The Best Walk

Captain Samuel Holden was the first to call this remote region home in 1820. He looked out over the quiet waters of Wood Pond at an unnamed mountain until the day he took his young daughter’s hand, looked into her eyes, and said, “That’s your mountain now. Sally Mountain is located in Jackman, Maine. A walk to the top and back is 4.8 miles and the climb is listed as a moderate challenge.

Last Saturday (8/11/2007), two of my sons (Mark and Brian) and I climbed to Mount Sally’s summit. One of the first challenges was getting accurate directions to the trail head. It’s shown on a local map and the couple at the lodge we stayed at gave us directions. But we drove up the entrance road without being able to relate it to the map or the description. But asking a local passing by solved the problem.

We drove to another entry road where we parked outside a gate. The “parking area” would hold three cars at best. Our car was the second to park there, but we didn’t see another person until we returned from the hike. We walked through the gate down a grown over dirt road and a field taking us to railroad tracks. We followed the tracks for about two miles. We crossed a bridge and then started looking for the trail on the right. My son Brian spotted the trail - a directional sign in the weeds confirmed it. We had arrived at the trail head.

Along the entry way to the trail there was a short wooden boardwalk to keep us out of the mud. This was evidence that the trail was maintained. From that point on it was purely a natural environment. In August everything is in full bloom making the trail itself very scenic, but it blocks the lower views. We would have to wait for the summit for that.

Due to the narrowness of the trail, we walked quickly through along the narrow trail in single file. The first stretch was easy and it took us a while to realize that we were slowly going uphill. I would say maybe a third of the hike was like that. Then it became very clear that we were climbing and walking over rocks. No big surprise, after all we were going up a mountain.

It was in the last section that we felt we should question the “moderate challenge” classification of Sally Mountain. Every step brought quickly brought us higher and higher. Two of the three of us could have been in better shape for this climb and I was one of the two. As a result we stopped to rest more frequently and drank more water, but we kept going.

We continued to climb and take breaks. The climb grew steeper and a bit later we were standing at the summit looking out at the great views. We spent some time walking around the mountain top taking pictures. The map showed that the trail continued down the other side and eventually up another mountain. Not knowing exactly where we would end up, we went down the same way we came up.

The Descent was easy and no rest stops were taken. Before long we were leaving the railroad tracks and heading towards the car. Except for a couple of exhaustion attacks, we thoroughly enjoyed the hike - the views, the exercise, the good company.

It was about 11am when we left this area. From there we drove to Moxie Falls for the next walk and the subject of the next post.

Filed under: Maine on August 15th, 2007by Hank