Saddleback and The Horn, ME (on Appalachian Trail)

Harlan W. S.
July 17, 2008

This trip involved much different terrain than most of my adventures in the West. While visiting relatives in the East, I returned to the woods of my youth, and the Appalachian Trail (AT). The Saddleback area intrigued me; though rather gentle and barely over 4100' at the highest, there are extensive near- and above-timberline areas.

People from the West often get the idea they could rip off mile after mile of the AT in a day, because after all, it's just a trail with rare class 2 stretches. I hope these pictures (which don't include black flies and mosquitoes) make one realize what the AT is like in a relatively dry period. By GPS, it was ~14 miles RT; but the GPS averages over the many tight turns. By guidebook, it was about 15 miles. I did the RT in 5h 30m, with substantial stops to smell the hemlock.

From Waterville, I took Rte 137 to Rte 2 and Rte 4, thence the AT parking lot. Though that road trip is only ~68 miles, the roads are local and have many slow zones in towns.	24k GPS map. The accumulated gain at days end is ~4200'	The trail starts off nice, but soon gets like this. The boulders rarely move, but are moss-covered, and the trail routinely consists of boulder hopping; you really can't take your eyes off your feet.

In wetter times, these split-log bridges keep you out of water.	This is the trail in a dry but rocky stretch; I'm looking uphill.	These rungs (on a 30 degree slope) seem unnecessary in dry times, but when water is flowing, the rock becomes very slick.

	View S past Eddy Pond; ~3700'.	More view S, now ~4000'.

A small pond near the summit.	View N toward the 2^nd hump of the "saddle".	View W.

	N to The Horn.



On Horn, back S to Saddleback.	W. The development is a ski area an the W side of Saddleback.

NE from The Horn.	Heading back to Saddleback; Class 2 over by the white AT paint splotch.	On Saddleback Again, view N.

	Wood Sorrell.	A lot of the trail involves this sort of terrain -- you try to balance on the slippery logs, jump from log to rock to log, and occasionally take a soaker when a log turns out to be floating.

	Run and jump and jump. Your lower legs may be filthy at day's end.	Ethel Pond.

The roots can trip you up and give a good tumble.		Many NE streams were channelized between rock walls, to provide better flow for mills.