2023-10-02 02:30 AM: Fix headings
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@
-# Other stuff
+## Hiking Out
2023-10-02 02:28 AM: Fix title
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-% Baxter State Park Canoe Camping Trip, August 2023
+% Baxter State Park Solo Backpacking and Fishing Trip, September 2023
2023-10-02
02:25 AM: Add stuff about food, fix youtube embed link, and some various
edits
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
-I've been wanting to do a trip like this for a long time, as a way of getting away for a few days and to test myself a little bit on my own.
+I've been wanting to do a trip like this for a long time, as a way of getting away for a few days and to test myself - I've never done a trip like this on my own before.
-The trip would involve three nights camping alone at isolated two sites in the deep woods of Baxter State Park, 9.6 miles of hiking to/from camp sites, 4.5 miles of hiking Horse Mountain just for the view, and 10.5 miles of paddling to fish and explore two different ponds.
+The trip would involve three nights camping alone at two isolated sites in the deep woods of Baxter State Park, 9.6 miles of hiking to/from camp sites, 4.5 miles of hiking Horse Mountain just for the view, and as much paddling as I wanted to do to fish and explore two different ponds (I tracked it with GPS, I ended up paddling over 10 miles).
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
-<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YcYne5K6qUg?si=D-9pPE1zJvwI3lKA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
+<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YcYne5K6qUg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
@@ -92,31 +92,31 @@
-The fishing on this lake is supposed to be great, but I didn't have much luck. On the first evening I did catch a good sized brook trout, which I didn't measure but must have been 14-15". It was getting very late in the evening, almost dark, and I hadn't set up camp yet so I decided not to keep it and didn't think to get a picture. That would be the only fish I would catch on Billfish, even though I fused the whole lake multiple times over 2 days.
+The fishing on this lake is supposed to be great, but I didn't have much luck. On the first evening I did catch a good sized brook trout, which I didn't measure but must have been 14-15". It was getting very late in the evening, almost dark, and I hadn't set up camp yet so I decided not to keep it and didn't think to get a picture. That would be the only fish I would catch on Billfish, even though I fished the whole lake multiple times over 2 days.
-Other than catching one, I never saw any signs of large fish - no rises or anything. There were minnows 1-3" doing acrobatics to catch flies in the evenings, but only in very shallow water. I tried fishing around them, and in the deep water closest to them, but nothing. The fish I did catch was in the deep water on the side of the lake near camp, but not really that close to where the minnows were active. I think that I probably should have been fishing deeper than I was, maybe jigging with bait, but that is not the kind of fishing I am good at or enjoy.
+Other than catching one, I never saw any signs of large fish - no rises or anything. There were minnows 1-3" doing acrobatics to catch flies in the evenings, but only in very shallow water. I tried fishing around them, and in the deep water closest to them, but nothing. The fish I did catch was in the deep water on the side of the lake near camp, but not really that close to where the minnows were active. Though I did often let my lures sink as much as possible, I think that I probably should have been fishing even deeper than I was, maybe jigging with bait, but that is not the kind of fishing I am good at or enjoy.
-This is looking East. I'm not 100% sure but I think the big mountain in the distance here is Mount Chase, not sure what all the surrounding ones are because there are more peaks on the map than you can see here but Mount Chase is definitely the biggest:
+This is looking East. One of the big mountains in the distance here is Mount Chase, not sure what all the surrounding ones are:
-Looking South, the closest peaks are all Billfish Mountain, Bald Mountain is right behind it, and the two peaks behind that are The Traveler and North Traveler Mountain. If they weren't there you'd be able to see Katahdin way in the distance too.
+Looking South, the closest peaks are part of Billfish Mountain, Bald Mountain is right behind them, and the two peaks behind that are The Traveler and North Traveler Mountain. If they weren't there you'd be able to see Katahdin but it's far enough away that it is completely hidden.
-I brought my stove and lunch along with me. It doesn't look like much but it wasn't very warm up there so man was this a satisfying meal (rehydrated baked beans and coffee)!
+I brought my stove and lunch along with me. It doesn't look like much but it wasn't very warm up there so man was this a satisfying meal (rehydrated homemade baked beans and coffee)!
-I headed out to Middle Fowler Pond late Tuesday morning. The first half of the hike was continuing along the Five Ponds Trail, but instead of completing the loop I headed even further into the woods along the Lower Fowler and Middle Fowler Trails. Along the way I stopped for lunch on Long Pond, seeing some familiar sights from last year when Fiona and I camped there. This picture was taken at my lunch spot you can see Long Pond with Billfish Mountain in the background:
+I headed out to Middle Fowler Pond late Tuesday morning. The first half of the hike was continuing along the Five Ponds Trail, but instead of completing the loop I headed even further into the woods along the Lower Fowler and Middle Fowler Trails. Along the way I stopped for lunch on Long Pond, seeing some familiar sights from last year when Fiona and I camped there. This picture was taken at my lunch spot with a different side of Billfish Mountain in the background:
@@ -126,11 +126,11 @@
-Fortunately on this hike the only muddy spot was a short distance at the beginning of the Lower Fowler Pond Trail around the stream that flows between Long Pond and Lower Fowler Pond. The upside of this muddy area around the stream was seeing all kinds of signs of moose!
+Fortunately on this hike the only muddy spot was a short distance at the beginning of the Lower Fowler Pond Trail around the stream that flows between Long Pond and Lower Fowler Pond. In this muddy area there were all kinds of signs of moose!
-The hike to Middle Fowler Pond from Billfish Pond was the longest hike of the trip, and I was definitely feeling it when I started to hear the series waterfalls near Middle Fowler Pond. There was something about the combination of being so tired, seeing these waterfalls (which I was not prepared for), realizing that this was about 100 yards from the camp site, and then seeing how beautiful Middle Fowler Pond was, that made the end of this hike one of the most amazing experiences of the whole trip. Unfortunately I just can't describe it any better than that, but this experience alone would have made the whole trip worth it.
+The hike to Middle Fowler Pond from Billfish Pond was the longest hike of the trip, and I was definitely feeling it when I started to hear the waterfall at the outlet of Middle Fowler Pond. There was something about the combination of being so tired, seeing the waterfall, realizing that this was about 100 yards from the camp site, and then seeing how beautiful Middle Fowler Pond was, that made the end of this hike one of the most amazing experiences of the whole trip. Unfortunately I just can't describe it any better than that, but this experience alone would have made the whole trip worth it.
@@ -150,19 +150,19 @@
-Billfish Mountain again, this is the opposite side it from Billfish Pond:
+Billfish Mountain again, this is the opposite side of what you see from Billfish Pond:
-Finally, the first time I went out fishing on Middle Fowler, I caught some fish to cook for dinner! On the southeast end of the lake, I caught a fairly big Brook Trout! It was just starting to get dark (6:00pm or so), so I started to head back to camp, but after a few hundred yards I started to see rises all around me, so I threw my lure back in and caught another slightly smaller but still worth keeping, brookie! I decided to call it a night but as I padded northwest back to camp I started to see rises all along the center of the lake!
+Finally, the first time I went out fishing on Middle Fowler, I caught some fish to cook for dinner! On the southeast end of the lake, I caught a fairly big Brook Trout! It was just starting to get dark (6:00pm or so), so I started to head back to camp, but after a few hundred yards I started to see rises all around me, so I threw my lure back in and caught another, slightly smaller but still worth keeping, brook trout! I decided to call it a night and as I paddled northwest back to camp I started to see rises all along the center of the lake.
-I'm not sure what made this different from Billfish, even though the water was not quite as clear here it was also very deep, but I'm sure if I stayed out fishing it would have been action-packed. I definitely want to revisit this!
+I'm not sure what made this different from Billfish, even though the water was not quite as clear here it was also very deep, but I'm sure if I stayed out fishing it would have been action-packed. I definitely want to revisit this lake.
@@ -174,14 +174,20 @@
+This was taken from the camp site on Middle Fowler that night, though I can't remember what mountain is silhouetted in the background:
+
+[](PXL_20230927_001435822.jpg)
+
-The hike back was relatively uneventful, though when I stopped for lunch I say a bunch of trees that looked like this (some were still standing, some like this were fallen), are these bug tracks or bear claw marks? After doing some image searching I think they might actually be bear claw marks! This wood was relatively not rotten:
+The hike back was backtracking along Middle and Lower Fowler trails, then completing the Five Ponds Trail Loop. It was relatively uneventful, though when I stopped for lunch I saw a bunch of trees that looked like this (some were still standing, some like this were fallen), are these bug tracks or bear claw marks? This wood was not rotten:
-Here is some pretty foliage, these pictures were taken throughout the trip:
+## Foliage
+There was lots of pretty foliage, but it was hard to get pictures with my broken phone camera. Here's a few that came out OK.
+
@@ -188,6 +194,16 @@
-And finally, this was taken from the camp site on Middle Fowler, though I can't remember what mountain is silhouetted in the background:
+## Food
-[](PXL_20230927_001435822.jpg)
+Another thing I experimented with was homemade food. Every meal I ate except two (and the snacks of dark chocolate peanut M&Ms) were homemade and dehydrated at home. The two that were not were one breakfast because I get tired of oatmeal and didn't have any other breakfast ideas, and on the hike between camp sites I knew I wouldn't want to bother cooking so I had ingredients for PB&J wraps. (Actually I use other nut butters because they come in convenient packaging, and honey because it's shelf stable, but same idea as a PB&J). The two containers in the upper left are clarified butter to add to the oatmeal and for cooking fish (I actually brought two, not sure where the other one is in this picture), and salt also for cooking fish.
+
+It doesn't look like it but this is three days of meals plus snacks - dehydrating not only preserves the food, it also makes it take up a lot less space and weight!
+
+[](PXL_20230923_010317790.jpg)
+
+Most of the meals were leftovers that I'd thrown in the freezer to eat later, but never did, so I threw them in the dehydrator. I recorded the weight before and after dehydrating so I'd know how much water is needed to rehydrate, and added instant potato flakes or instant rice if it seemed to need bulking up. Then I had to calculate how much water the potato or rice needed also. I shot for about 90g of dehydrated food for lunch and 150g for supper, based on store-bought meals I've had before, and this seemed to work out well.
+
+I added a little potato to the baked beans and chili, and both came out excellent. In the suppers I made from leftovers, I added instant rice instead of potato. One dinner I made from scratch for this was egg noodles, dehydrated ground turkey, dehydrated frozen vegetables that needed to be used up, and a powdered pesto mix. In these meals the turkey and rice both did not rehydrate well - they were edible but just tough enough to be unpleasant. I used the pour-boiling-water-in-the-bag-and-wait method to rehydrate all the meals, and I'm not sure if that just wasn't enough heat for these, or maybe I miscalculated the water. Also the egg noodles have so much air between them it was impossible to get them all submerged in the water so some did not rehydrate, but at least I know what happened there. In the end both of these meals were perfectly edible but I would not make them again. The pesto mix tastes good though it only vaguely tastes like pesto.
+
+All in all it took some more time to prepare, but was an enjoyable challenge. I think the next challenge is figuring out how to do this with less disposable plastic.