A craving for camping An rainy night at Baxter signals start of summer

Sometimes I just have to get outdoors. It could be because it’s summer, but I doubt it. It happens in winter, too, just not as often. Whenever the call to hike hits me, there’s really nothing I can do to quell the urge except load up the truck and spend an overnight in the woods, even if the forecast is for a 70 percent chance of rain, like last weekend.

It started Friday. I decided, as I dialed the Baxter State Park phone number for reservations that afternoon, that if I got a reservation in the park for Saturday night, that’s where I’d go. In on Saturday, out on Sunday, that was the plan.

Just 24 hours would be all I’d need to satisfy my craving to camp. A nice-sounding woman named Jeannie on the other end of the line confirmed they had a cancellation at Katahdin Stream Campground and I could have it.

“Book it,” I said, and the plan was set in play.

Saturday morning arrived with the predicted weather. Gray clouds covered the sky, but as I drove into the park around 2 that afternoon, it still hadn’t rained. I unloaded the truck into lean-to No. 12 and went looking for the campground ranger. He had the key to the canoe at Grassy Pond, an easy hike away. I brought along a fly rod and a box of flies. If the rain held off, I could fish.

The sign on the ranger camp said he’d return at 4. That gave me about an hour and a half, so rather than sitting around waiting I took a drive up to Kidney Pond to talk to the ranger there. There are several trout ponds connected by trails nearby; maybe I’d hike over to those to try my luck.

When I got to the camps, ranger Dean Levasseur was in the workshop building new doors for the camps. He put his tools down to tell me the ranger at Katahdin Stream was helping replace a bridge with the Daicey Pond ranger. I asked him about how the fish were biting at Grassy Pond.

“They’ve been getting some pretty good fish out of there. All the ponds are producing some pretty good trout,” he said.

I like fishing streams, too, so I asked about the fishing in certain spots on my map. The tote road borders Nesowadnahunk Stream, so I might fish there later or on Sunday. Levasseur told me about a few spots on the stream to try. By then it was getting near time to head back to Katahdin Stream to meet the ranger, Bruce White, for the canoe padlock key.

I got the key, a paddle and a lifejacket and signed out the canoe at Grassy Pond. The fee is a modest dollar per hour, paid when you’re done. It was around 4:15 when I started off on the Grassy Pond Trail, which coincides with the Appalachian Trail for a little less than a mile as it winds its way past Tracy and Elbow ponds. The trail turns off the AT, and then it’s about a mile to the canoe landing.

The rain held off until I got to the pond, then it started to rain. At that point I had a decision to make. Get in the canoe and get rained on, and probably not catch a fish, or turn around and hike back in the rain and stay drier under cover of the forest. I turned around and left for the hike back to Katahdin Stream. There would be beans and hot dogs for supper tonight, not trout.

Back at the campground I returned the key, bought some firewood and went to the lean-to for the night. After supper and watching the fire, I turned in to the sound of Katahdin Stream filling up with a persistent rain.

I was up at 5, then after a breakfast of oatmeal and breakfast bars I loaded the truck and drove up to Kidney Pond. I wanted to meet with Levasseur to tell him whether I would need a canoe at Jackson Pond, a mile away, by trail. Levasseur was receiving the 7 a.m. weather forecast. It said we got an inch of rain overnight, with 100 percent chance of rain today. I decided to fish the stream.

I spent the morning fishing, tried a few spots and finally caught a trout, a nice 11 1/2-inch brookie that went in the cooler. It rained off and on all morning. Only the base of Katahdin and surrounding mountains such as Doubletop were visible under the curtain of gray. By noon, I was convinced one trout would be all I’d need for this trip.

I went back to Kidney to show Levasseur the nice fish, but he had gone on other duties. A young trail crewmember, Sam, was there and getting ready to fish the pond. I showed him the trout, we talked a while, then he headed for the pond and I went for the truck.

I associate the arrival of summer with the time I spend in Baxter State Park. Summer becomes just another season until I spend a night there. It’s easy to see why. With more than 220,000 acres of wilderness and more than 200 miles of trails, lakes, ponds, miles of streams and brooks, the park has become a favorite place.

A night spent in the park, a rainy day and a stream to fish were all I needed to wring out my camping craving.

It worked, for now.

sourball@gwi.net