2026-07-22 - last updated 2026-07-23 (changelog)
Thanks to craziness at work last summer/fall, It’s been almost two years since my last solo backpacking trip. I’m in better shape than I was then, so when I first starting thinking about this trip a few weeks ago I thought I’d do something more ambitious. Unfortunately I did something to my calf a couple weeks ago, and while it didn’t hurt enough to stop me from doing anything at the moment, I also really didn’t want to make it worse. So I choose a camp site that has lots of options for hiking in/out and day hiking so I could tweak my plans on the fly depending on how my leg felt.
On the drive into the park, just a little further away than in 2023, I came upon a cow moose just hanging out in the road. Getting a good picture was impossible due to the direction of the sun, the poor state of my windshield, and the fact that it ran away away as soon as I started inching the car forward from here (I was stopped when taking this picture):
I arrived at park at about 7:30pm on Saturday and as usual spent the night at Trout Brook Campground, a roadside campground in the park. None of the campsites there are very private, but the one I had this night was even less so (that is the road that goes through the campground in the foreground). But that is OK, this is just the place to spend one night so I can get an earlier start on the real adventure!
I have learned to bring extra gear for the first night at the campground. For example, the tent pictured here is my two-person tent, but since I’m by myself I had my one-person tent in my backpack and ready to go. The next morning, I can just throw it in the car without properly packing it up, grab my pack, and go.
I set off on the Fowler Brook Trail at about 9:00am Sunday.
I stopped for a snack at the canoe rental site on Lower Fowler Pond, and observed the biggest pollywogs and leach that I have every seen.
This pollywog is more than 6” long:
This leach of almost 6” long:
Ever since I started backpacking, seeing a moose and a black bear in the wild on a hiking, canoeing, or kayaking trip, have been major bucket list items for me. I always figured I’d see moose now and then but might never see a black bear. (At least in places where black bears are not habituated to people, they stay far away.)
Well, as of this weekend I still have not encountered a moose, but I have encountered a black bear! I came around a corner in the trail, and there it was about 150 feet away:
It went about how black bear sightings usually do - I saw it, made some noise, and it went in the other direction.
But they sure are a lot more intimidating when you are about two miles from the nearest other person and three miles from the nearest vehicle, than they are when you see them on YouTube! It was also impressive how quiet it was when it went away - it was making some noise moving around when I first saw it, but was totally silent after it saw me.
The bear had been on the trail in the direction I was heading, and it headed off in roughly the same direction the trail did, so I stayed in that place for 10 minutes or so to give it a head start. I was definitely on alert looking for it, but never saw or heard another sign of it. And thanks to the adrenaline the last mile of the trail went by pretty quickly.
As always the first sight of Middle Fowler Pond from this direction is quite something:
Here’s the Middle Fowler Pond North tent site with the lake in the background and my stuff set up:
I usually do not sleep very well on these trips, and at first I thought after seeing the bear I might be up all night worrying that it might still be nearby. Ironically, for the two remaining nights I slept better than I ever have while camping.
I wasn’t sure how the fishing would be this time of year since I’ve only been to this lake in the fall before. Turns out it doesn’t slow down much in July. After camp was set up and I’d had a break, I set out fishing at about 6:00pm and caught 9 trout in two hours - 6 in about 30 minutes with spinning reel, and 3 in about 90 minutes fly fishing. This is only the second time I’ve ever really been fly fishing, and the one thing I forgot on this trip was a fly fishing book I had planned to bring, so I was just figuring it out as I went. Since I was tired, and the fishing was productive enough that I felt confident I would catch more tomorrow, I decided not to keep any to eat the first night.
The next day I had the option of hiking up Barrell Ridge, but I decided to save my leg for a better hike tomorrow because I wasn’t confident I could do both. In the meantime, even though Middle Fowler is a very clear lake:
Even though Middle Fowler is a very clear lake, the water tastes pretty bad, even for a lake. Obviously I filter it to make it safe to drink, but safe does not necessarily mean good-tasting. The Sawyer Squeeze I use does not remove whatever it is that makes lake water taste like lake water. So I did hike about 1/4 mile up the trail towards Barrell Ridge to find a stream I remember from last time I was here to get as much water as I could. This was a good idea, that lake water taste gets tiring pretty quickly.
After this I thought I might see if I could walk along Fowler Brook to Little Fowler Pond, but the brook was covered on both sides by 50 feet or more of these bushes that are way too thick to walk through without cutting a path:
I didn’t know if Little Fowler would be inaccessible too, so instead of trying to find a way around I decided to do some more fishing on Middle Fowler earlier than planned. Even though at about noon the fish weren’t as active I was surprised to catch a few in just an hour or so, and decided to cook one of them for lunch. I got a new backpacking stove (Soto Windmaster) this year and decided to cook on that instead of a camp fire to see what it was like (so far I’ve only used to boil water for dehydrating). Though the flame on the stove is adjustable, it doesn’t really go low enough for frying on, but I found that by leaving the pan on the stove for a minute, then holding it away from the flame for a minute, etc, I cooked the fish nicely with lightly crispy skin. Even though it was just trout, clarified butter, and salt, it was amazing! It was also nice to not have to do the dishes in the dark.
I messed up the skin a little bit the first two times I flipped it, but after that I managed to stop making it worse.
Even though I didn’t cook over a camp fire, I did decide to have a fire before bed that night:
Tuesday, it was time to pack up and hike out. I can get everything except my two fishing rods and net inside the backpack. In future backpacking trips, I will probably not bring my fly fishing gear or the net because now that I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of fly fishing, but am still so much better with a spinning real, they are not worth the weight.
I left fairly early so I would have time for hiking Trout Brook Mountain from a trailhead just a little ways from the car. It’s the only mountain in the area I have not yet hiked, and the fact that I could leave all the backpacking gear in the car and just take what I needed for this hike also made it attractive for saving my leg as much as possible.
Though in hindsight, my leg was fine the next day and I could have done both this hike and the day hike of Barrell Ridge yesterday without major issues. I was originally thinking I might be able to go the long way around the Five Ponds trail to get to the campsite, do a day hike of Barrell Ridge, then hike up either Trout Brook Mountain, Horse Mountain, or both, on the way back out. I’m now sure I could do this if fully healthy, but this would have made for a very long hike out with my full backpacking gear, and I am glad I did not attempt it.
The trail up is pretty rugged, steep with lots of roots and rocks, but not unmanageable at just a little over 1.5 miles and 1,000 feet of elevation gain. It feels like you’re deep in the woods until right near the top when you get your first views:
The lake on the far left is Billfish Pond, and the one on the far right is Lower Fowler Pond. Just barely visible in the middle is Long Pond. Behind it is Billfish Mountain, and behind that is Middle Fowler Pond.
This trail continues along a ridge for a few hundred yards before it goes back into the woods:
Here’s Long Pond again from a slightly better angle:
I couldn’t read much of this sign in person either:
Heading down the other side you briefly get a view of parts Grand Lake Matagamon:
There are signs of lots of moose activity everywhere along the trail, but I didn’t see any actual moose. Other than that, it was an uneventful hike and then drive home.
I tried treating my clothes with Permethrin for the first time. It seemed to do nothing (I watched mosquitoes land on my clothes for 10 seconds then fly away without issue). I thought I followed the instructions but they were vague, so I am going to try a heavier spray before I decide if it’s worth the time.
I also wore waterproof hiking shoes for the first time in hot weather (Xero Shoes Mesa Trail WP) because the trails in the area were very muddy in the past. However given the heat and how dry it has been lately, this was a bad idea. The waterproofing is effective, but that was more than made up for by the reduced breathability and the sweating that caused. This is an inevitable part of waterproofing, and this is a great shoe when I actually want that, but I will stick to my much more breathable Xero Scramblers when it’s this hot and it hasn’t been unusually rainy.
Here was my food for the trip. I didn’t make very much myself this time. The breakfasts were bland, otherwise the food I ate was very good (the Mountain House was extra I did not have to touch). The one disappointment was my storage for nut butter and honey (for PB&J-style tortillas for lunch) both leaked, making a mess inside the bag containing them. Since I caught that fish for lunch I didn’t need it, so I got lucky and didn’t have to deal with it. I need to find a new solution to this since this is a nice way to break up the pre-packed dehydrated meals without long prep times, and extra ingredients can be used for other things too.
The first view you get of the lake as you hike in, with Bald Mountain in the background:
Left to right those peaks are Bald Mountain, The Traveler (barely visible), North Traveler Mountain, and Barrell Ridge:
This is a very peaceful, beautiful place, especially when the wind is not disturbing the water:
And here are a views as it gets dark:
And when Night Sight on my phone really starts to kick in, the pictures suddenly look lighter:
And here’s one peek of Katahdin, taken from the Katahdin Scenic Outlook on Route 11 in Patten on the drive home:
