Are you an experienced, fit hiker but have never done an overnight hike before? Or are you an experienced backpacker stoked about summits, sunsets and astrophotography? Are you comfortable hiking most of the 4Ks in NH, and want to spend a few days back to back hiking with an extra heavy backpack. Then this trip is for you! Join us for a two-night adventure into some of the best hiking Maine has to offer.

Early Saturday morning we will drive up to Maine and have our biggest day, hiking up 2000ft of elevation gain over 4 miles to Horns Pond. From there we'll make camp and start dinner. Anyone who's still stoked can ascend up to the North Peak of the Horns for sunset. Pending weather, we can also do a VERY early morning/late night ascent for some stargazing and astrophotography for anyone who's interested.

On Sunday, we'll have a slow start and make breakfast by Horns Pond as we practice using stoves. Then we'll gain 1500ft over 3 miles as we move the campsite to Bigelow Col, and start on dinner. We'll take an opportunity around sunset to head out to Avery Peak to take in the views.

On Monday, we'll have a nice 5 mile downhill walk out to the cars.

We might have to preference drivers in order to make the logistics work and may need to drop people if we do not get enough drivers.

Additionally, this trip will likely run rain or shine, though we'll cancel if the entire weekend is looking miserable or if conditions are especially dicey. We may move the trip forward to being Friday - Sunday if that seems preferable for the forecast.

Because one of the aims of this trip is to help people who are experienced day hikers make the jump to doing longer, multi-day backpacking trips, there will be a mandatory trip meeting on Tuesday (6/4) evening at 6pm in the MITOC office. During the meeting we will go over what to bring and how to pack. There will also be time for people to rent gear during office hours that night. We'll aim to have everyone leave Tuesday with a detailed packing list so we can go through and make sure we're all packing efficiently. One aim is to cut-down the base weight that people are carrying as much as possible!!! With good packing a low pack weight is definitely achievable even with heavier MITOC gear.

We will discuss food options during the meeting, but to keep things simple, we should plan on having dehydrated meals on both nights night. You can either buy those at places like REI or you can make your own using things like dehy mashed potatoes from the supermarket with cheese along with anything else you might want to throw in. We'll also have some to give out at cost. Don’t worry about this though as we will fully talk through all of this when we meet!

Here’s a map with the route for the trip:

Additionally, some suggestions for gear and general backpacking tips + tricks are in this doc. We'll add a specific gear list closer to the event.

Trip costs: personal food including dehy meal for both nights, reimbursement for drivers (will vary depending on how many people we have per car, but plan on ~$40 total) and any rental gear costs to MITOC. We will try to keep costs to a minimum, and assistance is available for any undergrads!

If you have any questions, contact Thomas & Caitlin.