Baxter has more room to explore Hikers can check out park’s north entrance

There’s a dilemma that every outdoor enthusiast faces this time of year. Everywhere that you want to go to enjoy the peace and quiet of the great outside looks like the line at the ticket sellers window at a soon-to-be, sold-out rock concert.

This is especially true at the south entrance to Baxter State park where people start queuing up as early as 3 a.m. for the 5 a.m. gate opening. Most of those waiting plan to climb Katahdin and stand on the highest point in the state. It’s a magnet for crowds almost as much for a symbolic reason, as it is for the spectacular scenery.

There is a good side to having all those people at one end of the park, however. It means that all the other places are crowd free.

Not all of Baxter State Park is overrun with people on the trails. The north entrance of the park, the Matagamon Gate, from Patten and Shin Pond, typically sees the fewest numbers of people and there’s hardly ever a line at the gate.

True, you won’t be climbing the “greatest mountain,” but you may hike miles of trail over a number of lesser but rugged prominent peaks. The scenery is equally outstanding in scale and the wildlife sightings abundant. There are two drive-in primitive campgrounds accessed from the north entrance, Trout Brook Farm and South Branch Pond. For families with children, they’re perfect. The trails accessible from the two campgrounds are moderate to strenuous in difficulty and length.

Trout Brook Campground

The campground, located a little over two miles from the gate, is a center for hiking and fishing trails to the upper series of ponds known as the Fowler Ponds. Actually, there are four more ponds other than Upper and Lower Fowler. They are Littlefield, Long, High and Billfish. All the ponds have hike-in tent sites. It’s also possible to take a trail loop around the ponds for a five-mile day hike. Moose and water go together, of course, and you’re likely to see one on the trail here.

The trailhead for the Five Ponds Trail is across the perimeter road from the entrance to the campground. Also on that side of the road there is a short, 3-mile loop up to the bare, ledge summit of Trout Brook Mountain, elevation 1,767 feet. From the top there are excellent views to the north of Matagamon Lake. As usual in the park, all the trails have directional signs with distances.

The campground itself is just a great place to relax and kick back. There are plenty of tent sites and a group area. Many canoe trips on Matagamon Lake leave from here. The field that you see is a remnant of the logging days, when this location was a supply farm. It served as a place to raise livestock and grow vegetables so the timber crews farther in the woods could be well fed.

For the ultimate in escaping the crowd, there is a long-distance, multi-day backpacking loop of 34 miles using the Burma Road to the Freezeout Trail on Webster Stream and back on the Wadleigh Brook Trail, which is located a few miles west on the perimeter road of the campground.

South Branch Pond Campground

Located about 5 miles west of Trout Brook Farm, this campground sits on the north end of South Branch Pond. The views from the shore of the pond, in front of the campground are spectacular. The huge hulk of Traveler Mountain rises on the left. The mountain’s slopes and ridges descend directly to the southern shore. South Branch Mountain on the right is equally impressive and completes the effect of looking down a great valley toward Katahdin in the distance.

An easy hike for children is located on the access road to the campground about halfway. Look for a sign to the South Branch Falls Trail. The falls are a narrow, rock chute through which the water is forced. It’s a great place to sit and watch the water course over the rocks. A little closer to the campground is the Ledges Trail, also suitable for children due to its short length. It comes out on some rock ledges with great views down Pogy Notch to the south.

The major hike from this campground is to the summit of The Peak of the Ridges, elevation 3,254, on Traveler Mountain, elevation 3,541. There is a maintained trail to The Peak of the Ridges. There is no trail to the true summit of Traveler, over a mile away.

To hike to the Peak of the Ridges take the Pogy Notch Trail south from the pond as far as the intersection, 1.4 miles later, with the Center Ridge Trail. Turn left and soon the trail comes out on bare ledges and shortly after, the Peak. The views are tough to beat. South Branch ponds are at your feet. Looking south you can see the entire length of the Pogy Notch, then Russell Pond valley, all the way to the great, rock monolith of Katahdin. Turning north, Grand Lake Matagamon lies in the view.

But, the most popular activity at this campground is canoeing and fishing. The park rents canoes for the outstanding rate of a dollar an hour including paddles, flotation and anchors. There is a canoe-in picnic area located at the southern most pond, Upper South Branch Pond. It’s a short paddle through a thoroughfare that connects the two ponds. The campground has a number of tent sites and lean-tos along the shore and a bunkhouse.

Outdoor users have valued solitude in the outdoors since Henry David Thoreau’s time. Back in 1857 he paddled Webster Lake, Webster Stream, and down the East Branch of the Penobscot with a Native American guide from Old Town. They saw no one. While that may not be true today, for you will encounter others out there enjoying the same things you do, the place to go is where remoteness means fewer people, the north end of Baxter Park.

Brad Viles is an avid hiker who lives in Ellsworth.