25 pics and some babbling from the 1st section of an amazing, two week, Baxter State Park extravaganza. Hope you enjoy. I know we did!

With our not so little any more hootah tucked away at Girl Scout camp we got a late start heading up to Chimney Pond from Roaring Brook. Thankfully a gully washer of a storm had come through a few hours earlier and dropped the temperature about 20° so we enjoyed the fast hike more than expected.

We didn’t have much time to enjoy the pond views so soaked up what we could while bagging water for dinner.

We were the first folks signed out the next morning and didn’t see another human until we reached the summit. Pamola had done his worst the day before and appeared content to let us climb so we did.

First through the low scrub with views of the ridges at times.

Popping our heads out at times to look back where we’d started. If you follow my finger you can just make out a small shiny spot in the shadow of Pamola which is Chimney Pond.

Yup, some climbing in there! The Saddle Trail is the easy way up heh.

Now we just needed to climb the rest of the mountain. This part seems easy after the Saddle ascent, but the air has less air in it and the rocks are rocky.

Our faithful companion and mascot for the two weeks, Huskie Dog! Often known to say “Arrooo?” he was howling with the call of the wild on making his first summit a visit to the Greatest Mountain.

We were pretty excited too, but kept our voices down out of respect for the gathering crowd.

We were glad we’d gotten an early start and reached the summit by 10am or so. A steady stream of arrivals turned into a torrent and we fled back towards the tablelands after less than an hour at the peak.

The last patch of snow near the top of the Saddle. They didn’t open the Saddle Trail until early July this year due to snow.

We had Hamlin Peak all to ourselves other than a few folks celebrating briefly at the summit sign. A long lunch was enjoyed as were some amazing views.

This is looking back up the Hamlin Ridge Trail after we’d come down a bit. We had some regrets about not taking the shorter route back to Chimney Pond, but decided those were better than the regrets we’d have had if we’d missed out on coming this way.

Alpenglow lighting up Pamola and the Knife Edge was a wonderful way to end an amazing day. Despite tired feet Frau Stranger ran down to the pond to experience it while I settled for camera zoom from the bear line.

Such a great trip! Wait, that was just the appetizer. The next day meant phase one was over, but also the start of the next leg of the extravaganza! More on that in a few days 🙂