The Nature of the Beast.

On Thursday September 19, the phone rang the radios fluttering with talk. A man fell off the headwall of Tuckerman Ravine. I quickly packed up my gear and extras with the MW State Park Rangers and another co-worker of mine and hit the trail. We made it down and had him med flighted out. After 5 hours of doing everything and anything we could to help him, we were just about back to the summit when we heard on the radio, he didn't make it.

Unfortunately, he had multiple compound fractures and a head injury. He stepped to the edge of the trail and fell. There is much to say about this. For now I will say never test the nature of the beast. My thoughts and prayers are with those friends who had to watch it all unfold in front of their own eyes, and the family and friends he has left behind.

On another note; I just got back from Baxter State Park. Where we had planned to summit Katahdin. I had followed the weather reports right up until the day we arrived. Unfortunately, it was not working in my favor. Either way, we still packed up the car and headed to our campground in BSP. We stayed at Roaring Brook Campground.

When we finally arrived we both were pretty hungry. Ate our lunch and opened up a beer. We set up the tent and the tarp over the picnic table. After everything was set up we set out to explore the campground, leanto's, bunkhouse, and ranger station. As soon as we sat down on the porch of the ranger station the skies opened up. Thunder, lightning, and heavy rain poured down. I quickly looked at Nate and reminded him he had hung his clothes on the line and the tent windows were open for ventilation. I quickly sprinted my way back to the site zipped up windows and brought the hanging clothes inside the tent and sprinted back to meet him.

Later that afternoon, we took a look at our maps after the rain slowed down. We decided to take a short walk around the Nature Trail which was located just at the other end of the small campground. It was beautiful. If you stay here, it's worth checking out. A short .7 RT loop to beautiful open views of Knifes Edge and South Turner.

Katahdin

Stormy Skies

South Turner Mountain

Once we got back to our tent site Nate started up the fire and we made some dinner. We chose cheddar bacon burgers, which were incredibly delicious! I made my infamous roasted bananas for dessert and we shortly planned out our hike for the next morning and went to bed.

5:30am came and I awoke to a wet ground. I turned my headlamp on and began to package up our snacks for the day. Preparing for a day's worth of food and water on trail. I quickly whisked some eggs and took out the breakfast sausage. Nate soon woke up behind me and made some coffee and a wonderful breakfast.

Scrambled eggs & sausage!

We stuffed our packs with lots of food, water and gear. We brought rain gear, cold weather gear, and lots of snacks. Our plans changed from ascending Knife Edge to just heading into Chimney Pond and reassessing our situation. We stuck with that.

 This trail starts off very gradual and parallels alongside the Roaring Brook. The name stands true. At least this week it did. The trail was very well maintained and pretty easy to trek on.

We came to a few viewpoints at which we stopped at all of them figuring we weren't making it to the top today so we may as well see everything we can before the severe thunderstorms rolled through. One of them was at Basin Pond. The water here was crystal clear. The view was spectacular 

Basin Pond

Just north of Basin Pond

& then there was some goofy photos.. just before Chimney Pond Campground.

Finally after 3.3 miles of hiking and taking in gorgeous views we reached the Chimney Pond Campground. This CG you have to reserve just like all the others in the park. However, you have to backpack in. This is a "Glamping" kind of back packing. There is outhouses, bunkhouses, and leanto's. There even was a common area.

Also, there was an entire billboard dedicated to weather forecasts and hiker information. Many safety tips and if you should turn back. Also, located up here was a ranger station. The ranger we met, I believe his name was Mark, he was a riot and pleasant to talk to.

We soon after sat down by Chimney Pond and ate our snacks and discussed what the best option would be. In discussion we decided not to summit or even attempt. We would just have to come back another day. Live to hike another day. The mountain will always be there. The food tasted good, but not as good as it would have on the summit. However, some good laughs when Nate broke open the sardines and I almost vomited by the smell. Fish on trail.. hmm. I'd hate to put that empty can back in my pack. After about an hour we took some photos and started to head back down to our campground.

Fish?

We arrived back at our site around 1:30pm. It was raining moderately. We decided since the day was kind of a bust that this would give us the opportunity to explore some other stuff within the park. We both wanted to see Daicey Pond and possibly Little and Big Niagra. We jumped in my car and took a ride through the park stopping at tons of trail heads and ponds along the way. We saw Abol Beach and pulled in to check it out. This is where we came across this sign, and I felt obligated to get out and take a photo with because I clearly was breaking rules.

Check out the flooding.

Us soaking in the rain at Daicey Pond

The rest of the day and night consisted of lots of rain and thunderstorms. We lucked out and it held off for a bit while we cooked our dinner over the fire. As soon as we were done biting into my birthday cake, the skies opened up and rained buckets all night long. Waking me up at about 2:30am to some leaking in the tent, but got it handled and the next morning we packed up and when I got home made my next reservations for October. Hopefully the weather gods will help me out this time around! Overall, we had a fun time and made the best of the situation we had. We will be back to conquer again!

In regards to the story told at the start of this blog. As a hiker myself, I went to a place that was 6 hours away from me to hike a mountain. I only had the one day to do so while I was there. However, my life was not worth the risk to get to the top on that day. There was many discussion along the way and many plans that changed as well. We made the right choice to not summit because as soon as we hit our campground, thunder roared above us and lightning struck down near us. I prayed for all those hikers we had seen above treeline and on the ridge. Just remember, be smart, play it safe, and your journey through the mountains will be one to remember and enjoyed.

Hike safe & keep on trekking.