Reader Recommended: Eagle Bluff
From the Summit of Eagle Bluff
This post was originally published July 5, 2018.
Summer time means hiking time in Maine. Now that the mud from spring's showers has dried and the skies are bright and blue again, I've taken off to hike some of the mountains I missed last year, including Eagle Bluff.
Eagle Bluff is a fairly popular hike for the locals, but in the midst of a heatwave, the little parking lot was all mine for the taking. Rising 255 feet in elevation (700 feet above sea level), the cliff side provides an exciting adventure for rock climbers. For people like me though, who have no experience climbing straight edged cliffs and instead have an unrelenting fear of plummeting from great heights, there's always the hiking trail.
The trail quickly comes to a fork with the options of heading up to the summit or hiking towards the base. I started towards the summit. The trail elevates quickly and goes for just over half a mile. Even taking the occasional heavy-breathing break, I found that I reached the top of the mountain before I anticipated to.
Slathered in sweat and sunscreen, I took in the view and lingered at the edge of the cliffs, thinking anyone who climbed up them must be a whole lot braver than me. From one side of the peak, I could appreciate the distant windmills, which I always found to be incredibly fascinating structures similar to skyscrapers and observation towers. The magnitude of a windmill in person is so different compared to their image on the horizon. They are a man-made monolith that harnesses one of the greatest forces of nature.
On the other side of the summit was a spectacular view of Cedar Swamp Pond and Little Chick and Big Chick Hills (they don't look like chickens, I am sorry to say). After reveling in the view and garnering a bit of a tan, I descended the mountain to return to the fork in the trail, this time choosing to go to the cliff's base.
It was still a workout getting to the base of the sheer cliff side, as I hiked between fallen boulders and over exposed tree roots. Pictures don't really do it justice from the bottom or the top of Eagle Bluff. The cliff is steep and smooth, but there's plenty of places for a rock climber to begin their climb. There wasn't much for me to do along the base, except follow it and gawk up at its peak, where I had been standing not long before. Still, I almost couldn't believe the view I had seen from the summit when I looked up from the base. The world sure does look different from the top of a rock.
Thank you to Rhonda Tate for suggesting Eagle Bluff. Where should I go next?