At the top of Baxter Peak on Mt. Khatadin
Apparently in addition to being an Occasional Naturalist, I’m also an out-of-shape one too. My son and I hiked up Mt. Katahdin to Baxter’s Peak yesterday. While we made the 11 mile round trip in a very respectable 7 hours, it kicked my butt. Through the course of the hike, I heard numerous songbirds I have never heard before, but really struggled to look up let alone take the time to try and identify them. The trail was rocky and sloped the entire way. As I told my son, “I have never stared at my feet for so long before”.
On one of the few patches of even terrain, my son almost walked into this Bull Moose a mere 30 feet away from us. We followed him slowly for 5 minutes or so as he blocked our decent until later moving into the forest.
Baxter State Park is a georgous natural haven. Its National Park in size although maintained as a primitive wilderness experience.
The plant life on the tops of the mountains are endemic to Greenland and not found elsewhere in the Eastern US, but again, was too tired to try and stop and take pictures or do much contemplating of what was around me.
Moose blocking the trail