"Tumbling down" Tumbledown mountain in Maine.
Trail Distance: 4 - 5 miles Terrain Rating: Moderate - Difficult
Trailhead: The Loop Trail parking lot is located just past the Brook Trail Parking Lot in Weld, ME. Go off Byron Road for 5.7 miles and you will reach the Loop Trail Parking Lot.
This hike is dog friendly WITH CAUTION! I will explain why later on.
Ever gone to Tumbledown? It's quite a hike! Most people hike Tumbledown for the iconic pond on top. It's why I went! But the view is so so beautiful, everywhere you look. The pond looks more like a lake! But, it is in fact a pond. :p
Since we were waiting for the rest of our group to go on the hike. I took advantage of that time to go around and take some pre-hike pictures. :p
We saw a HORDE of butterflies while we were waiting to go on the hike. I've never seen so many together at the same time before! My camera was being weird.. so some of my pics didn't turn out as good as I was hoping. However, I did get SOME pretty cool pics :p lol
Okay.. this was seriously the most strenuous hike I've EVER done. The hike began easy. However, it quickly started to ascended (about 0.5 mi) and quite frankly I felt like a billy goat on this trail. Haha
The scenic views though, were on point! :p
Absolutely beautiful <3
^^^ Scaled up this mountain side! :p
At this point you will climb straight up this rocky terrain for a bit! As you can see in the next 3 images below.
Ok, so.... before I continue on..
Lets talk about why this hike needs to use some caution before taking dogs. I have a husky. Her name is Katara. She does SUPER well on hikes. This was no different. She was a trooper the WHOLE way. It was a difficult hike and she kept up. Probably would've even passed us if she didn't have a leash haha
There's thing called "Fat mans misery". I didn't take a pic of it. So, here is one below from the net.
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?51373-Tumbledown-10-11-13
^^^ As you can see, it is not that long of an endeavor. However if you don't have at least 2-3 people on your hike. The dog will not go up easy. We did an assembly, line up the ladder with her. Almost as if we were transferring a whale! haha
^^^ Just keep climbing, just keep climbing, just keep climbing, climbing climbing :p lolol
Yep. We just hiked a damn mountain.
Finally.. at the top!! Hallelujah ＼(^o^)／
At this point it gets easier to reach the pond! Levels out. A little bit.. lol
The view was so beautiful, I literally had to sit and just soak it all in.
^^^ Once you get to the top you get to see Webb lake in the distance.
^^^ I remember taking this picture and feeling like I was on top of the world!
Finally reached the lake!!! I mean... pond.. lol
Our dog Katara made it just fine! :) She's happy as can be, exploring a new territory. lol
Before I continue, I feel like I need to stress the importance of hiking shoes if you plan to hike Tumbledown mountain.
Had I known I'd be scaling a mountain, with some moderate rock climbing involved.. I would've and made sure I had gotten a pair of hiking shoes.
I have a pair at home in Utah. I knew I'd be hiking here but I figured if I truly needed a pair, I'd just go buy it.
My boyfriend has done the hike before and I told him I was thinking of buying hiking shoes. He told me I should be ok with my regular skate shoes. So, I didn't think anything of it. Had I gotten a pair of hiking shoes, it could've spare me a spare ankle!...
Going up was fine but, going down... well.. I "Tumbled down" lol
I didn't have proper support and it was very rocky on the way down.
I kept crashing down on my ankle. :(
I understand not everyone will experience this if you don't wear hiking shoes but please BE VERY CAREFUL!!
I ended up getting a badly bruised sprained ankle. :(
It blew up like a balloon! Could hardly walk for a week. I'm still recovering but, it's been like 2 weeks and I'm doing tons better!
Because of my ankle I wasn't able to take any pictures on the way down.
I've been swimming everyday since last week and it's been healing super quick!!
It looks a lot better and feels better :p
Overall, this was a great hiking experience. Minus my ankle blowing up.. haha
I would definitely hike Tumbledown mountain again! This time.. with hiking shoes.. haha
