Category: Baxter State Park

Mt Katahdin Baxter State Park
Mt Katahdin Baxter State Park in Maine is a key location on the Appalachian Trail (AT).

Baxter State Park is home to Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the 2,190+ mile trail. Thru-hikers either begin or conclude their Appalachian Trail journey at Baxter Peak, the summit of Mount Katahdin.

My four kids and I along with extra friends spent a lot of time at Baxter State Park. Climbing Mt Katahdin is unforgettable and a yearly repeated hiking tradition. But lots of other mountains and smaller foot hills to hike and conquer as you collect the different trail experiences. Growing up less than a hour away means tapping into the natural beauty and majesty of Baxster State Park / Mt Katahdin was right in my backyard.

Have you seen the movie Lost On A Mountain In Maine?

80 miles, 9 days and lost on Mt Katahdin and wandering around the Baxter State Park and beyond. The movie, a true story based on the story that swept the nation back in the summer of 1939.

Donn Fendler, a 12 year old Boy Scout lost his hiking party and found himself alone, wet, cold, tired and deeply lost in the woods around Baxter State Park while climbing Mt Katahdin in Piscataquis County Maine.

Watch The Trailer For Lost On A Mountain In Maine!

Hear, see Donn Fendler himeself reflect on what happened and his experience that had a happy ending.

Share your experience with Mt Katahdin, the hiking personal tales you have at Baxter State Park.

Hiking Baxter State Park. Which Trails Do You Use The Most And Pick To Hike?

Climbing Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park Trails With Your Kids. Like You Did With Your Parents. Priceless.

Feel The Breeze, See The Moisture Clouds Floating By? The Tableland Of Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.

Heading Up Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park’s “Saddle”.

Lots of trails, which one to pick depends on the age, the size of your climbing party as you head to Baxter State Park.

Baxter State Park. No Burger King, No Mickey Dees. Just Wildlife. No Vehicles, No People, Just Four Seasons All Natural Scenery.

Where to begin?

Mountains in Baxter State Park:

Baxter State Park boasts over 40 mountain peaks and ridges within its boundaries. Notable mountains include:
1. Mount Katahdin:
  
  Comprises five main peaks:
  
  Baxter Peak (the highest at 5,269 feet)
  
  Hamlin Peak
  
  Pamola Peak
  
  South Peak
  
  Chimney Peak
2. Other Peaks:
  
  Mount Coe
  
  South Brother and North Brother
  
  Fort Mountain
  
  Doubletop Mountain
  
  The Owl
These mountains surrounding the crown jewel Mt Katahdin in Baxter State Park are breath taking.

Each provides a mix of hiking challenges, from strenuous climbs to more moderate trails, and offer stunning views of Maine’s wilderness. The park is renowned for its rugged beauty and commitment to preserving its natural state, making it a favorite for outdoor enthusiasts.
Starting a family hiking journey in Baxter State Park and working your way up to Mount Katahdin is an excellent plan! Here’s a guide to gradually build up experience and confidence, taking into account age, weather, and time constraints:

1. Start Small: Horse Mountain

Trail Overview: A short hike (about 2 miles round trip) with moderate elevation gain, suitable for young children and beginners. 1400′ high. Start with this one my advice from experience.

Highlights: Scenic views without being too strenuous. Perfect for getting the family used to trails and rewarding vistas. The entire family can hike. Little hikers don’t have to stay home.

Tips: Bring snacks and let kids take breaks. Make it about the journey, not just the destination. Bring friends too to follow the blue dotted dash trail markets up and down the trails.

2. Intermediate Hikes: Gradual Progression

For families with younger children or when weather or time is limited, Baxter State Park offers excellent “in-between” trails:

South Turner Mountain

Trail Overview: Moderate hike (about 4.5 miles round trip) with excellent views of Katahdin and wildlife spotting opportunities.

Best For: Kids with a bit more endurance. A great next step after Horse Mountain.

Blueberry Ledges

Trail Overview: A fun, easier trail with a round-trip of around 3.5 miles, offering waterfalls, forest views, and ledges to explore.

Best For: Kids who love variety and shorter distances.

Ledge Falls

Trail Overview: Not a hike, but a fun family spot where kids can enjoy sliding down the natural rock water slides.

Best For: Hot summer days when hiking might be too exhausting. Work your way up to longer trails, steeper Baxter State Park mountain options.

3. Advanced Preparation: Mount Katahdin

When your family is ready, tackling Katahdin is a monumental achievement. It’s challenging but incredibly rewarding. You might choose from these popular trails:

Saddle Trail (via Chimney Pond)

Trail Overview: The most family-friendly ascent to Katahdin’s summit, but still requires good preparation.

Distance: About 10 miles round trip.

Best For: Families with teens or older children who have experience hiking and can handle longer, more strenuous climbs.

Hunt Trail (Appalachian Trail)

Trail Overview: Classic but steep and exposed. Amazing views!

Distance: About 10.4 miles round trip.

Best For: Fit, experienced family members comfortable with rock scrambling.

Rainy/Time-Limited Days in Baxter State Park

Kid-Friendly Nature Trails: Explore interpretive trails like the Daicey Pond Loop (1 mile) or Sandy Stream Pond (0.5 miles) for wildlife watching.

Relaxing by the Water: Spend a day by Kidney Pond or Daicey Pond fishing, canoeing, or just soaking in the scenery.

Camping Adventures: Book a night at a family-friendly campsite, like those at Roaring Brook or Abol Campground.

Tips for Hiking with a Family:

Plan Ahead: Check trail conditions, weather forecasts, and park guidelines.

Pack Essentials: Water, snacks, sunscreen, bug spray, and layers.

Set Realistic Goals: Know everyone’s limits and be prepared to turn back if needed.

Celebrate Small Wins: Let kids enjoy smaller accomplishments as stepping stones to bigger challenges like Katahdin.

This approach allows your family to build hiking confidence and create lasting memories in one of Maine’s most beautiful natural areas!

Maine’s Highest Mountain, MT Katahdin. Located In Forever Wild Baxter State Park. Snow Comes Early, Stays Late On This Almost Mile High Mountain Top.

Hope you plan to hike and bring your family to start the outdoor tradition trail, mountain climbing in Maine.

Enjoy the movie Lost On A Mountain in Maine with your family. I would love to hear questions and can share my experiences from many trips to Baxter State Park, Mt Katahdin growing up, with my own kids and now as grandchildren pop into the picture.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA
November 24, 2024
Maine Litter, Like Another Helping?

Maine litter. Like another helping of litter?

No thank you, it’s carry in, carry out in Maine. I was taught to pick up after myself.

Everyone Enjoys Outdoor Maine Lake Ice Fishing. Even The Family Dog.

But now that we’re on the subject, who taught you how to litter? Are you good at littering? Would you consider yourself an amateur or professional or in-between level litter bug?

Littering, sounds strange when asked about a skill or talent that helps no one.

But how best to help ” give a hoot, don’t pollute”? (Thanks Woodsy Owl. Like to come out of retirement?)

This Maine blog post about littering, what makes a litter bug let fly.

Keep It Clean. The Air, Water, Earth. Give A Hoot, Don’t Pollute!

To open the window wide. Toss the Happy Meal packaging remains out through the hole where glass used to be.

You could take the approach that litter creates jobs. The highway clean-up crews and effort put into recycling litter all pump lots of money into the economy.

Is it like no no, don’t take your shopping cart to the parking corral or push one back into the store thinking.

Because someone makes a living, can be hired to do that for you. Even though inside more and more shopping places, you and I are being trained to scan and bag our own items. Then asked to rate how did you do with the five-star option. I’d give myself a five for a fine job bagging and tagging at the Wally World or Piggly Wiggly check out.

Any Season Is The Right One To Visit Maine.

So littering when walking along a Maine hiking nature park trail or around home.

Done with the empty bottle or can, the candy or gum wrapper, the food container. Throw it, get rid of the debris on your four wheeling or snowmobile stop. Just let gravity do what it does best here on Earth.

Maine’s Mt Katahdin Is Almost A Mile High. Carry In, Carry Out And Protect Maine’s Tallest Mountain Hiking Trail Camping Experience.

Park the car.

Statistics show most littering in Maine done by motorists and usually in the 30 something age group. Tossed on a highway means you can get away from your litter at 55 miles or faster and less apt to know who generated it right? But take a walk down over into the road highway ditch. Littering along a beautiful Maine highway or hiking trail is not pretty. Not many would argue about that right?

Family Fun Is Always Outdoors In Maine

But nothing worse than a Maine blog post that shames.

Instead, how to be proactive in understanding the “why” folks litter. I never saw my parents litter. I was brought up to pick up and put litter where it should go… into a garbage pail. So not made to clean up after yourself or just not caring. Is it just lazy?

Take a trip to a third world country and it’s whoa.

Look at all the garbage, everywhere in heaped deep layers around you. It smells, is not sanitary and contaminates. Garbage can be industrial littering where jobs over the environment tkaes priority.

Or just no structure in place for here’s what you do with with littler on any level ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

If the increase in litter because of the higher cost to get rid of it?

Maine Would Love To Have More European Tourists From Across The Atlantic Ocean.

No more backing up the family sedan on Saturday morning at a small Maine town dump. To throw another bag or two where the black bears are never far away.

The bulldoze operator idling and ready to pack it down and cover it up to remove it from sight. To ready the land fill dump for the next deposit. Land fills in Maine, those did not help the ground water quality.The black bears were entertaining though.

Take the case of an appliance now that wears out?

Where does it go if not a recycling center transfer station? Dump along an old woods road on someone’s private property?

One of the best ways to cure littering is to grab a pair of gloves, a large refuse bag.

Then high ho, let’s go comb a stretch of Maine highway garbage together. Everyone should take a turn.

Why not adopt a stretch of roadway or trail, parkway to tidy up on a regular basis. Make it a family or civic, school, church group regular event. Not just in spring. Maine highway vegetation can hide a lot of garbage.

Awareness of how bad the situation is often requires hands on, up close and personal inspection of what’s out there for litter.

To study the sheer amount that piles up along a Maine highway over time.

Got This Maine Cat In A Real Estate Property Sale.

Broken bottles are dangerous. Wildlife has to deal with six pack plastic rings that will never biodegrade.

Left where a Maine lake ice shack sat that just becomes part of the waterfront habitat below.

Shifting up to bulk buying to avoid the individual packaging something to promote?

Why not join a co op and bring your own containers to reduce packaging waste?

Do you have a compost bin out by your garden where you give the crank a heck of a yank?

I’ve witnessed the highway road crews collecting the returnable bottles, collecting the debris each spring in Maine.

Winter must be the peak time for litter bugs.

Or harder to get out to retrieve it. When what’s tossed is out of sight and mind under white fluffy snow during shorter days of light.

As you lead a crew picking up litter it’s hard to not think about how to stop the sheer volume of it.

As you toil, you think what steps need to be taken for this constant clean up procedure to become unnecessary.

Just how best to reduce the growing amount of litter in Maine?

Singing, Crying, Or Paddling By In Silence. Maine Lake Loons.

Sure glad Maine has a bottle redemption law. No billboards to pollute the highways with distracting message either.

Littering, why people do it? Is it like the Hank Williams Jr song that littering is “a family tradition”?

Hope not.

Remember the classic litter campaign PSA’s?

Sometimes the trash, litter floats in from across the pond washing up on the coast of Maine.

There are more productive uses of time and money than picking up trash and litter after someone else. With a few adjustments. litter can be reduced or eliminated.

No, don’t need another law on the books about the stiff penalty for littering.

It’s all about education for young grasshoppers. Who help convert older family litter bug members to see the error of their ways.

What does Maine law say about littering anyway?

The state of Maine littering statute today.

Clean, Outdoors, Unspoiled. That Is Maine, The Way Life Should Be!

Falsetto parenting, where Mom or Dad throw their voice into a higher register like Frankie Valli.

To plead please don’t litter Jimmy or Jane.

That’s not the best way to cause litter reduction.

But if kids don’t practice pick up after yourself at home, they sure are not going to out in the World.

Like quitting smoking, the movement to stop littering takes awareness, education and a statewide approach.

Stopping By For A Slurp Of Sweet Syrup, Maine Hummingbirds Give Winds A Rest.

I worked at Maine Broadcasting in Bangor during and after graduating from the University of Maine in Orono.

Fred Nutter would do editorials on the direction the state of Maine should be taking or correcting. Summing it all up with “that’s our opinion, we welcome yours”. Wonder if Fred ever did an editorial on Maine littering?

At Baxter State Park, there is a famous rock to remind all it takes effort.

To keep it clean, to preserve beautiful four season Maine.

The huge rock boulder is called Pockwockamus at the entrance to Baxter State Park in Maine.

Set On Stone, Don’t Pollute, Give A Hoot! Pockwockmus Rock, Baxter State Park.

Colorfully decorated with a stone billboard reminder it is up to you and I to keep it clean and pristine. Keep Maine beautiful.

No People, No Man Made Structure Or Noises. Welcome To Baxter State Park’s Mt Katahdin.

Recycling helps reduce the trash, Maine litter.

Keeping trash items in a bag inside a vehicle until you arrive at a place to dispose of them. While traveling instead of throwing debris, garbage out a car window, save it, hold it until you get to a place to deposit litter.

Respect, How To Enjoy Maine And Keep It Clean! One Pastime Learned From Your Loved Ones.

Maybe like the “I voted” or gave blood sticker, there could be a version for a litter bug with a circle slash through the trash image. Or a lineup of five Mainers and the simple question “Can you spot the litter bug?” Keep it clean, it’s your planet, state, local Maine community. Please don’t litter. Keep Maine beautiful.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

June 4, 2024
Picnics in Maine

Picnics in Maine.

What do those three little words conjure up in your mind? Family time out in nature? Romance gazing into another’s eyes, munching on grapes and admiring the view? Or just to get off the highway to recover from white line fever and the “10” and “2” on the wheel. There was a time in Maine when all kinds of secondary road rest area picnic stops were available to make travel easier, less expensive.

Picnic Rest Stops Along Maine Highways. Once Small Roadside Stops, Many Tables & Grills!

Maine picnics. Picturing a weaved basket with a lid to open? Kool-ade, twisting off the thermos top to pour hot coffee. Maybe a mason jar full of ice water to fill a paper or tin cup.

Feasting on home made egg salad or tuna or ham sandwiches, deviled eggs, pickle spears during a highway travel break from behind the wheel? (Pass me another drum stick, a little more potato salad would you please?)

Sampling something home made and not off a grocery store shelf. Tastes better, saves money and the roadside picnic stop made good use of your travel time.

Squeezing Apples, Making Cider For Family Enjoyment.

Rewind to say picnic areas stops in Maine and see many outdoor roadside dining options.

Picnics in Maine pretty common place.

Some close to home on a weekend to head to a hillside or park it by a lake, pond, the ocean to take in the view. To enjoy outdoor scenic dining where the fresh air improves the taste of whatever gets fished out of the picnic basket. Why waste all this Maine four season beauty right? You get the best seat in the house so to speak.

Maine Lighthouses, Collect Your Favorite! Revisit Every Season! Bring A Picnic Lunch!

Picnic Lunch At Baxter State Park! Lots Of Outdoor Dining Options!

Maine picnic outings to save time and money along the highway traveling somewhere.

Instead of turnpike rest stops along the Interstate highway in Maine, it was canopied picnic tables along all the US highways and less traveled byway routes. Here is a list of Maine picnic area rest stops during the hay day.

The Unique State Of Maine Hand Drawn, Creatively Depicted. Like The People That Are The Fruit Of The Tree.

There is something special and memorable about open air Maine picnic dining.

Families all have a roll setting up and tearing down the impromptu roadside dining experience. Some Maine picnic areas feature fireplaces to grill up what you slide onto the paper plate.

Peaceful, Quiet, Magical Mist Enjoying Fresh Coffee Early Morning On A Maine Lake. Picnics Can Be Enjoyed Any Time, Year Round In Maine!

Wood or charcoal for the outdoor sizzle adds to the picnic experience. So does the kids checking out the babbling brook on the edge of the picnic area. Exercise, getting out of the station wagon to stretch your legs, explore, fill your lungs with fresh air.

The picnic stop really was win win to silence the meal time bell, to offer face to face conversation taking a travel stop break.

Then pack up, douse the camp fire, any garbage carried out or deposited in a secured barrel that was black bear proof.

Life Jumps Out At You Sometimes. Rural Maine Is Ready For Whatever Pops Up.

Do you picnic?

With tourist information centers dotting the state of Maine, there is still plenty of opportunity to outdoor picnic dine. Or have you fallen into the habit of looking for the knife and spoon I-95 or Maine turnpike symbol for food and fuel?

The I spy with my little eye the drive through window options and gas pit stop options.

All done NASCAR quick like a bunny in one major hurry racing from “A” to “B”?

Maine, The Way Life Should Be! Welcome To Vacationland! Common Sense Still Used In Our Daily Life. Not Outdated.

The local tourist information center had a small playground and several grills, canopied picnic tables.

Used to take the four kids and invite the grandparents to meet us for a picnic lunch or supper.

You did not have to be a road warrior only to picnic in Maine.

Picnicking was something different, a habit while the Maine weather cooperated to dine socially outdoors. Corn on the cob, baked beans, grilled hot dogs all courtesy of a Coleman gas stove set up to prepare sometimes a more elaborate meal.

Picnic spots in Maine abound.

You develop your own perfect outdoor venue for finger food, a trail side snack as you drink in the amazing views unspoiled four seasons Maine can provide if you take the time.

Outdoor Maine scenery improves the taste.

Take a break from trail or highway riding and open up the carefully prepared picnic snack or meal. Remember to not create debris or to litter. Carry in and carry out. Tread lightly.

Small Town Living In Maine. Means Trail Rides With Your Family And Friends. Picnic Lunches Along The Trail!

Picking potatoes or raking blueberries growing up taught us all how tasty fresh air dining bathed in sunshine can really be when mixed with manual labor.

Money From Working For Area Farmers. How To Make Your Own Money, Not Spend Mom And Dad’s Important Skill.

Vy Flewelling if memory serves correctly had over ten children in tow during potato harvest. Area potato farmers during the three week harvest break from the three R’s depended on area youth to pick ’em clean. The four baskets in the potato barrel needed to securely slide your numbered ticket into a tight crack on the stave’s groove.

Her lunch time break ritual was no brown bag with Vienna sausages lathered in mayonnaise, ring dings, chips and Mountain Dew.

No no, it was boiled New England dinners, like Thanksgiving holiday spreads served on the vehicle tailgate. Vy definitely knew the joy and economy of outdoor picnic style dining in the Maine potato fields and blueberry barrens.

Picking The Potatoes By Hanfuls Into A Basket To Fill The Empty Barrels. Full Potato Barrels Weight 165 Pounds Befofe Storage In Potato Bins Over The Winter.

Trail hiking, mountain climbing all offer a different form of Maine outdoor back pack picnicking.

Gorp and expanded trail side snacking is healthy and quick energy finger food.

Climbing Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park Trails With Your Kids. Like You Did With Your Parents. Priceless.

Apples, bananas, grapes and oranges taste better outdoors in the middle of Maine’s majesty. Be considerate of the packaging and waste but there is nothing like munching on peanuts, raisins, oats, granola.

Maybe with some chocolate sneaked into the mix atop Mt Katahdin or your favorite hilltop or waterside perch.

Winter does not stop the Maine outdoor dining experience either.

Snow sledding stops at a simple woods camp where a 55 gallon drum is converted into a charcoal wood chip grilling machine is common place.

Dressed in snowsuits and removing the face shield helmet, take off the gloves. To hoist a barley pop and chit chat about the twisting woods trail ride behind and ahead of us today.

Visiting an Maine lighthouse in winter.

The photo and video array is so different yet the same from your last different calendar month visit.

Get outdoors and bring along a specially packed picnic lunch. Hike, bike, cross country or downhill ski. Take in the sights, fill up your lungs. Feel alive in Maine and figure out life’s mysteries. Those secrets are found outdoors in Maine.

What outdoor recreation event do you like to do in Maine?

Visit the woodlot, paddle across a Maine lake in a kayak? White water raft down a Maine winter? It all awaits and maybe a picnic lunch enhances and extends the fun outdoors in Maine. Picnic blog posts are nothing new on the Maine blog channel.

Fruit in season, an apple found and polished to crunch on along the Maine outdoor trail.

Wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberries. Nature has a way of providing finger food for all her creatures. I’ve seen and heard birds sampling the fermented berries and failing to miss a lake home picture window. They get stunned and then back in the air.

Note to self ” Get those bright colored plastic tape to string and protect the giddy birds around Maine lake home.

You got to eat and the time you provide to pack the picnic lunch, the folks you are with or if you just travel solo or a couple. Enjoy outdoor picnic lunch dining to stay outdoors and to enhance the experience. There is nothing like it and traditions are started.

How do you think the cowboys did it out west? Dining under the stars settled in around the camp fire leaning again horse saddles and a bed roll. Too much time inside dulls the experience. Dress accordingly but exercise and drink in all that the Maine outdoor four season lifestyle offers those wanting to partake!

Lucky to live in Maine and I bet you Me In Maine blog post readers feel exactly the same.

Off to finish banking the Maine farmhouse and wrap up the putting away outdoor items at the lake place today. But enthused today about memories of past picnic lunch travel stops and often Sunday afternoon rituals growing up in small town Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

November 12, 2023
Mt Katahdin Baxter State Park

Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.

Maine’s highest mountain and the source of hiking, camping joy for many. Photographers, wildlife enthusiasts and anyone wanting to be smack dab in the middle of nature all return again and again to Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.

Climbing Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park Trails With Your Kids. Like You Did With Your Parents. Priceless.

This Maine blog post is to highlight Mt Katahdin, the dream of Governor Percival Baxter ad the jewel for so many in love with her majesty.

First off the facts about Mt Katahdin, the corner stone of Baxter State Park.

Mt Katahdin is horse shoe shaped, with five separate granite peaks.

Howe Peak (North Howe is 4612′, South Howe is 4734′). Pamola Peak is 4912′. Hamlin Peak is 4751′. Baxter Peak is 5267′ and Mount Katahdin’s highest point.

I learned early in my childhood about the wonder of Mt Katahdin at Baxter State Park.

My parents bought a JC Higgin’s canvas tent and along with my three older brothers, the family would go on sleep overs at Baxter State Park.

We all had jobs from setting up the tent with the front screen “porch”, gathering fire wood, helping prepare or clean up camp fire meals. Mt Katahdin herself only represents about 16% of the hiking trails at Baxter State Park.

Like I did with my four kids, as a little shaver Horse Mountain was the first peak to conquer.

Slowly working the way up to the main attraction, Mt Katahdin which means “Greatest Mountain” named by the Penobscot Indian Nation.

You don’t just hop off a couch and decide to climb Mt Katahdin.

Starting off slowly on a smaller elevation before tackling Mt Katahdin is a safe idea. Plan on an 8 to 12 hour day of climbing, rest and snack stops.

Mt Katahdin is the first stop on Appalachian Trail heading north to south.

Ending up in Georgia, nearly 2200 miles away. Mt Katahdin is not a easy climb.

Nearly vertical and twisting with granite boulders. there are places on Abol Trail with metal bars to grab and maneuver around, over or under giant rocks that make up Mt Katahdin.

Before you plan you day of climbing Mt Katahdin or any of the trails, make sure these hiking considerations are covered in your group preparations.

Secure a parking reservation. Here’s how to get hold of the folks at Baxter State Park for any climb, your dream of tackling Mt Katahdin. Check your local weather forecast for the Baxter Park area. The park rules limit your party size to a dozen hikers.

Stay on the trails to avoid being mentioned in search and rescue headlines in the local newspapers.

If you are not at the peak of say Mt Katahdin by mid afternoon, plan to reverse your direction and begin the trail climb descent. Being caught up on a Maine mountain of any size in the dark is not the memorable adventure most are seeking. It’s all about safety first, middle and last on your climb up Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.

For every five children, there must be an adult connected to the buddy system of trail climb hiking in Baxter State Park.

Follow The Light Blue Dashes Marking The Baxter State Park / Mt Katahdin Trails.

Making it back to the base camp should always be your goal, not reaching the top of Mt Katahdin.

Register your climb at the base trail head. Stay on the trail. Remember before anything else, get your parking reservation. If you don’t have a place to park, you aren’t going hiking that day. If the weather is unsafe, the hiking climb is not going to happen either. There are 82 trails at Baxter State Park and over 220 miles of out of this World hiking adventures ahead.

Baxter State Park, A Big Horseshoe Of Granite With Five Main Peaks.

The incredible views that you slow by sure work for that take time and determination are part of the fun.

Seeing wildlife, experiences the smells of fresh fir and pine, feeling and hearing the breeze around you. Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park is not a once and done check off of a bucket list item.

Mt Katahdin especially, South Branch Pond, Knife’s Edge… they all grab your heart strings and you can not shake loose. The toughest trail, Cathedral. The easiest hiking trail on Mt Katahdin? Saddle trail but the most roundabout to pick.

Feel The Breeze, See The Moisture Clouds Floating By? The Tableland Of Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.

Whatever the approach to climbing, plan and expect to at least chew up 10 hours or more in your hike of Mt Katahdin. Knife’s Edge with 2000′ vertical drops on a trail that narrows to only four feet wide is something you will never forget. But your hiking squad, the team. Anyone with fear of heights? Wobbly on bad knees or bad back?

The connection at the top of Mt Katahdin peering out in all directions after traversing the table land, above the tree line, is like no other natural setting.

Mt Katahdin and her distance north to travel makes the other hikers you meet more dedicated, more committed. Mt Washington is way way closer to attract the Boston area of population.

No matter how many times you have climbed Mt Katadhin, the feeling of accomplishment, the thrill of what sticking with something surrounded by jaw dropping views everywhere you look never dull. Preparing your year’s vacation in Maine and looking for ideas? Carry in, carry out. Tread lightly on your Mt Katahdin Mountain climb. Have the utmost respect for nature, the wildlife. your surroundings.

Maine Governor Baxter donated the park, here is his dream.

No People, No Man Made Structures Or Noises. Welcome To Baxter State Park’s Mt Katahdin.

The element of danger combined with winds, precipitation making rocks slippery are part of the emotional build up working your way to ply the trails of Mt Katahdin at Baxter State Park.

Seeing your kids continue the climb up Mt Katahdin and exploring sections of Baxter State Park for return trips. Watching the older ones helping the younger ones hike up the trails. Knowing this introduction to Baxter State Park is a big part of living here and enjoying Maine. It is hard to explain or put into words the admiration for what Governor Percival Baxter envisioned for the local and out of state people visiting Maine.

Hiking trails in Maine.

Which ones to pick and put into combination for your hike in Maine?

You Are In Their Home Now. Maine Moose Cool Off, Enjoy Vegetation Shoots.

Hunt, Dudley, Helon Taylor Trails, Chimney Pond, South Branch Pond too are all places you never forget once you experience them first hand. You don’t do the trails alone. Plenty of wildlife to meet along the trail hikes. From snowshoe rabbits to bigger size Maine moose and white tail deer.

Where you park and start your hike is not always the same place you will finish your day at Baxter State Park.

How you get from where you start the climb and end it is part of the planning too. My family has had a park ranger say hop in, climb on the back. To ferry the tired but excited bunch of hikers back to our vehicle. Where the talk is totally about the hike, what kind of day we all had and how it compared to past trail experiences.

Your Signs, The Hiking Trail Blue Dash Marking. You Are On A Baxter State Park, Mt Katahdin Trail!

Before long, the discussion all about when to return to Baxter State Park for a day trip visit. Or longer time cut out of the calendar for an overnight camping trip plans are formulated.

Download the trail maps for Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.

Plan you next trip to be a mile high in the sky or somewhere else along the trails surrounding your day or longer at Baxter State Park. Pick up the $20 trail Guide to Katahdin, Hiking Baxter State Park. Don’t waste the natural resource splendor of Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park! Exercise, being unplugged and outdoors recharging your mental batteries is why we live or visit Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

December 29, 2022
Recreation Camps In Maine, One Property Owner’s Story

Recreation camps in Maine, one property owner’s story shared today on a blog post.

The attraction for many to get to Maine is less people, more wildlife, wall to wall nature all around you. It can all start with just owning an acre or two, a small piece of ME. Often the old travel trailer sinking up to it’s axles from lack of use in the backyard is tapped. Spruced up to make it road worthy for the last trip up to Maine. To go off road forever.

Meet The Locals! Camping In Your Recreation Camps Up In Maine.

Before graduating to the recreation camp in Maine, the camper or RV used as a command base in operation ME low cost vacation.

Creating a spot to head and camp out every three day weekend, any much needed vacation week long stretch. Slowly a cabin is hauled in already built or one is crafted a stick, log or beam at a time. Nothing fancy because the living room is going to be outdoors. Hitting the trails and exploring or getting out onto a body of water to rest and relax. You do your best thinking and find the greatest enjoyment when you can hear yourself think.

Baxter State Park… The Wilder Side Not So Touristy Appears The Deeper You Explore.

Below radar and off grid and hidden in the woods or parked next to a stream, river, pond or lake is the perfect setting for a low cost Maine vacation.

This blog post is a story about how much one couple from below Bangor Maine enjoyed their recreation camp in the Mt Chase, ME. Owned for 44 years and built from scratch. Nothing fancy and simple. To serve as a jumping staging area place to hit several times a year. A post to hit the many remote waterways around the north entrance to Baxter State Park. Listen to their Maine recreation story. As they explain how much fun they had and what was enjoyed most “uptah camp in Maine.

They miss the place up in the tippy top of Penobscot County but realize it is time to let go.

No regrets and so many memories made up at the recreational camp in Maine. Used to part of the Brown Farm in the Patten area, but the 44 acres of Maine land turned into a woodlot, a camp location. They could have had power, it was running up and down the Shin Pond Road, or RT 159. But they chose not to connect the juice and to make their own with battery packs.

Keeping it simple, close to the ground and immersed in nature.

In the beginning the couple spent less time at the camp and more of their days tramping and exploring. Learning one adventure at a time about all the not so easy to get to lakes, streams and ponds around remote areas of Baxter State Park. The ones that don’t get much traffic and very little press.

Added Later, The Much Enjoyed Screened in Camp Porch.

You find the further north, east and west you plow up into Maine, the more unspoiled and all natural the surroundings become.

As the husband who was a college profession and the wife a nurse got older, more time was devoted to being at camp. In the video you hear them talk about the screened in porch that was added. The storage shed for their outdoor toys was built from scratch too. Nothing elaborate but not because they could not afford to have it that way. Fancy dancy or hoity toity “look at what we have” to post all over social media channels was not the goal. Private, special, all that they needed that was more than enough.

See The Pale Blue Dashes Marking The Trail Ahead? Remind You Of Climbing Mt Katahdin Up And Down?

The trails carved from old logging roads and through pasture farm fields that grew up to trees painted with blue dashes.

You know if you have hikes Mt Katahdin or any of the other foothills around Baxter State Park about light blue dashes. That mark the trail so you get up and down before sunset and having to call the warden’s service to go find you at great tax payer expense.

Hiking Baxter State Park. Which Trails Do You Use The Most And Pick To Hike?

The couple with the recreation camp up in Maine also kept a journal.

To help remember and recall each and every trip to the Maine camp or cabin in the nestled in the woods. Looking forward to getting to the Maine recreational camp was as special as the times cherished made their through the year. All of us have to have something to look forward to for fun.

Who Left The Water Running? Baxter State Park Crystal Clean Waterways!

Many recreational camp owners use four wheel ATV’s and snowmobiles to access the nature trails. Others prefer like this couple to hoof it, to hike, bike, kayak and with no motor involved.

Here’s another from the recreation camps in Maine popular people’s choice category that just came on the market.

Wrapped with fourteen acres high on a hill with a big Maine lake in it’s lap, the simple cedar shingle sided cabin is 20′ x 16′. Built with a loft to expand down the road. There’s a brook that is more verbal after a two or three day rain. You get to hear Maine loons in this Maine real estate video.

You can rent a cabin, reserve a motel room in Maine to move around and explore.

That’s how it starts out to get your feet wet and get your bearings. Good way to start to slowly ease her into your diet. One vacation visit no matter how short or long at a time. But once you find a location that tugs at your heart to return every time you leave, you decide to invest in some Maine recreation land. To own a piece of ME and start the family traditions. To drill down into an area with repeat visits and feeling the relationship growing stronger.

Some Winters Are More Snow Fall Than Others. All The Better For Snowmobiling, Skiing, To Create Snowy Trails To Explore Maine’s Winter Wonderland.

Trips up to the recreation camp in Maine happening more frequently.

To explore and discover all four seasons what folks lucky enough to live in Maine full time get to enjoy.That’s how addictions get rooted.

Drews Lake Night Sky In Aroostook County Maine.

So so lucky to live in Maine full time.

I know I am very lucky and glad my kids were raised in Maine. To not have to only get a morsel, once a year visit and that’s all she wrote chance to get to know her more fully. Maine, come for a day and end up staying a life time. Vacationland, Maine is the way life should be.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 6, 2021
Baxter State Park, One Neat Source For Recreation, Wildlife, Exercise

Baxter State Park, one beautiful gem that awaits the visit, return trip

I know lots of people who make it a habit to hike Mt Katahdin and the many other trails around the state’s highest mountain. That do the up and down taking different trails to make it new and different. That hike Mount “K” a couple times a year.

Baxter Park, Have You Hiked Any Of The Peaks? Been To The Top Of Mt Katahdin, Maine’s Highest Elevation? How Many Times?

There is something about seeing the snow capped mountain while driving a car and imagining the winding trails that lead to the top from a distance. Baxter State Park, Mt Katahdin like the state of Maine tugs at your heart strings once you get close enough and fall in love with the many outdoor facets of Maine.

Mt Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, was the pride and joy of Governor Percival Baxter who back in the 1930’s made it a life long mission.

To set up, protect and preserve this granite intrusion in unorganized Vacationland. That is far from the standard tourist traps of shop til you drop, so many eatery options coastal Maine is famous for attracting visitors. There are a slew of hiking options, elevations of all sizes and design. But Mt Katahdin that is the centerpiece of Baxter State Park.

To be kept forever wild. Baxter State Park was a gift from Governor Percival Baxter, starting with 6000 acres and ending up over 201,000 acres donated to the people of Maine. Baxter spent his personal fortune over 32 years creating the dream that became a popular vacation destination for many hikers, campers, wildlife enthusiasts. Baxter was a true public servant through his life. There has been an effort to make the state facility into a national park like Acadia is Downeast. More on the latest in the debate about Baxter State Park becoming a national park.

Baxter State Park, Local Jewel Created By Governor Percival Baxter Back In The 1930’s!

When the conversation topic comes up on whether keep the park the way she is or make Baxter State Park a national one, the same talking points are hashed over.

The land preservation plan if you want Baxter to become a national park promise a boost for the local economy. For Millinocket that not longer enjoys the steady rattle and hum of many paper making machines lubricating the open and shut of local cash registers. The high paying paper jobs, the trickle down spin off from them are gone leaving a one big sucking sound. One huge gaping employment hole in the region. All the employment eggs in one basket with little diversification did not help either when Great Northern Paper went to its knees.

Baxter State Park.

Forever wild, protected, deeply loved. Those against the move to make Baxter change designations from state control to national status will mean further government control shuts down local industry and hurts future growth. The land that makes up Baxter State Park in Picataquis County is a landscape that inspired early conservationists from Henry David Thoreau to President Theodore Roosevelt. It is a hotly debated topic, right up there with the legalization of marijuana for medicinal or recreational use. When you pull into a gas station to refuel. Running in to settle up and grab something cold to drink or a snack to munch on. You hear it in the grapevine in public places being discussed. The local newsprint and online recycled electrons media streams bang the drum on the subject of how best to classify Baxter State Park.

Baxter State Park, Ever Camped There? Hike The Trails And Explore Mt Katahdin, The Other Peaks.

Regardless of the park’s demise and whatever her designation status, plan that trip to Baxter State Park.

Take the little ones up Horse Mountain, 1400′ high and first on the list to cut your teeth. To develop the bug to hike for life. The Katahdin Loop Trail is over 9 miles long. You want to start early and keep in mind the clock is ticking. See the sights, the wild flowers, the long vistas along the way, all the animals that live at Baxter State Park.

But be prepared for a rugged Knife’s edge that sprewls granite boulders haphazardly to the sides. Creating the long narrow pathway at the top, after you reach the table land above the tree line. Where there is no place to hide from the wind, up high where the eagles soar.

The Saddle Trail has some steep sections too and the more tedious sections of your hike up Mount Katahdin will be above the tree line, where you are exposed.

Meet The Locals At Baxter State Park! Mister Moose May Continue To Eat, Ignore You Or Could Smile For The Kodak Moment. Everyone Wants, Needs To See A Moose When They Visit Maine.

Where everything is out in the open, windy, and a long way down as you crank your head around. The trail ascent and descent demand your respect, to watch your step. You won’t have trouble sleeping the night after the hike up and down Mt Katahdin.

There is nothing like reaching the top and watching the clouds drift by a mile up on Maine’s tallest peak. But stay hydrated, bring something warm and breathable for clothing for the trip up and down whatever peak you are determined to master every given day.

Baxter State Park.

Make the visit part of your family tradition for the exercise, the beauty, the memory making. Sample her outdoor clean air, cold clear water. And for the work out to capture the long jaw dropping view that awaits whatever elevation you decide to conquer.

Baxter State Park, when you make Mt Katahdin your destination. Here is your hiking check list for Baxter State Park. Don’t forget your camera and post those images from Baxter State Park.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

July 7, 2017