Date: 2011-09-13
From: Grafton Notch

To: Andover ME
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: scattered clouds

"Biscuit" was the first of us to get up and packed. He headed out early probably to catch up with "Bumblebee" and "Velvet". We got up and packed then headed out to the parking lot to take advantage of the picnic tables. When we were done with breakfast, we started to head out to find "MissJanet" in the parking lot. She was going to pick up "Charity" who decided to stop at Grafton notch. She suggested that we take her dog Fabian with us for the day. Her plan was to be at the hostel in Andover where we were planning to stay. We decided to do just that so team yardsale was now hiking with two dogs. We crossed the street and headed down the trail. When we had gotten just a little bit down the trail, Fabian realized that "MissJanet" wasn't hiking with us so he headed back to the parking area. We went back to get him then headed back with him, this time on a leash tied to "Guinness"s pack. As we were crossing the stream just beyond the road, Fabian decided to jump in. The leash was just short enough where "Guinness" had to crouch down to keep from being pulled off the bridge and into the stream. Everyone got a good chuckle out of that, even "Guinness" who was still crouching to keep from getting pulled in. We got the leash unhook from the pack and got going down the trail. The first part of the hike got us to the top of Baldpate west peak. From there we could see the East peak with a group hiking across the top of it. My guess is that it was "Biscuit", "Velvet", "Bumblebee" and others. The hike down the West peak had a few rock scrambles but it wasn't too bad. The stretch of trail that connects the two peaks had a fairly flat stretch that contained a few bogs. On one of the deeper bog crossings, Fabian decided to jump in. He ended up sinking down to his neck. He swam around just fine but wasn't able to climb back out. So he had to lifted out of the bog. Now we had a dog who was muddy and smelly. Our hope was that he would find a stream to wash off in. In the mean time, while we climbing up the next peak, Fabian would rub up against us spreading the "love". We got up to the top and decided to have lunch while soaking in the view. The weather was great so the views were especially good. We headed down the mountain toward the road crossing that would take us to the hostel where we planned to stay for the night. The terrain was rocky and I ended up falling a couple of times. Fortunately, there wasn't and serious injuries. I have tried to be careful to keep from falling and reinjuring my again. When we got close to the road, we caught up with "Bumblebee", "Velvet", "Biscuit" and the others. There was also a waterfall near there too. It was difficult to see it without climbing down a rock face. No one was interested in doing that. We wanted to get to town to pick up packages at the Post Office and do our resupply. When we got the road crossing to find "MissJanet", "CitySlicker" and the hostel owner waiting to pick us up, with two dogs. The first order of business was to pick up packages at the post office. We then headed for the store to finish up the resupply. We got to the hostel known as "The Cabin in Maine". They served us a home cooked dinner that was out of this world. We all got our showers socialized for a while then true to form, hit the sack around hiker midnight.