ACC Maine Hiking Camp - Day 1

Sugarloaf, Spaulding, and Abraham

September 14, 2014

Eight of us organized a traverse today. Patrick, Jim, and Na started off at Rapid Stream Road, while Debbie, Sharon, Don, Paul, and I drove up to Sugarloaf Ski Hill and after some confusion of where to start hiking, started walking up the groomer road which we followed all the way to the summit. The ascent went quickly, and in just over an hour we were on top to an absolute wild place of 100 km/h winds. We stumbled and crawled to the summit cairn over rime encrusted rocks, tagged it while crouching in the lee side, and finally scampered over to a building to take shelter behind the wall. In the fog and blowing wind, it was difficult to see where the trail left the summit to the ridge. I tried to take a compass bearing, but the communications towers were playing havoc on the local magnetic fields, so I descended a bit, sometimes having to stop as a gust threatened to blow me off my feet, until I could get a good bearing, finally calling the others down where we found the trail. Debbie and Sharon linked arms to increase their collective mass which prevented them from blowing off the mountain. Once in the trees again things became more sane and we descended to the AT junction where we had a quick lunch prior to scooting over to Spaulding. The sun had come out and the clouds were starting to blow away, but this peak had no views. After a quick break we continued on a magical forest trail, meeting quite a few through hikers and stopping for friendly chats. It became a beautiful day as we turned onto the Abraham trail. We stopped for another lunch just at tree line, and while we were eating, the other group arrived and joined us. This mountain was fantastic with long exposed talus slopes in all directions. On the summit we had 360 degree views as we explored the remnants of an old fire tower, where the roof of the cab had been converted into a stone shelter on the ground. We almost left the summit in the wrong direction, but a compass check put us back on track. A long descent ensued, which took a little while as the team was starting to get tired. Finally we reached the logging roads and descended for another ten or fifteen minutes before coming to the river with the washed out bridges. The crossing was a tricky rock hop, but everyone got across safely, Paul even dynoing a bouldering move. The car was easily found after a second crossing and we celebrated our first Maine hike after 9.5 hours on the trail. A tricky and rough drive out and we were back to the hut for supper.

We tempted fate by walking up here, and survived.