In
early May, I traveled from my home in Bethlehem, NH to spend a full day of hiking
in the neighboring State of Maine. Although this mini-adventure involved four
separate hikes, the combined mileage for all four was just under 6 miles. It can be fun to experience a variety of small hikes during a day, rather than getting locked into a day-long
mega hike.
BALD MOUNTAIN (near
Weld, ME)
Of
the four hikes, Bald Mountain was my favorite (click HERE for a detailed description of this hike).
There are 360 degree views from the bare summit,
but my favorite snapshot of day was the one shown below. In the
foreground is a small tarn reflecting a nearby pine tree with Mt. Blue on the near
horizon. I had to wait a while to get
this shot. Persistent wind gusts were causing
the reflection to be blurred.
Below
is another photo of Mt. Blue (on near horizon, just right of center) with Hills Pond in the foreground.
A
large portion of Bald Mountain's summit area consists of beautiful rocky ledges
that are interlaced with blueberry bushes and low growing conifers, as seen in the next photo.
The
vast acreage of ledges provide sweeping vistas such as shown in the panorama
photo below.
One
of these vistas includes a very distant view of the Presidential Range poking
up behind the Sunday River ski slopes. (The zoomed photo shown below isn't the
best, but will give a general idea.)
BELGRADE LAKES
REGION OF MAINE:
Mount
Phillip:
Of
the three hikes done in this region, the first was a trek to Mount Phillip (click
HERE for a detailed description of
this hike).
From
a ledge near the top of Mount Phillip is a very picturesque vista overlooking
Great Pond, just one of the many bodies of water in the Belgrade Lakes Region. It was a very pleasant surprise to see such a
pristine vista. I was sort of expecting
the shoreline to be cluttered with a variety of lakeside cottages, etc.
French
Mountain:
My
second hike in this region was to French Mountain which provided a dramatic
view overlooking Long Pond as seen in the photo below. (Click HERE
for a detailed description of this hike).
The
Mountain Trail:
The
third hike in the Belgrade Lakes Region was along a trail simply named
"The Mountain Trail". (Click HERE for a detailed description of this hike).
Although the vistas were less striking than those from the other two
hikes in this region, there were some pleasant views as seen in the snapshot
below.
To sum it up, I'll present the
following map which will provide a general idea as to where these four hikes
occurred.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
POSTSCRIPT: Please note that at the top of each of my blogs there are two search tools that can be helpful in locating a particular topic. One is an icon labeled "CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF ALL MY BLOG REPORTS". And located above that icon is a search box that enables you to search my entire collection of blog postings for specific words and word combinations.