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July 5, 2013 / Comments (0)

Saddleback and The Horn (Maine)

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Allison is the founder of trailtosummit.com which she began as a way to track and share her first round of the NH 4000 Footers. Now on round 5 (the first round for her dog Ruckus) she has been honored to have taken part of many people’s firsts. She is an experienced trail maintainer, speaker, and passionate member of the outdoor community. In New England, Allison enjoys trekking along the highest peaks, bushwhacking to less traveled areas, and has a fondness for sunrise and sunset trips. Outside of New England Allison has also thru hiked the John Muir Trail and explored mountains in the German and Austrian Alps, Israel, and the Azores. Her goal is to share her passion for hiking and backpacking with others, especially with women, to inspire them to experience the freedom of the trail!

 
Day two of our long weekend in Maine started with a look at the forecast. According to NOAA there was 100% chance of rain starting late morning for the rest of the day. Also predicted were flash floods and thunderstorms.
We decided instead of doing our 14 mile hike we had planned, we’d swap it with our shorter hike: An eight mile out and back hike of Saddleback and The Horn. This way we’d be off the mountain before the flash floods and crazy weather. 
Beautiful Lupine flowers


I’m not a big skier (I skied for the first time since I was 12 this past winter) so I have never been to Saddleback. It is a really beautiful area and I am surprised they don’t offer much in the summer season.

You can take the ski trails up as we did, or the Appalachian Trail to the summit. As we were trying to beat the storm, we took the steeper but faster ski route. It was green and blue trails for us!


 We took the Grey Ghost trail up to the Tri-Color Trail to reach the summit. You can see the trail map here.

The hike up was steep, but we kept a steady pace and took a few short breaks. Gotta keep on moving so you don’t get stiff!

Now THIS is how you maximize breaks! We dub this the conga line gear break. Sunglassess, sunscreen, and snacks!

Before we knew it, we were at the top of the lifts. In no time we would be at the summit!

To me, the rock formation above looks like a “duck” which is used in different parts of the country on trails. The head points to the direction of travel. Unfortunately this duck was a little confused. 


When we reached the summit of Saddleback there were no views, but the weather was holding out! Off to The Horn we went!  

It was a fun mile between the two peaks. There were boulders to climb up and over as well as a ladder soon before the last uphill stretch to the summit.

About here I had attempted to place my camera back into the side pocket of my pack for the 100th time that day and accidentally tucked it into the bottomless pit next to the aforementioned pocket. My camera thunked against a rock. I turned it on to a variety of spiderweb designs and technicolor lines. Fortunitely for me, I bought an extended warranty and I had others to take the photos. I also learned that while the LCD screen didn’t work, the camera did. The rest of the photos were a mystery.

We made a little friend enjoying the cool breeze. We were glad that it wasn’t as humid as the day before and the bugs stayed away.

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Everyone in my group loved this ridge and we all agreed that it’s definitely something we’d like to do again in better weather. We got some cool shots, but it was a little bit of a tease of what we could have seen on a clear day. I will be back to that ridge someday!

Last modified: November 28, 2014

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