Exile #3 is dog-sitting again, but the rest of us had a nice walk at Moses Woodman Preserve today. The hike is through the woods and then down to near the Saco River where two different side trails loop close enough to get a view of the water through the trees.
Some of what we saw is here - a chipmunk, some feathers, the parasitic but elegant Indian pipe plant (top center), a pretty purple wildflower and a fallen tree with an impressive array of woodpecker holes.
We also saw a deer, but it bounded away before I could get a picture.
The real star of the walk was another kind of sighting, but I'll save those photos for another day.
A few more pictures from our second ascent of Saddleback last week - first some trail and view photos. The top right shows part of the early trails - this one was called "Streambed Trail" but this part could have just been called streambed. Lower middle left is one of the smooth rock faces that we had to climb. This one was only marginally steeper than the others but had some helpful if logistically difficult rungs to help:
also pictured - lots of views - it was hard to pick just one or two.
Oh go on, just one (two) more - in the bottom right of this top photo you can see the ski resort building, and with a bit more zoom pick out where we were staying:
Part of the walk up was on this ATV trail. The signs caught our eye. ITS is Interconnected Trail System - a Maine network of snowmobile trails (but not at this time of year). Also - a couple more wildflower photos.
With two full days left, we took the first - and as we thought at the time - the better weather day (Day 14.193) to do a short hike to the top of Bald Mountain - a small peak between two lakes a short drive from our base. The main reason for this order of hikes was that we thought that this might be a bit taxing the day after hiking Saddleback, but the other way round seemed more manageable. I suspect we were right.
In the end we had just the right amount of fine weather for this hike - with heavy rain arriving in the early afternoon when we were safely back in the dry.
Despite its name, Bald Mountain has trees up to the summit, but fortunately the fire tower provides excellent panoramic tree-top views. Here are a few pictures including the steep trails, views from the top and an extraordinary looping tree trunk:
Our hike to Saddleback summit on Day 14.190 was short, steep, difficult and wet and although we got a few glimpses of the view from part way up, it was - as we discovered a tiny fraction of what you can see on a clear day. Here is a flavor of it:
One thing the slow ascent up the steep ski trail was good for was seeing all the many wildflowers (and a wild strawberry). These were all taken on the ski trails on our way up the mountain. All the more amazing when you think that for a good part of the year this ground is buried under several feet of hard-packed snow:
Let's get this one out of the way first - we saw a moose on the road down from the mountain (of course on a day when I didn't have my camera to hand. It was a young one and it posed for a photo from the phone before it left into the trees:
Bird sightings:
1,2 - White-throated sparrows - the soundtrack of our trip (see shaky video below for the audio)
3 - a young one seen on the way up the ski trails on our first hike up Saddleback
4 - a turkey vulture on top of Saddleback
5 - a cedar waxwing in the treetops on Bald Mountain from the fire tower
6 - a yellow-rumped warbler on top of Saddleback
7 - a dark-eyed junco
8 - a duck (at the edge of Rangeley Lake)
9 - a gray jay on top of Saddleback
Here's the song of the white-throated sparrow (apologies for the shaky video) - sound on!
And my biggest failure today is although I took these pretty good diagnostic photos, I cannot identify this bird seen near Cascade Falls: [update - thanks to the whatbird.com forums - an American redstart]
I already shared our first view of the view from the deck of our vacation home on Saturday. Here are some of the other views we had from that same spot (mountain views etc. to come later!):
Sunday (the day we mostly stayed in!) - cloudy and moody:
Monday (the day of our cloudy ascent of Saddleback) - looked like good hiking weather at the time:
Thursday morning (hiking weather again):
Thursday evening:
Friday evening (after our second hike up Saddleback):
Today was a typical post vacation recovery day. Everyone was slightly sleepy, we eked out the remains of last night’s take out with whatever we could find in the house, and kept the washing machine working hard. It is nice to be home but, and I’m sure we’ll make it to the beach soon to remind ourselves why we like it here, but we’re already missing the mountains!
In other news, our neighbors very kindly watered our yard while we were away so our newly installed plants survived the heat and. and we came home to some delicious, ripe tomatoes.
We're home but we fitted in a couple of little adventures en route. Our first stop was at a roadside scenic lookout - but (at least on a day like today) it was a jaw-droppingly good one. It also has a fantastic - if slightly inexplicable name - Height of Land:
From there we took the short drive (although more than 3 miles was along a dirt road with several wooden stream crossings) to Angel Falls (obviously not the ones in Venezuela - although the Maine towns of Mexico and Peru are not too far away). The trail to the falls involves three crossings of the stream - which the kids approached in their own unique way. We did all make it to the falls, although only Exile #2 and Exile #3 made it to the final photo location.
And with that, our Franklin County - "Escape to the Mountains" week is a wrap - although there will be more photos now that I am home and can review them (especially the ones from the camera) properly.
There was a surprising amount of enthusiasm to repeat the climb back to the sunmit of Saddleback even if we didn't have weather to get the panoramic views from the top. in the end E5N1 decided to stay in but the rest of us had a perfect day for the hike.
We took a more circuitous route on the ascent - via some ponds and trails that by name and appearance are clearly stream beds for some parts of the year to an ATV trail that led to the Appalachian Trail route to the summit. The climb was steep and tricky in places but we were rewarded with amazing views once we cleared the trees.
The walk from there via the summit and the saddle to the northeastern edge gave views in every direction and a more satisfying feeling of conquering a 4000 Footer beyond the bragging rights.
We came back down via the ski trails as we had done on Monday - but again with rather better views as we did so.
About 7 miles, 2000 feet of climb, 5 hours including stops for food and to enjoy the views.
I think it would be safe to say that we haven't had the best weather during our stay here but today we made the most out of a mixed-weather day. We got out fairly early and hiked Bald Mountain in the sunshine. The trail was steep and tricky in places and the views from the firetower were spectacular.
By the time the inevitable rain came we were recovering back at the cabin and later we dodged another storm by ending up seated at an indoor table at the reataurant instead of on the 100% full deck which had to be rapidly vacated a little while later.
We will try for one more long hike tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get the timing right again or maybe not, but either way we’ll try to do it with a smile on our faces.
We also saw a deer, but it bounded away before I could get a picture.
