Date: 2007-09-06
From: Baldpate Lean-to 

To: East Andover, ME
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: scattered clouds

This morning was not quite as chilly as yesterday morning, 44 and with only a light breeze. I left the lean-to about 8.00 AM and headed up Baldpate Mt. The climb was steep and over a badly eroded trail but went fairly quickly. The summit of Baldpate's west peak was forested with short Krumholz and there was no view. in the Krumholz at the summit I found a noisy mixed foraging flock of boreal chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches and golden-crowned kinglets. the chickadees and nuthatches readily responded to my squeaks. but, as I had remembered, the boreal chickadees seemed more retiring than black-caps and Carolinas and stayed only briefly to investigate then quickly melted away into the Krumholz. I always enjoy seeing boreal chickadees and have come to associate them with the tops of northeastern alpine peaks or boreal forest, a unique and difficult set of habitats in which to live year round. Shortly after I arrived at the sag between the two peaks.The hike up to the top of Baldpate's east peak was over steeply inclined rock slabs that reminded me a great deal of the rocky ridges in west Greenland where I spent 4 summers climbing and banding nesting peregrine falcons. The rock inclines and sloping granite benches were very common on steep hillsides in Greenland. The biggest difference was that there were no trees or Krumholz in Greenland, only tussocks and tundra.I followed the regular rock cairns up the steep rock slopes to the broad open summit of Baldpate's east peak where there were wonderful views in all directions. The summit was mostly open alpine vegetation with a few scattered Krumholz (3,810'). I was hiking in just a t-shirt and shorts and in the combined effects of the 51 degree temp and 20 mph winds I was quickly chilled. I did manage to find and pick my first ripe bog billberrys though. There were expansive carpets of mixed species alpine plants surrounding small islands of short Krumholz. I recognized bog billberry, black crowberry, leatherleaf, mt cranberry and a variety of mosses and lichens. All these plants were doing their best to hide from the harsh westerly prevailing winds that were buffeting the summit today.The views in all directions were to distant horizons across rows and rows of ridges nd hills, most of which were lower than I was. You had to look hard to see human settlement or evidence of timber harvest on nearby slopes, leaving the feeling of a much more wild and remote landscape. The Mahoosuc range dominated the southern horizon with Old Speck being the tallest and closest peak.I hated to move down off this interesting peak but I needed to get moving in the chill wind. For the next mile the trail continued down over similar open rock ledges and thru alpine flats so the descent was more interesting than most. When I arrived at Frye Notch Lean-to Popeye and Lightweight were already there and JB and Iceman came in a short time later. We all ate a small snack then continued on up the trail over Surplus Mt. The descent from there to Dunn Notch Falls was comparatively smooth and easy and we arrived there by noon and called the Cabin hostel for a shuttle pickup at East B Hill Road.IcemanM JB and I stayed at the Cabin in East Andover. Run by Margie and Earle Towne who were delightful folks, we were their only guests for the night. After doing laundry, showers, shopping and other town chores Margie fed us an excellent dinner of barbeque chicken. Their 2 year old yellow lab Molly was always around and lay under the table all during dinner. It seemed almost like home.