A Sunny Day at Bradbury Mountain

View from the central summit.

This time around at Bradbury Mountain I wanted to check out a different summit view and see what the Batcave trail was all about.  Because, well, come on, who wouldn't be curious about a trail called Batcave.

We started off going up the Summit trail to the central summit view, down the Bluff trial to that summit view (which was far less impressive) and then backtracking the Bluff trail to Switchback, and down Switchback to the parking lot.

View from the Bluff trail summit.

Not a very difficult hike, seeing as there are lots handy staircases built into the steep parts for you to hike up.

Stairs leading up the Summit trail.

Stairs on the Summit trail right before the summit.

Stairs on the Switchback trail.

After checking out the summits we headed across the street to see what the East side trails were all about.

These trails might not have the steep inclines that you see going up to the summits, but they're far longer.

Lots of trails that look like this on the East side.

And this.

And stone walls.  Just about every intersection has a map, so you'd probably have to be trying to get lost.

Plenty of streams on this side of the park too.

On the way to the Batcave we saw some swampy areas and evidence of beavers.  The trails in the most swampy areas have boardwalk.

Flooding from beavers.

Beaver dam.

Boardwalk over the really swampy areas.

Beaver lodge.

It was probably about a little over a mile of a hike into the Batcave trail, but eventually we made it.  Alas, there were no bats, and the 'cave' wasn't too impressive.

View from one side of the Batcave.

View from the other side of the Batcave.

Maybe overhanging rocks like this are rare here in Maine, but having grown up in Connecticut I'm pretty used to them.  So, it was sort of a little anticlimactic to finally see the Batcave.  But hey, now I check that off my list of things to explore, and seeing all that work the beavers did was pretty cool.

We then headed back to the parking lot, where Denali enjoyed what will most likely be his last roll of the season in snow.  In all, we spent a little less that 2 hours hiking.

A Cloudy Day at Bradbury Mountain

View from the central summit.

Well, the plan wasn't to do Bradbury Mountain today, but when we got to the mountain we were going to hike we found a lovely sign saying 'Closed for Mud Season'.  How could we forget about Mud Season?!  Duh.  So we opted for Bradbury Mountain since we knew the trails were open all year long, no matter how much snow or mud there was.

We wanted to get a really good workout of a hike in, but most of the terrain is fairly flat and the forecast called for rain, so we opted for doing the Northern Loop trail to the Tote Road trail to the summit, then back down the Summit trail to the parking lot.

In all, our hike probably ended up being 2 miles of really easy trails with a decent view at the central summit.  Probably 45 minutes in all, even with our stop at the summit to take photos.  There are also lots of families with little kids and other dogs, not to mention that horseback riding is allowed in the park.  Basically a lot of things that its best to keep your dog on leash for.  Not to mention the fact that since its a state park all dogs need to be on leash anyways.

I know plenty of people who don't leash their dogs at Bradbury, but I also have seen facebook posts and fliers around for so many dogs that go missing there on off-leash hikes.  That, coupled with all the lovely muddy mountain streams (it is Mud Season after all) was enough to convince me to keep Denali on leash.  Although, I did cave and let him take a dip in a fairly clean stream on the back side of the Tote trail when I knew no one else was around.

Denali taking a quick dip in a stream.