Avery Peak, Bigelow Mountain Range
Avery Peak. I have been told by several hikers that even though Avery Peak is not the highest peak in the Bigelow Range, it is the best hike, that the views are absolutely gorgeous. So all summer I've been looking forward to making another trip up past Kingfield toward Stratton...this time to hike the Firewarden's Trail to Avery Peak.Click here for my review of the Avery Peak hike posted at Amateur-Hikers.com
I can't say that it's the best hike in the Bigelow Mountain Range, because I haven't yet hiked The Horns, West Peak, or Little Bigelow. But I can say for sure that I was not disappointed! It was a good, challenging hike, with beautiful, almost fairyland views at the top. We had wonderful weather, so we could see for miles and miles. You'll get just a tiny taste of what we saw from some of the pictures I'll post here.
Finding The Trail Head
If you're planning to hike the Firewarden's Trail, you need to head up Route 27 past Kingfield toward Stratton. About 3 miles past the Sugarloaf entrance you'll find the Stratton Brook Road on the right. This is a dirt road that leads to most of the Bigelow Mountain hiking trails. When I hiked Cranberry Peak earlier in the summer (for info on that hike, read: Hiking Cranberry Peak in The Bigelow Mountain Range) the Stratton Brook Road was not well marked, but now there is a new sign up, so it was much easier to find. Drive in on this road about a mile, and you'll see a small parking area; this is where you should park if you are doing the Appalachian Trail. But if you are hiking Avery Peak, continue on another six tenths of a mile, and you'll find, right where the road turns from a dirt road to an almost impassable track, a small parking area. This is where you should park.
The Hike
We hadn't been going more than 15 minutes when we met a father and son coming down off the trail. They asked where we were headed, and we told them. The father looks at us and says, "You know, that's a pretty steep trail." Yes, we'd heard that. "That's alright," he said, "you can do it, everyone does. Just take your time." Good advice, which we had already agreed on; we weren't going to push ourselves when we got to the steep part, just take it slow and easy, because we had given ourselves all day for this hike.
About that time we passed the Stratton Brook Pond, which is a beautiful little pond with nice views of the mountains all around. In the morning I didn't take any pictures of the pond, because someone was sitting on the bank sketching, and I didn't want to disrupt her. On the way back down though, I snapped several pictures. In the second picture of this set you see Sugarloaf Mountain in the background.
The first part of the hike was very easy; it was mostly a gradual upgrade, which made for a very nice, relaxing, hike through the woods, with just a few slightly steeper sections.
We took Brian's GPS unit with us, so we would know exactly where we were in relation to our starting point and our destination. This made the hike quite interesting, because we could track how far we had hiked, and (as the crow flies) how much further we had to go. It turns out that the Firewarden's Trail is almost "as the crow flies" - if you look at a map you'll see it's a very direct route to the summit.
The GPS gave us elevations as well as latitude/longitude, which was also interesting. We started out in the parking lot at about 1350, and the summit of Avery Peak is 4088, so we knew we had a lot of elevation to gain...about 2700 feet. And as we hiked, we kept thinking, "When exactly is this elevation gain going to happen?" Because we hiked the first 2.3 miles (to the junction of the Horns Pond Trail) and saw very little elevation gain. We hiked another 1.2 miles and still saw little elevation gain.
We hiked two thirds of the distance in about two hours, and then it seemed like we hit a brick wall. The trail turns steep at that point. Not so steep that you're using your hands to clamber over boulders, but it was an unrelenting steepness. It just kept going up and up without any break.
At one point we broke out of the trees long enough to get a glimpse of what we thought was Avery Peak, but we later decided it was probably a false peak.
At 4.6 miles (the junction with the Horns Pond trail is exactly half way up the Firewarden's Trail...2.3 miles before, 2.3 miles after) we intersected the Appalachian Trail, and had the choice of heading toward West Peak or Avery Peak. West Peak is the tallest of the Bigelow Mountain Range peaks, but we had been told that even though it was tallest, Avery's views were best. So we turned to the right and headed toward Avery. After hiking a few minutes we were able to turn around and get a good view of West Peak behind us...
And Flagstaff Lake to our North...
For the last .4 miles of our hike (from the junction of the Appalachian Trail to the peak) there was a bit more bouldering...
But we finally reached the peak, and asked another hiker (who had been hiking the Appalachian Trail for a few weeks, and had about a week and a half of hiking ahead of him) to snap a picture of us to prove we'd actually been there. You can't read the sign, but it does say: Appalachian Trail - Avery Peak - Elevation 4088 ft
What follows is a sampling of some of the views from the summit. Of course, if you've ever been to an amazing spot like this, you know that pictures never do it justice, so just consider this to be a tiny taste of the wonders all around!
That last picture is for Brian and family; that's the airport in Carabassett Valley where you go to see the fireworks on the Fourth Of July. (For anyone who cares, that's a wonderful fireworks display, and because of all the mountains around, every "boom" ends up being an extended reverberation bouncing off all the mountains around!)
Near the firewarden's tower there is a sign which reads:
Myron H. Avery Peak
Of Mt. Bigelow
Named In Honor Of
Myron Haliburton Avery
1899 - 1952
Whose Foresight Leadership and Diligence
Made Possible
The Appalachian Trail
This 2,000 Mile Footpath
From Maine To Georgia
Remember that pond we saw at the beginning of our hike? Well, here it is again, about 4 and a half miles from where we're standing at the peak. It's hard to believe we hiked so far...
And finally we turned around and headed back home. It was much easier going down; the hike up took us 4 hours and 45 minutes, but on the way down it took us just about 3 hours.
As we crossed the Stratton Brook, by the Stratton Brook Pond, I snapped one last view...our farewell to the Bigelow Mountain Range, a nice conclusion to a tiring but wonderful day...
Click here for my review of the Avery Peak hike posted at Amateur-Hikers.com
Posted On Sep 6, 2005 at 5:58 AM
On Sep 6, 2005 Laura wrote: Wow, sounds like you had an active Labor Day! Those are very good photos of the view too. My family went hiking in Camden, on some trail that I can't pronounce, with a nice view of the ocean at the top. It was probably the most strenuous hike of my life, and it only took about an hour, so I couldn't imagine hiking all day like that! I guess going on the treadmill now & then doesn't necessarily make me in shape ;-)
Doug Replied: someone was telling me recently about a nice hike out in the Camden area, from which you can see all the Campden Hills. Maybe someday I'll get out there and try that one.
Right now I'm on a quest to do all the 4000 footers in the State of Maine. Yesterday I bagged one of them (Avery Peak) and was about half a mile's hike from another (West Peak)...but we didn't have the time or energy to tackle both peaks in one day!
On Sep 7, 2005 Beth wrote: Laura...did you climb Mt. Megunticook? We take our Rec kids there.
Doug Replied: I just love our good old Maine names for things. Megunticook...it's second only to Mooselookmeguntic (a lake up in the Mount Blue area).
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