This weekend we had a spontaneous adventure camping and hiking two 4,000 footers in Maine; Saddleback and the Horn! Our great friends and hiking buddies messaged me asking us if we wanted to join them. After some scrambling to find a campsite with any spots and arranging a pet sitter, we were able to make it happen. We stayed at Cathedral Pines, which seems like a beautiful spot! We didn't have a lot of time to check it out this time as we came late with pizza, only stayed one night, and left as early as we could to start our hike.
We brought our Merry girl, and she was such a good girl hiking and camping.
It dropped down into the 30s at night, so we were all quite cold and Robbie and I didn't get much sleep.
But Merry snuggled near Link and I and occasionaly rested her head on my head, and that made me happy.
Anita had the brilliant idea of making a breakfast campfire so we could unthaw in the morning.
The mist in the huge white pines was magical!
Our hike started right at the Saddleback ski lodge. It took us a bit to find the start of the trail.
But when we did, up we went! And boy was it UP! We literally hiked straight up for a mile. It was exhausting. But everytime we turned around we got the pleasure of seeing the lodge getting smaller and smaller. And because it was all exposed, there was great views for the duration of the hike.
The boys found lots of creatures.
Here we all are at what we thought was the summit of Saddleback... but just kidding. We still had a little bit to go.
Here we are at the actual summit!
After having some food, we continued on our next leg of the journey. We had to scramble down some steep rocks to get to the ridge between Saddleback and the Horn, then head but up again to reach the Horn's summit.
Link was pretending to be a ninja and launching himself across rocks. Sometimes I had to scold him because I was worried he would fall off a cliff!
The summit of the Horn!
Merry met lots of sweet dogs on the trail. She and the other dogs were always very polite and gentle which was awesome.
The boys all loved having Merry on the hike I think. She was such a great little hiker and stuck right by us! Link sometimes drove me nuts because he kept calling her even though she was right next to us, but he was only doing it because he adores her and likes to keep her by his side. They are buddies. She's my girl though!
The view from the Horn was amazing. There are just mountains in every direction. We loved it! We had a rest and a snack, but couldn't stay for too long becasue we wanted to make sure to get back before darkness! We had to hike back down the horn and up the steep rock scramble to get up Saddleback again.
Up and down between these mountains there are some ladders and some really big boulder scrambles. Merry figured most of them out but one was too high and no alternative so she had to jump into my arms so I could help her down. I was proud of my brave girl!
Anita got some photos of us on the ladders:
So glad to have this woman as a friend! This hike was challenging, but totally worth the adventure and so much fun!
Back on the summit of Saddleback. It really felt like we hiked three mountains...
The mile down the ski slope was my least favorite part of this hike. It was so steep! I had sprained my toe earlier that week, and broke a toe nail playing soccer with Link without shoes on. So the pressure of my toes being pushed against my shoes was painful! Running down eased up that pressure a little because I could land on the ball of my foot instead of my toes. But eventually I just took my shoes off and went down barefoot which was SO MUCH BETTER.
We can't take our Pippin pup with us camping and hiking at this point because he is still too reactive/stressed by cars and other dogs while on leash (he got bit and has PTSD), but he and the cats had a wonderful time with our pet sitter! She visited them five times while we were away and wore him out with lots of playing. Here are some photos she sent us...which made us happy because we miss having him with us.
