Tag: maine

Countdown to the cross-country road trip

On By amyirish1In US Travel2 Comments

It’s been quiet in terms of travel for me over the last month – but a lot will be coming soon! Scroll down to the bottom to check out the photos of my Christmas morning hike up near Sugarloaf.

Over Thanksgiving, my family Skyped with my sister who lives out in Washington state and it was decided that I would take a road trip out there and she would join me on the return trip back to Maine! Ideally I would have done a trip like this in the summer, but timing was right so I said ‘Let’s go!’ It’s going to be a whirlwind trip, but I should be able to hit highlights from some of the national parks along the way.

Leaving on January 12th, I’ll head out to Washington and visit:

I’ll meet up with my sister a little west of Seattle on January 18th, and then together we will hit the following on the way back to Maine:

I plan to tentatively be back home in Maine somewhere around January 28th! Stay tuned for posts about this trip!

Because my family is all over the states right now (my brother is working in the Gulf of Mexico), we decided to postpone Christmas until at least my brother was home as well.  So Christmas morning, I decided to hike up to the Stratton Brook Hut near Sugarloaf. It was a beautiful morning and I was the only one on the trail. I took the Oak Knoll path up, which in the summer is a mountain biking trail and in the winter it’s great for snowshoeing. It’s a little longer than the main trail, but well worth it for the views! The full hike/snowshoe was a little over 6 miles – and it was incredible.

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Starting off at Campbell Field.. great view down the Carrabassett River
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I had to turn around a lot to catch amazing views like this
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Made it to the hut! Inside I was the only one other than the person working. Hot chocolate and coffee!
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Obligatory selfie? Nearing the top after taking off my snowshoes and hiking the remaining quarter of a mile.

I highly recommend taking a hike through Maine Huts and Trails – great trails, great hikes and great views! Happy New Year!

4 Hikes and the Holidays

On By amyirish1In US TravelLeave a comment

I’ve been home for about 2 weeks now, and though I’ve been silent on the blog front, there has been a lot going on! Those who follow my Instagram account (amyirish1) may have seen some posts from recent hikes. In addition to those, I’ve been thinking about and trying to figure out my next steps.

I’m going to stay in the New England area through the holidays…and go to warmer climates and get my scuba certification in January. So until then… I need to find things to do! I’ve booked Airbnbs for a road trip the week starting the day after Thanksgiving. I’ll drive to New York to visit my old college roommates, and then head north for a couple days to do some hiking in the Catskills. I’ll spend a final day in the Burlington, VT area for another hike before heading home.

I’ve found myself easily bored since I’ve been home, so I’ve done some pretty awesome hikes more locally. More locally I mean within a two hour drive. I took Blythe’s dog Pua (Blythe is my brother’s girlfriend) up Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton last weekend. It was a nice short hike that Pua could handle. It took less than two hours and with the leaves covering rocks, it was a little tricky coming down with Pua pulling!

Summit of Pleasant Mountain with Pua
Selfie!

On Thursday I drove a couple hours to Mt. Major in New Hampshire. I’d say it was a comparable hike to Pleasant Mountain and had some great views of Lake Winnipesaukee.

Sun peaking through the trees on Mt. Major
Summit of Mt. Major – overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee
Summit!
Little waterfall on the brook

Friday I went to the border of Maine and New Hampshire to Blueberry Mountain. I think I was the only person on the mountain – I didn’t see anyone else. It was about 4 miles up and back with views of the surrounding mountains. The trails were not very well marked, so at times I had to stop and try to figure out which direction was which.

I downloaded the maps.me app on my iPhone before I started traveling and it has been a lifesaver (you can download maps of regions/states for offline directions). It has quite a few trail maps in addition to the standard road maps and I’ve found it has some additional trails/roads that Google Maps doesn’t have. This came in very handy when there was no visible path/markers indicating the trail!

Gorge at the end of the hike
Top of Blueberry Mountain
This is where Maps.me came in handy. There is a trail in this picture…

Saturday I woke up early and drove almost two hours to hike Tumbledown in western Maine. It was a gorgeous day (all these days have been mid-50 degree weather). I was the second car in the lot (and it turns out the other car were people camping up there the night before). I, once again, had the mountain to myself – at least on the way up! Tumbledown was incredible. I took the Brook trail up and did the connector to the saddle of the western peak. It was more challenging than the other hikes, which was what I was looking for with some rock scrambling. It was about 4.5 miles roundtrip with waterfall after waterfall up to Tumbledown Pond. I then kept going to the east peak for views down at the pond and of the surrounding mountains. Maine is truly breathtaking. This has been my favorite hike so far.

Summit of the east peak of Tumbledown
So many waterfalls
Selfie over Tumbledown Pond

I was expecting the hike to take about 4.5 hours (the sign said the 3 mile hike would take 4 hours), but I was back to my car in just 3 (I’ve been looking for some 4-4.5 hour hikes). I was so happy I got an early start too, because by the time I got to the top, a number of other people were at the pond and by the time I got back to my car the lot was full!

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Tumbledown Pond

After the dusting of snow last night (well maybe a couple inches) we’ll be prepping to host Thanksgiving at my brothers house this year. Enjoy the holiday!!