| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Peak of the Ridges, Traveler, North Traveler, ME |
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 | Trails: |
Pogy Notch Trail, Center Ridge Trail, Traveler Trail, North Traveler Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, July 29, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Park at the Day Use Parking for the South Branch Pond Campground. There is a privy, which like all privies in Baxter, is super clean. Walk through the campground and pick the shelter that you will be trying to reserve next summer because of the epic pond views. The trailhead is on the campground loop road. Sign the register! |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
The only water source is less than 1.5 miles from the trailhead and is just “upstream” (to the left) of a dry streambed crossing. You have to leave the trail to get to the water but you will hear it. I carried 3L and drank every drop. There are no actual water crossings on this route. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
On Pogy, Center and Traveler there are old blue blazes covered by newer white blazes. There are cairns. These would be entirely adequate if the forest was not trying to eat the trail by growing back over it; the trail often goes through areas that you feel like you don’t want to disturb. Above treeline there are markings but sometimes you have to stand there and look around to make sure that you can find them. I wouldn’t honestly change a thing. Overblazing is an eyesore and there are just enough markings that we could find our way. On North Traveler Trail there were originally orange blazes and these are under the blue and white blazes. Even in the dark (I hiked this section for sunrise on Friday Aug 2) there are a really good number of blazes and cairns and trail finding here is not hard. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Not allowed in Baxter. |
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 | Bugs: |
Oh my gosh don’t ask. I cannot yet talk about this horror. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
We hiked counter clockwise as recommended by our guidebooks. We weren’t exactly sure why this was the clear recommendation but it turns out that you have to cross a talus/scree field to ascend Traveler from the ccw direction and it is not a section of trail that you would want to descend.
Though there was little true scrambling on this 10 mile 4000’ of gain route, pretend this is a 10 mile King Ravine (WMNF) hike to decide how much time you will need. We had 7.5 hours moving time and about 9 hours total time (there were endless views to gawk at).
The rhyolite is loose and crumbly but the trail builders did a fabulous job of somehow compacting it to be not as scary to hike on as it is to look at. The beginning of the hike (Pogy to the turnoff for Center) is a mostly flat woods walk with bog bridges and two views - one near the outlet of Lower South Branch Pond and one as you start to rise above Lower South Branch Pond.
The initial climb of Center has some spots with mildly challenging scrambles (by mildly challenging I mean that I had to put down my poles and use my hands to maneuver) but there were no concerning spots and even though I am not a tall drink of water (5’3”) I did not have any trouble with these scrambles.
The first look above treeline gives you a full view of the horseshoe shaped route for the day as you can see most of the ridgeline of the traverse.
The views are epic and if the high peaks were not socked in we would have had fine views of Baxter/Hamlin/Pamola. We could see the Brothers. The wildfire smoke did not help our views to the west. There are lower elevation peaks to the north that caught our attention.
The guidebooks talked about “Little Knife Edge” and we are pretty sure that that was a feature just after the mild descent from Peak of the Ridges. It wasn’t crazy-knifelike and itself had not much elevation change, so it was not scary.
The scary part for me was the ascent through the talus/scree to Traveler. The Wandering Soules are super brave and eat slides for breakfast so they were all about those shenanigans. Happily they complied with my request to “just keep talking” and I pretended that I was on the blissful and lovely final ascent to Moosilauke (WMNF) and somehow made it through the scary part.
We had lunch on Traveler and that’s where we saw the only other hiker group of the day (a party of 3). We did have one solo hiker pass us on the climb to Peak of the Ridges, and that was it for other humans.
Between Traveler and North Traveler there were areas of lovely woods interspersed with the ridgeline walks.
North Traveler true summit looked like a gravel company dumped off their 1/4 gravel product in a massive pile. I really didn’t want to walk on that nonsense but once again it was a lot more stable than it looked.
On North Traveler I fell in love. The whole hike amazing views but this spot stole my heart. I knew that it would be epic for sunrise (which became my plan for Friday 8/2.).
The descent from here was really loose and slow/careful stepping was the plan. The views are really epic as you look out (south) across the loop just hiked, across the two ponds and Black Cat and South Branch Mtns in the near distance and the high peaks in the far distance. I can’t say enough about how amazing this section is.
Hike the three 4000 footers in Baxter, then hike Doubletop (gosh I love that one), and then hike this route. You won’t be sorry that you did!!
Sorry for the late filing; I had a few wonderful days in Baxter and am still unpacking and cleaning gear! |
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 | Name: |
Bikecamphikegirl and the Wandering Soules |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-08-04 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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