My Maine Adventure

Last week I went to Maine on a much needed vacation with my brother.  We went white water rafting and climbed Mt. Katahdin.  We were supposed to skydive, but the weather just wouldn't cooperate.

My brother and I  took the seats up front

This is us surfing.  Basically it is sitting at the bottom of some falls and trying not to drown.

Yes, we are still on the boat!

these totems were all over Millinocket

not whitewater rafting, it is roaring brook a bit  above normal levels.

We did make it to the top and it only took about 5 hrs of an 11hr day on the trail.  

My Brother looking over the ledge at the top.  Would have been really scary  if  it was clear.  

The summit was cloudy so no real view from there, but the top of the saddle trail offered a majestic view.

Landscape version.  These get much bigger.

As the brook was above level so a rock hop crossing became a take your shoes off and ford  crossing.  This felt great on our way down as the water was Ice Cold and refreshing on tired and sore feet.

We had a pretty good trip.  It rained on us about the whole time.  We had fairly clear weather on the day of the hike, but it rained on us our last three miles.  I don't know if it is apparent from the pics but it was raining on us during the rafting trip, hence wet suits in June.  At one point it was raining so hard that I thought about jumping in the river to dry off.  

If you plan on hiking Katahdin, know that it is harder than you expect it to be.  It was really challenging.  Part of that might be that I am not in the best shape of my life.  My brother is in way better shape and it was a little challenging for him as well.  We went up and down the Saddle Trail from Chimney Pond.  We had intended to do the Knife Edge but the Park Ranger had suggested a 1pm cutoff to start it.  We got to the summit but it was already 1:15 and we needed a break and were pretty spent.  A group came off the Knife Edge after being on it for 3 hrs due to conditions and we just were not going to risk it.  I came away from this trip with the knowledge that I need to be in way better shape.

Slip and Slide

Do you remember slip and slides when you were a kid?  I used to always want one, but my family was poor.  Even if we could have afforded the slip and slide the water to use such a thing would have sent us over the edge.  Luck and creativity were on the side of me and my brother one spring day.

I was in the 6th grade at the time.  If you know anything about Tennessee in the spring, you know it was raining.  My brother and I were at one of my friends houses when we noticed that his yard was saturated with water.  The light bulbs went off in our heads simultaneously.  We rushed home as fast as we could, we had the forethought to not use even mildly good clothes for such an experiment, and changed our clothes.  Rushed out of the house before anyone had known we were there and met our friend at his door.  For the next hour or so, we were slipping and a sliding without a care in the world.  When our friend had to go in, we headed home as proud as we could be. 

Our mom was not that thrilled with our activities of the day.  You see, my friends house had some grass but it was mostly dirt.  In the rain that dirt turned to mud.  By the very nature of slip and slide movements, said dirt was packed into our clothes.  I explained to her that we were wearing old clothes and that we didn't mess up anything nice, but she said she didn't care what clothes we were wearing.  She proceeded to tell us that we would not be coming in the house like that.  We were told to strip naked out in the rain while our mom was spraying us with the hose. This was done in the front yard, in front of God and everybody else.  While the end result was embarrassing and I am sure painful (I don't remember getting spanked, but knowing my mom. . .), I don't regret it for an instant.  One of the best times I have had in my life.   

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