Mountain Climbing

 

Baxter Peak

In my early twenties I had the opportunity to climb a few mountains in the New England area. I went on a Labor Day hike with my cousins (Sally and Carl) and Sally's boyfriend Ernie (future husband). We walked about 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Western Massachusetts. My cousins suffered a great deal because they had brought brand new boots and they had several blisters over the 3 days of hiking. Our backpacks weighted about 40 pounds at the start of the trip. The weight went down very quickly because we were very hungry and much of the weight was food product. I ended up hiking many more miles than the rest of them because of their blisters. I would go ahead and then backtrack to them. We had to follow trail maps that indicated where to go.
One of my friends Robbie liked to hike mountains and he invited me to climb with him. We climbed one of the mountains in the White Mountain range as well as Mount Kalahdin in Maine. Mount Kalahdin is the northern terminus of the 2160 mile Appalachian Trail. It is the tallest mountain in Maine at 5246 feet. The trip was very strenuous and took over four hours to reach the peak as well as four more hours to get back down. The mountain has a steep rocky terrain that leads to the summit which is Baxter Peak.