold. We waited. Wewaited.

It was at 8:45 when we saw another flash-light moving down the trail. Itwas a single light; hence we didnt think it would be David and Jack. The hikerwent straight into the ranger station. We decided to ask him about our friends.

As we approached we heard him say words like disoriented, struggling, anddehydrated and then we recognized him it was Jack. He was red with sunburnand completely bushed. He was incoherent in his speech and kept complainingabout his knees. The ranger gave him some Gatorade and energy bars andcalmed him down. After about 10 minutes he could talk. He told us that Davidwas still about 2 miles up the trail and was out of water - dehydrated anddisoriented. We were mad at him for leaving David alone up there in such astate. The ranger called the parks central office to notify about David and wasinstructed to take some Gatorade up to David and if possible bring him back.

Leah, the park ranger, put together her pack and left at about 9:10. We gave herour radio so that she could try to contact David. We could also hear herconversation on the rangers radio set installed at the ranger station. At about9:45 we heard her report to the chief ranger that she had been able to makeradio contact with David. This was heartening news for us. We waited patiently pacing up and down in the rangers office. Jack slumped down on the bench anddozed off. He looked like a beaten up pulp of meat. At about 11:00 we heardvoices and saw Leah and David walk together into the Ranger Station. David waswrapped in a disposable silver emergency blanket and looked dead beat. As heremoved his blanket we saw his tattered clothes and scraped legs. He had losthis shirt, his fleece vest and left his back pack up on the trail. The seat of his

pants was missing and his legs were red with scuff marks all over. It was anawful sight. We thanked Leah for all her help and helped Jack and David into thecar. We drove back to the hotel in silence. It was past 1 oclock in the morningwhen I finally hit the bed.

Next morning we got up as usual at 4:30 in the morning, dressed up,checked out from the hotel andhit the road. After having asumptuous breakfast and hotsteaming coffee at the

Appalachian Trail Caf, we

drove back to the Baxter StatePark. Dave and Jack droppedSteve and me at the RoaringBrooke Camp before heading tothe Katahdin Stream Camp toget Jacks car. We were at theSandy Stream Pond at about


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6:30 in the morning. We met Alice and Denny and a few others. It was abeautiful morning and there were several photographers lined up at theboardwalk. Steve set up on the boardwalk and I decided to go to the Big Rock a couple of hundred yards further up. There were a few more photographers onthe Big Rock. I decided to setup and take some landscape shots. It was a very

clear morning. Sun was yet to come up. I could see some clouds over Pamolaand Baxter peaks. There were a couple of ducks playing in the water chasingeach other. The air was fresh and it felt extremely good just to breathe that air.Within a few minutes Sun came up from behind me over my right shoulder andthe scene in front of me changed dramatically. Everything was bathed in softgolden light. A slight breeze started to blow suddenly bringing everything to life

water, trees, clouds it was like a ballet of nature. I kept shooting. Afterabout a couple of hours I packed up and went further up on the Sandy Streamtrail. Further up the trail was very wet and slippery so I decided to turn back andhead for the board walk. All the photographers were still waiting for a Moose onthe boardwalk. It was past 10:30 now so we contacted David on the Radio. Hehad returned to Roaring Brooke after seeing Jack off and was up in the HelonTaylor trail to retrieve his backpack and clothes that hed left the previous night.Since there wasnt much going on at the Sandy Stream pond, we decided to packup and head back to the parking lot. On the way back we decided to take somemore pictures of fall leaves and the Roaring Brooke stream. I did some close-upsof a wild mushroom but couldnt get any good shots.

By the time David came back down from the trail, it was almost 1:30. Hehad found his backpack with his Cannon 20D intact but the food was gone. Hecouldnt find his shirt and the fleece vest as well. Well, we were happy that Davidwas okay and it was time to move on to the next leg of our trip. It was adieu to

Baxter State Park and once again we hit the road and we were on our way to Acadia National Park. We stopped at Bangor for a quick lunch and reachedAcadia after an uneventful drive, in the late afternoon maybe around 5:00 pm.We drove straight to the top of the Cadillac Mountain. The view was absolutelygorgeous. We could see manysmall islands sprinkled acrossthe Atlantic Ocean swathedby the sea fog. We spent about20 minutes at the top taking inthe beauty of one of the most

visited National Parks in theUnited States. Then we decidedto visit Bar Harbor that isanother 20 minute ride downthe mountain. Bar Harbor is asmall but very beautiful fishingtown. We immediately pulled our gear out to catch the very last of the beautifullight of the setting sun, dancing on the boats moored in the harbor. We spent


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probably less than fifteen minutes taking pictures before the Sun went downcompletely. Then we decided to take a stroll in the Bar Harbor down town andlook for a place to eat. There were lots of people in colorful clothes. There werepeople of all ages toddlers, kids, teenagers, young couples, families, andelderly all enjoying the gorgeous weather and beautiful invigorating

environment. There are a number of souvenir and gift shops that sell handcrafted and specialty items from Maine. There are several outfitters Davidreplaced his lost fleece vest from one of them. Steve bought sunglasses thatmatched perfectly with his growing stubble to complete his Cool Dude image.We decided to check out Thirsty Whale for dinner. Maine Clam Chowder withoyster crackers and garlic bread was one heck of a meal. Fully satiated weheaded back to the Eagles Lodge in Ellsworth to check in.

Next morning we woke up early as usual to catch the sunrise. To ourdismay, as we looked through the window, everything was covered in dense fog.We just hoped that this was temporary and would clear as the Sun comes out. It

was 5:30 in the morning when we left the hotel. We drove straight to Otter Cliffwhich is a good 35-40 minute ride from the hotel. It was still very foggy. Wespent over 45 minutes there hoping that the fog would clear as the Sun comesout but in vain. Next we went to Thunder hole. It was awesome but again thelight was bad. We drove further up to Otter point and went up and down thetrails along the cliffs. The place is beautiful but there was hardly any good lightfor us to take good pictures. Wewent down to the Hunters Beachwhich is nothing but rocks washedashore over thousands of years. Wesaw many colorful rocks in all

shapes and sizes. It was close to 9am and we were hungry. We drovedown to the Northeast harbor andhad some great breakfast at theColonels Restaurant. Then we droveup to Somesville to look at theworlds most photographed bridge.It was drab. The mist and lack ofgood light made it look very dull. We moved on and stopped at Southwestharbor. Determined to take some pictures we unloaded our gear from the car

and setup our tripods. Everything was white and grey. We craved for some colorand light. After spending about 30 minutes at the peer we decided to move on.Next stop was the Bass Harbor light house. This time we didnt even bother totake our gear out. We did however, walk down the rocky path to the point fromwhere everyone takes those spectacular postcard shots of the lighthouse. Afterspending about 10-15 minutes down there we decided to drive up to the visitorcenter to buy some souvenir. It was a long drive up to the visitor center. We allwished that the weather was better. After finishing our business at the visitor


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center, it was time to eat and Steve suggested Popovers at Jordan Pondrestaurant. Popovers are like large muffins but hollow from inside. You put butterand strawberry jam inside and enjoy it melt in your mouth (I am sure yourmouth is watering as you read this believe me they are damn good!). We hadour popovers in the restaurant lawn that faces Jordan Pond. It was misty, windy,

cold and grey. Freshly baked hot-from-the-oven popovers were the only goodthing about that moment. I did not even like the cappuccino I ordered with mypopovers! It was about 3 pm when we finished at the Jordan Pond Restaurant.Steve suggested that we head to Schoodic Peninsula which is a good one hourdrive that you cant enjoy much in that dreary weather. Nonetheless, we droveup to the Schoodic Peninsula without making much conversation. As we werepulling into the parking lot we had a whoopee-moment as we spotted some sortof an animal crossing the road in front of us. None of us could identify it. Itlooked somewhat like a beaver but it was not. Anyway, we pulled over in theparking lot and clambered around the nearby rocks. The striation pattern createdby the embedded rock in Glaciers as itmoved on granite over thousands ofyears looked beautiful. It wasamazing to see these deep andparallel striations as if someone dicedthe rock with a knife. Lichen on therocks made and interesting patternof color on granite. It was an incredibledisplay of the remarkable ability oflife to come into being and thrive onbarren and hard rock. It was

Natures way of flaunting itssupremacy. It started to drizzleand we scurried back to the car andheaded straight towards the hotel tofreshen up. It was almost 8 oclockwhen we, showered and fresh, wereback in the car heading for BarHarbor. By now we had decided that ifthe weather continues to be like this the next morning, well checkout early andhead back home. We bought some more souvenirs from Bar Harbor beforedeciding on Geddys for dinner. The food was good but the beer was excellent.

We ordered Moose Breath that is brewed locally in Maine and it was delicious.

Next morning it was again fog and mist. We packed up and checked-outfrom the Hotel. We decided to have our breakfast at Two Catsrestaurant in BarHarbor. Jumbo Hot Chocolate with Almond & Blueberry Pancakes was one heckof a deal for breakfast. I really enjoyed it as we bid adieu to Bar Harbor and

Acadia National Park. On the way back we made a brief stopover at the LL BeanFactory Store. Visit to Maine is incomplete without buying something from LL


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Bean. Columbus-day sale at LL Bean was like the cherry on my cake. All of ussplurged on the outfitters wares and came out with large shopping bags in ourhands. Once again our green Ford Explorer was blazing down I-95 this timesouth bound and in our minds we were already thinking about the next year!

Trip 2 Maine Final

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