Above: view of Sawtelle Deadwater from our campsite

Bezabor: (posted 9/26/05 from Caribou Public Library)

(this section written from a (free!) Forest Service private lands campsite on Sawtelle Deadwater just outside the northeast corner of Baxter State Park)

Saturday, 9/24/05-

The night had been a cool one-- 31.6 degrees according to the indoor-outdoor thermometer above my bed--- and the firewood came in handy. The wood was very dry and in only a few minutes we had a nice hot blaze going to stand around for breakfast. After breakfast we took a short warm-up walk in the campground, then started exploring in the van. We stopped in a few minutes at Nesowadnehunk Lake and took a short walk there. The day was warming up but was windy and it would not be much fun out on that lake so we moved on.

Shortly afterwards, we explored up a side road to Camp Phoenix and as we came around a turn, there was a woman along the road who looked at us oddly. I thought she might be unhappy about being disturbed in her walk—but then saw that just thirty yards or so down the road was a bull moose – and quite a large one--- standing in the road and staring our way. I stopped the van and Labashi jumped out with her camera. We could tell from the moose’s body language that he was about to run into the woods but he apparently was still a little curious so he would start off the road, then turn around and come back. The woman did not like this at all—she had been out for a morning jog and the moose was blocking her way home. But this impasse was quickly resolved as Labashi moved in for a better photo and the moose decided to crash off into the woods. Very cool!

We continued up the main road—the ‘tote road’--- and after lunch walked a short trail to the South Branch falls—only a mile total. We exited the park around lunch time and started planning for a campsite for the night over lunch. We decided we’d like to take a leisurely afternoon so found a possible campsite on the map only ten miles or so outside the gate- beside a small lake called Sawtelle Deadwater. We thought we found the campsite beside a boat launch and settled in there. But later we took a walk up the dirt road along the lake and found a MUCH nicer one there so we moved. We spent the nice warm (60-degree) afternoon poring over the maps and planning the next section of the trip. After supper we retired early (again!).


Friday, 9/23/05

It rained in the night at Lily Bay on Thursday night but the temperature was still a very comfortable 60 degrees at daybreak--- much warmer than the morning before. We woke early and drove up to the shower house around 0700 to take our showers and make breakfast there. We’ve taken to eating Quaker oatmeal, the maple style, with a few raisins. The new 50-per-cent-less sugar version is better than the original--- that was just too sweet. We like how it only takes a minute to boil enough water for the oatmeal so we use just a tiny bit of fuel for that. We’re looking for a good morning tea. We had picked up some sugarless chai tea at a remote country store but it’s a little too perfumey.

We drove north from Lily Bay into the private timberlands. The map showed a gate but it was not in use. The road was all dirt and heavily pot-holed for miles but then we emerged onto another dirt road called Golden Road, this one wider and smoother but muddier. We were clearly in the timberlands now, mile after mile of it. It’s an odd place to drive… on the one hand you are in near-wilderness area but on the other there are no pull-offs and no overlooks and you have to be alert for logging trucks. After about fifty miles we finally came to a hard road and then the approach road from Millinocket to Baxter State Park. But the nice road only lasted a few miles, until we reached the entrance to Baxter.

As you may know, Baxter State Park is a wilderness park. It has no services—no gas stations, no restaurants, no flush toilets or running water, not even any potable water at all (all water must be treated), and of course a carry-in/carry-out trash policy. The road is well-maintained gravel road, only a little over a car-width wide and very twisty, i.e., filled with blind turns. One road goes to the Mt. Katahdin area and the other swings around the west and then the north side of the park for 45 miles or so and exits at the northeast corner of the park. Speed limit is 20 mph and even that’s way too fast on the blind turns. A car coming around the turn the other direction comes up on you very quickly and you both swerve to your side of the road. In many places it’s simply too narrow to pass so one or the other must pull off. The good news is it’s remote enough that there are not many cars!

We had a problem of another sort. The maximum height allowed into the park is 9 feet. Our van is just under 9 feet at the top curve of the rooftop ventilation bubble. But with the two sea kayaks we were about 9 ft-7 inches. I figured the worst case was that we’d have to find somewhere to lock the kayaks to a tree while we went into the park.

We asked at the Visitor’s Center and the guy said we’d just have to approach the toll gate and see what they say. He thought it would depend on whether the person on duty was willing to allow us through but did offer that it would be alright for us to leave the kayaks at the visitor center if we had to. He said the purpose of the limit was because of overhanging branches so I thought that good news--- a difference of a few inches would probably not matter—if we could get past the entry gate.

At the gate, the ranger never mentioned it. He simply helped us make a reservation for a campsite ($18) and collected the $12 for the vehicle pass. Once inside, we pulled over for lunch at the first available pullout and while there we were passed by an outfitter’s van of exactly the same make and model as ours but with a large commercial luggage rack—the type that luggage stands up in--- so I knew we’d be fine.

On the advice of the visitor’s center guy, we spent the afternoon on a hike to Lost Pond. Our hike started out south-bound on the Appalachian Trail, then at Daicey Pond we went left and the AT right. It took us two hours to get to the far end of Lost Pond and start off to the Foss-Knowlton lakes but we decided we didn’t want to get back to the van too late and then try to find our campsite in the dark. So we cut it a bit short but still got in a four-hour walk. Most of the trail had been like something out of the Brothers Grimm--- the entire forest floor was covered in a carpet of green moss. Our trail was mostly covered in pine needles. There was no understory so we could see fairly far through the woods—and it was all moss-covered. Very eerie.

Our campsite at Nesowadnehunk campground lay some 17 miles from the entrance gate. Since firewood was only $2 for a big bundle, I bought two bundles for the evening. But we only used most of one and the remainder I left for a morning fire since it was supposed to get down to the 30’s overnight.

Later, as we let the fire die down we noticed the spectacular stars overhead. We thought we could see the Milky Way but wanted a better view so we walked to an open field at the campground entrance. We saw two shooting stars and were just starting to pick out some constellations when we noticed clouds zooming in from both the north and the east and within a few minutes the sky was covered. Lights out. Time for bed!