Sunday Aug 7, 2005

E&W Royce, Meader, N&S Baldface

Today we decided to do another "death march" repeating the trip that other VFTT members had done on the two previous weekends.

This is the route we took today. We did the loop counter clockwise.

Directions to the trailhead: From Conway, NH follow Route 113 as it passes in and out of Maine. After crossing the Saco river East to West continue on to the trailhead of your choice just before or after the Maine State line.

The profile of our hike.

A 3-D view of our hike.

We left a car at the Baldface Circle trailhead, then drove a few miles to the East Royce trailhead. We started our hike at 9:45 AM under bright sunshine.

Today's hike would take us over 5 peaks and cover @ 16 miles with 5500 feet of elevation gain. First stop was East Royce. Here we are looking at our second stop of the day - West Royce.

Here is Double Bow from VFTT and Geri talking to two of the handfull of people we would see all day.

On leaving the summit of East Royce we passed this large blowdown - the root system was very large.

Approaching the summit of West Royce we look back at East Royce.

Is this the summit? Nope - but it was just around the corner. Maybe you can make out the abundance of blueberry bushes. We ate well on all the peaks!

As we make our way over to Meador peak we traverse the top of the ravine. It's a long ways down!

At Meador peak we stopp for lunch. A discussion takes place on whether we should head down or continue on as we have not found any water, and it is a warm day.

While traversing the ridge we found a large puddle of water that we could filter 3 bottles of water from, so we kept going. Here we have a view of the final peak of the day - South Baldface.

The next stop was Eagle Crag where we once again have an option to descend 3.7 miles to the car, or coninue on 6.1 miles over two summits. It was 4:30 PM - after a brief discussion we agree that since we all have headlamps, to keep moving.

About half way to North Baldface we meet another hiker, and stop to chat. This is the view looking back of where we have come from.

Finally - we reach North Baldface and view our next and last summit of the day - South Baldface.

The summit of North Baldface.

Double Bow and Geri having another treat before we head out for out final summit of the day.

The view as you approach South Baldface. The col between North and South peaks is steep, but is easier to hike than it looks.

A look back at where we have come from. It's been a long day so far, and we still have an almost 3000 foot descent before we reach the car.

The sun is getting low in the sky as Double Bow takes a pic of the two of us on the summit of South Baldface.

The view as we start our ascent.

Just after this ledge we descended below treeline where we found a shelter - we had hoped to find water there, but did not. Contiueing on we arrived back at the car at 8:40 with just enough light to see the trail. 15 minutes from the road we heard and saw owls calling to each other and getting ready for a night of hunting.

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