My Northeast Trip 2010

[Ben]

Went on this trip last week, went up to the Adirondacks in upstate NY, then through Vermont into New Hampshire in the White Mountain National Forest, and finally to Acadia National Park in Maine. Never been up that way before, so i decided to go up there and see what it was like. NY, VT, and NH exceeded my expectations 1000%, and Maine was a bit disappointing. But was well worth it, cant way to go back.
First stop was Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks, pretty much in the middle of the park, and stayed at Lake Durant Campground. After all the problems we always have with the private campgrounds in ID, i wont use them anymore, i stayed in Park Service campgrounds only, and they were all by far nicest campgrounds i have ever been in.
This was taken shortly after i got into the Adirondacks, just pulled over and took a few pics


This was the entrance to the campground i stayed in, real nice place right on the lake


Here's my site for while i was there, the lake is about 5 steps from the back of the site


Nearest little town was Blue Mountain Lake, drove there to try and get a cell signal, took this while i was there

[Ben]

This was taken from the lake at the back of my campsite, was interesting watching the clouds roll in and envelope the mountain and then keep moving on, amazingly nice area

This was the next morning, taken at the same place as the last pic, fog didnt burn off till about 11am

Went and hiked one trail that was close to the campground, saw this on it, there was no dirt anywhere around the tree. Looked like an octupus eating a clam


They have firetower hikes in this area of the park, where groups have restored the towers that used to be used by the park service from ~1900 to 1970 to go up and look out for forest fires, then they switched over to planes to do it. So at the peak of mountains a certain distance apart from each other they'd build these towers on the summit of the mountains. I chose to do the one on Snowy Mountain, and at the time i didnt realize it, but i think i picked the hardest one. It was 4 miles one way, 2000ft elevation change, and the last 3/4 a mile was straight up climbing a mountain stream. The hiking poles i bought were invaluable. Was a challenge just to stay on the trail and find the markers on the trees, and there was more then a couple times i'd come up to a section and see no way up it, but if you look hard enough, there is always a way. Biggest thing i was afraid of was falling since i was alone, i would have been screwed. This was a monday, almost no one around. I was very conscious of every step i took
I took this when i left, thats Snowy Mountain, and at the top towards the left you can see a little stick looking thing, thats the tower


Took me about 3.5-4 hours and made it to the summit, this is what the tower looked like when i came up on it. Its 45 feet tall

[Ben]

This is up in the top, wind was gusting up there and was pretty spooky, but one of the coolest things i have ever done.

I've got a ton of shots from the top, but ill just put a couple up for space reasons, can always do more later if anyone wants more

There wasnt a sign of civilization i could see anywhere, except for one small section of the road i drove in on. I didnt think there was anywhere left east of the missippi as natural and preserved as this, was great to see. This is only one small part of the park im seeing, it totals 600,000 acres. There's over 100 campgrounds in it alone, hardest part of planning the trip was trying to narrow down where to go. This pic gives you a little scale for how high above the trees it is.

Inside of the top of the tower, my gear laying there



Saw this guy on the trail, he stuck out with that color

This is one the way back to my campground, this trip was in celebration of my 10th anniversary with Ole Blue, and this spring i invested in a set of rust free doors for it, rust free tailgate, new rear bumper, new grille, ground down the wheels and repolished them, and a lot of new paint. Looks amazing. Here's to 10 more years!!

[Ben]

Here's some of the trail to the firetower. You can see the red marker, your best friend out there. The trail goes out there and drops, it was something else being so physically exhausted and then coming up to these sections and having to stop and force yourself to figure out a way through it, i loved it though. Cant wait to go back. At the time i was trying to beat the clock and get back before dark. Luckily i packed a lot of water and food, i needed it





This thing was fun, would flex down into the water when you walked across it, hahaha

[Ben]

I made sure to use these also, they stress it a lot there to use them. Is the sign in/sign out station so if no one heard from me for a few days and assumed i was out there still, they could find where i signed in and didnt sign out, narrow down where im laying in a bloody heap after falling down the mountain. You put your name, where your staying and for how long, where your going, and then the box to check when you made it back. Almost all the people were from NY state, very few people from out of state



Those are all i have from NY, ill get NH and ME up later on today

[Pete]

sweet pics, looks like one hell of a hike

[busyfixin]

No doubt!  Very cool trip.  IIRC, a lot of those were just past the top of streams.  The idea was that it would be very hard to loose your way as the stream would always be there and "easy" to follow.

[Ben]

I wanted a challenge, but even when i saw the description say that the last 3/4 mile is very rocky and steep and the trail was rated moderate/expert, i didnt think much of it, until i got into it. If i would have known what i was getting into, probably no way i would have lugged Heathers camera in the bag up there. But i cant wait to go back and do this that trail again and the other 4 towers that are in the area. Then once that's done, theres the whole High Peaks area to the east of where i was, and a ton of summit hikes there. There's almost limitless stuff to do there. Want to fish and kayak there too, tons of lakes. Pretty awesome place and only 8 hours away

[Ben]

So i left NY and made my way to Lake Champlain to take a ferry across to Vermont. Driving through VT to NH to the White Mountain National Forest and to Mount Washington which is inside it. This is me waiting on the ferry, i pulled up to the ticket booth and the ferry was just pulling away, just missed it. So i had to wait an hour which i didnt care, which worked out good, met a couple from Melbourne, Australia who came to NY city, stayed 2 weeks, then got a rental car and were touring New England. Really nice people, talked with them for awhile. Then a couple pulled up who were from OH too, and they were doing my exact trip, day for day, place to place, was crazy.



coming up to VT

[Ben]

Drove through to Mount Washington, and then took the Auto Road. Its a private road but the mountain is in the National Forest, the business for the auto road existed before the Park Service did. Going up this mountain is the first tourist attraction in America, started back in early 1800s for the rich people of Boston and NY City to come to. Its a unique feature since its the tallest mountain in all the NE, on a clear day they say you can see to the gulf of Maine. Also there is 2 major storm tracks and the jetstream all pass directly over it, so it gets some pretty incredible weather. The highest wind speed ever recorded on earth was recorded here in the 1930s. Over a 100 days out of the year, the winds average 75mph or higher, which is hurricane force. An awesome place for the view, the history, and if your a fan of weather. There's a weather observatory at the top with a museum in it, and the view was great. Its $23 to take your own car up, and it was a 4500ft ascent i think, took 25 minutes, and they tell you at bottom to put car in 1st gear and leave it there, which is good advice for how steep it was. You also get a CD that has one track for the way up and one for the way down, tells the history and all the shit that has happened there. Very cool place. I never knew we had mountains with alpine zones on this side of the country



tons of bikes come here, i pulled over to let them pass whenever they got behind me

[Ben]

Here i am at the top.

being sung by Bob Seger "LIKE A ROCK!" 

A ski resort you could see on the next mountain over

This is the original weather station, which is now a souvenir shop, where the world record was recorded. The chains are functional. In the pics in the museum of when it was in operation, that had huge 8x8 wooden beams, 3 on the roof going to the ground and 3 on the sides going down to the ground, per side, to brace it up against the wind. It averages 280 inches of snow a year, and the record from the 60's was 540 inches

[Ben]

I went on some hiking trails while i was up there, it was just fields of rocks you had to walk on, and other areas were alpine grass but they dont want you walking on them since its a fragile area and so many people go there

Still snow up there




On my way down

[Ben]

Stopped about midway down and went on a trail, was weird since where i was at the trees could only grow about 10 feet and stop, looked so weird how the sunlight came in. This whole area reminded me so much of montana and yellowstone. Just different kind of pine trees and some decidious trees mixed in



I left there and went to my campground, real nice place in the middle of nowhere, loved it. No one worked there, was self pay. I actually made reservations online for here a couple weeks in advance, so i filled out the self pay form and put my reservation confirmation in it and in the green tube. I was blown away when i pulled up to my site and and had my name on it. They must have a ranger come from the station every so many days down here and post the reserved sites.


It was Basin Campground, and i had a site right on the lake again. The mountain actually wrapped around the lake like a horseshoe, was a beautiful place. I think there was only 2 other sites being used in the campground. The busy season doesnt start here till July 4th



The wind wasnt blowing here, they are frozen like this. They must get some bad winters here, these trees look like they get battered

[Ben]

My final destination i went to Maine to Acadia National Park on Mount Desert island.

Entering the park, right on the ocean

I stayed at Seawall campground, real nice place, although the sites were closer together then the other places. The beach was across the street, i could hear the bouy bells in my tent at night.


Drove over to the beach, is all rocks


The first day i was there it was real hazy, then it poured that night and was foggy and rainy all day until about 5pm

[Ben]

Once it started clearing up i grabbed my stuff and went to hike up Acadia Mountain, was a lot of climbing up rocks, good view at the top





I was watching this guy go around and pick and reset his lobster pots, was cool to see


And of course i had to go for a lobster dinner the one night. This whole meal with tax was $20. I could look out the window and see the lobster boats offloading. I also left my camera here and didnt realize it till the next day. 


The crowning achievement, on the drive home as i was going through Massachusetts, Ole Blue hit the quarter million mile mark