I remember hearing someone talk about Gulf Hagas in the past and thought nothing of it, and then my company’s health department hosted a hike through Gulf Hagas two weeks ago and again thought nothing of it. Last week a co-worker talked about it so I decided to look into it further. They call it “The Grand Canyon of Maine” which like anyone else that has not hiked the Gulf Hagas trail, I pictured the Grand Canyon in my mind and thought, “Yea right”. I checked MaineFoliage.com and saw that the leaf colors were moderate in the area so I talked to Robin about it and we made a date to hike all 8 miles of it (4 miles up and then 4 miles back). We both did not know what to expect other than that there are waterfalls and high ledge walls.

The weather was in the mid-sixties with clear blue skies with no breeze. Upon arriving at 10AM we paid and registered to get in; there were a lot more people hiking that day than I would have expected- I would say in total we saw about 40 people. Once we parked in Pleasant River Parking, I put my boots (not real hiking boots) on, got the Lowepro camera bags out, helped Robin put her backpack on and we headed towards the Pleasant River crossing which was about a mile out. When we arrived at the River there were a group of high school kids there crossing the ice cold, ankle deep, water. While watching them cross we changed out of our boots and into our sandals- another reason why I love my new Keen sandals, as they are so versatile for things like this. For me, the water was not very cold until the half way point of the river which by estimate was roughly 50′ wide; once we reached the middle of the river it felt like small tacks poking at my skin.

After crossing the river we put out boots back on and made our 1 mile hike to Screw Auger Falls (Map Point 3) which requires a slight deviation off trail to fully view the falls. We climbed down about 10′ overt ledge and roots until we reached the plateau of ledge that stands 8′ feet above the basin of the waterfalls. In the summer it is probably the safest area to swim if you desire. We made our way to the lower Screw Auger falls which is much larger than the upper. The viewpoint requires you to climb down 40 or so feet of steep terrain that consists of mangled roots and dirt until you reach the bottom or top of the canyon’s ledge. From there it felt like I was viewing a scene from Lord of the Rings (Rivendell); the waterfall dips down – I’d estimate around 20′- into a pool of water surrounded by trees that hung over portions of the water. Several areas from where we stood, led to an abrupt and deep canyon 80′ down. Any attempt by me at photographing the depth of this was difficult; I’m not sure if it’s the lenses that I have or if it’s my technique, but it is definitely something you should witness for yourself. After looking around and taking photos for 30 minutes or so we left and continued onwards making our way over the at-the-time smooth, root and ledge free trails. We reached the Hancock lookout, which is basically ledge that provides a narrow view of the gorge; this is where the ledge (I believe it’s ledge as I have not been able to verify if it is another mineral/strata) walls rise to their 2-300′ heights. We continued on up an incline and then all of the sudden the path stopped; we continued on as the map said a trail was there until we came to a very steep stairway of roots. Being adventurous I climbed down to an area that leveled off for about 3 feet and then a sheer drop to the bottom of the canyon. We decided to head back to the main trail, as there clearly was no discernible path for us to take.

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During the first week of September mom stayed with Robin and I for half a week and the other half with her parent’s in Dexter. I took 5 days off, two Fridays, a Thursday and Monday. We tried to get out and enjoy the end of Summer’s weather which mostly was in the cool 70’s, by walking on the Orono campus trails of which Robin used to run on during her college years.

One day the three of us wanted to kayak so we loaded my kayak and our landlord’s tandem (two-seater) kayak on the car and drove down to Sedgeunkedunk Stream; Robin in front and mom in the back of the tandem and myself in my kayak. The weather was excellent that day with temperatures around 75 and a slight sporadic breeze. We made our way around way the first two bends in the stream that consisted mostly of thick difficult to traverse Water mill-foil; after that the water cleared up in the middle so that you could see down 4′ to the murky bottom. Robin called me over as she had spotted a young Painted Turtle basking in the sun while in the midst of algae- I was unable to capture it. Shortly after, I spotted another young Painted Turtle, but again was unsuccessful. We continued on, looking for any signs of wildlife and taking in the sun. We came across, what Robin and I had thought had passed for the year, a nice patch of Lilly Flowers. Later on, I spotted a female duck with two young offspring swimming behind her. At the half-way point, Mom spotted another turtle basking in the same manor as the previous two; I slowly paddled up to the turtle, it was a large male Painted Turtle- the second largest I have caught. Once I was next to the turtle in the water, it had submersed itself but I had reached down quickly to grab a hold of its shell. It’s carapace was in the process of shedding due to growth. I placed the turtle into my storage unit and we continued on our journey. Nearing the end of the stream a Great Blue Heron had swooped up in front of the tandem out of the cattail bushes and landed 15′ to the other side where I was able to snap a photo of it. We turned around shortly after; nearing our the last stretch, where I spotted a very young Painted Turtle, it must have been a year old- it was so light that it was sitting on top of a thick growth of algae which made it very easy for me to capture. We headed onwards where the same Heron was spotted earlier had relocated in hunt for fish. I was able to get a few shots of of the Heron up close and in the unsuccessful pursuit of fish. Once on land we stopped at a near by vacant house and took photos of the turtles to compare their size.

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