Buzzy World Tour--Maine Adventure

24 August, 2003--Climbing Mount Abraham!

WARNING! This site is graphic intensive

Buzzy and I climbed Mount Abraham, 10 miles west of Kingsfield, Maine. Mount Abraham is one of only a handful of peaks in the state over 4,000 ft in height (4,049ft in this case). The first 2.8 miles was fairly level going through mixed woods to the old firewarden's cabin.

At left, Buzzy signs the hiker's guest book in the cabin. The cabin is used these days as an overnight stop for those hiking this mountain and Appalachian Trail thru-hikers taking a side trip over Abraham. Just beyond the cabin, the trail sign tells us we've only got another 1.2 miles to go.

The BOC at the bottom of the sign stands for Bates College Outing Club, the organization that maintains this trail in conjunction with the Appalachian Mountain Club.

The going gets real steep after the cabin. It's not long before we start getting some wonderful views. Then as we approached the tree line, the winds started picking-up to near gale force in my estimate. Buzzy sought refuge inside my pack and it's a good thing as I was nearly blown off the trail a few times. I couldn't imagine what would have happened to the squirrel in those gusts. There are blueberry plants all around, but I can't snack on them. I try to pick them, but the wind blows them away before I can get them to my mouth.

Upon reaching the summit, I bump into a couple with a small anemometer (wind gauge). They're getting a reading of 48 miles per hour sustained. Yup! It's breezy up here.! As soon as they head off their own way, I found a sheltered spot from the wind and Buzzy came out to look at the views. The rock formations you see have been created by hikers over the years. Why? I haven't clue.

	View looking slighlty north of east. You can't really tell in the picture, but Kingfield is below us.
	View looking to the west (back the way we came) with the old firewarden's tower in the middle ground. The peak to the far right is Sugarloaf, the state's second highest peak at just shy of 4,300ft. It is also home to Sugarloaf USA ski resort and the Carrabassett Valley Academy, the 'unofficial' US Olympic Team prep school (most of their students have gone on to qualify/join the US Olympic Ski Team).
	And the view looking across the mountains that stretch on for another 100 plus miles to the north and slightly east. You can't see it in this picture, but we were able to make out the tip of the peak of Katahdin, the state's tallest peak at just under 1 mile high (it's 5,267ft), more than 100 miles away.
	This is all that remains of the old fire tower. Now for the long decent.
Once out of the wind, Buzzy scrambled out again and started digging into the blueberries. Once I explained how bears eat from these patches and would appreciate a squirrel snack, Buzzyquickly urged me along down the trail. We passed through Kingfield on the drive home. Kingfield's claim to fame is that it's the hometown of the Stanely Brothers who invented the Stanley Steamer Automobile. There is to be a Stanley Museum in town, but I couldn't find it despite the signs. Buzzy didn't seem too disappointed. By this time, I could hear the nutcruncher snoring in the passenger seat. Guess I wore him out again.

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