Hiking In Maine

Bemis Mountain



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Directions This is Bemis Mountain Trailhead near Rangeley or at least where we began the hike. There is no sign. We picked up the trail from the Bemis Track which was an old railroad line. This is a section of the Appalachian Trail so it is well marked with white blazes and well worn. This is a fairly steep rugged trail to climb with lots of ledges to scramble up over.
Connie, Joyce and Linda head up the trail as it almost immediately becomes steep.

More steep rock to climb up over. This won't be the last.
Connie and Rick are coming up the trail through the mixed hardwoods and softwoods. Notice the well defined white blazes


Rick stops for a little nourishment. He does that quite frequently. Thus, his trail name became "Trail Mix"

On about the only turnout with a view, we can see the turnout up on the Height of Land on Rt 17.


You could also get a good view of one end of Mooselookmeguntic Lake. You could see the Bemis Track road that we came in on.
Connie, Linda and Joyce take a final look at the scenery before continuing up the trail.


We are looking a little confused now as we head down into what appears to be a dip between two peaks or a col. Our guide book said that there were great panoramic views from the first three peaks but we hadn't seen any views from a peak yet, but we appear to be headed to the second one. We eventually surmise that the guide book was wrong about the views from the first peak.
It was like a different world in the col. It was wet, mossy and had all these moss covered trees. A fantastic place.


Eventually we started climbing again and started getting into more open terrain, and the views were getting better.
We found a nice open spot with views and since we still weren't sure where we are or how much farther we had to go, we decided this was a great spot for lunch. A hiker did come by while we were eating and told us we only had about 10 minutes to go to the second peak.




Another thing Rick is really good at. He likes to get a nap in after lunch.


We made it!





There were fantastic views of the Rangeley Lakes region. We wandered over to the edge and got this beautiful view of Mooselookmeguntic Lake.
Here's an expanded view of Mooselookmeguntic Lake with Upper Richardson Lake to the left


I don't think we could find a prettier place to pose for a picture.

The sun shining on those slabs of rock made for a real comfortable spot for Connie and Joyce to relax.


Here we can see Mooselookmeguntic, Upper Richardson, and Lower Richardson over to the far left. Aziscohos Mountain is just beyond Upper Richardson which we had climbed earlier in the season.

We hate to leave this great scenery but as always the time comes to head back down.


Back into the col with all its moss and clear puddles of water. Very pretty.

Rick is just starting to cross a bridge maintained by the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. The MATC does a great job maintaining the trails and foot bridges etc. throughout the whole stretch in Maine.


Now headed down from the first peak. It's pretty steep and we have to watch our step.

Joyce, Connie and Linda carefully work their way down over the rocks and roots. It's like this all the way to the bottom.


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