FSAR At Baxter Sept 2014

Baxter, September 27 & 28, 2014
By FSAR Team President, Steve Yates

I arrived at the Togue Pond Bunkhouse at dusk just as teammates Jim A. and Melissa were dragging themselves out of the Subaru.  They spent Thursday night camping in the park and connected with their client before sunrise that Friday morning. They guided a client up, over, and back down Katahdin for the last 12 hours.  The three of us exited the park just long enough for dinner at the River Drivers Tavern.  Arriving back at the bunkhouse, we found Paul, Evie, and two interns Dan and Tanja, from the Yale University School of Medicine, unloading their vehicles.  Paul, Evie, Dan, Tanja, and I set up our tents in the pines over looking Togue Pond while Jim and Melissa vied for the bunks.

      Saturday morning dawned clear and mild.  Through my tent screen, I had a stunning view of the south side of Katadhin with the lower slopes dressed in every shade of red and orange imaginable.  Jim and Melissa had  coffee, pancakes, and hardboiled eggs for all that were interested.  We spent the morning getting acquainted with Dan and Tanja, perusing maps and sorting though packs as we waited for Pat and Karen to arrive.

    We settled on a mission for the day after some deliberation.  Evidently Stuart (park director) had expressed safety concerns in and around the Little and Big Niagara Falls.  We caravanned into Daicy Pond pausing to check out the facilities; I definitely see myself and Alice spending some time there next summer! From Daicy, we hiked south on the Niagara Trail for 30 minutes to the first set of falls.  The rope techies surveyed our surroundings and found rocks, ledges, and water that could present a hazard to hikers and sightseers.  This was our training scene for the next few hours.  After unsuccessfully scouring the rock for cracks that would support the cams and nuts needed for support, two trees were selected as anchors.  A belay line was set up, then a lowering line.  Paul demonstrated the rigging plate and Melissa demonstrated the scarab.  Tanja jumped at the chance to be lowered, grinning the whole time.  Once at the bottom of the slope, Pat reconfigured the system for ascending with a 3/1 ratio and then added a pulley for a 9/1 system.  It was an enjoyable afternoon of learning, lots of time for questions and discussion, brilliant sun, blue sky, water rushing past us, and temps in the mid 70’s.

   

     Jim created the perfect dinner ambiance with a single candle on white granite in the center of the picnic table.   Dinner was pot luck: beans and franks, lasagna, salad, steak, and spaghetti.  No one left the table hungry.  After eating, Dan and Tanja spoke of their experiences in Africa.  Dan worked in South Africa primarily with victims of AIDS and Tanja was at ground zero of the ebola outbreak in Liberia.  Their stories were heartbreaking, giving us a personal and unbiased perspective that we do not get on the evening news.  The images that they conveyed are still with me a week later.  

      On Sunday, Dan and Tanja made an early departure from Togue to hike Kathadin.  The rest of us did a short hike leaving Roaring Brook Rd., around Rum Pond, and back to Tote Rd.  We did perform a rescue as we helped repair a flat tire on the Tote Road.  Back at Togue Pond, we took down our tents, cleaned up the bunk house, and vacated the park by 1400. 

Respectively Submitted,

Steve Yates

Baxter Crew:  Jim A, Melissa S, Paul and Evie M, Pat and Karen C, Steve Y.  Interns: Dan and Tanja