A Presidential View
I took a very pleasant ridge walk in the early fall of my first hiking season on Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton, Maine. In August of the second season, I returned to climb the Ledges Trail, the shortest route to the summit of Pleasant Mountain (elevation = 2,006 feet), an elevation gain of some 1,500 feet up a very pleasant, and occasionally steep trail to a set of ledges at the 1.1 mile mark and the main summit after a 1.8 mile hike.
It was a nice day for a hike, and I set out with a goal of reaching the ledges if I could or returning if I felt I could not reach the summit. Fortunately for me, I felt great and made my way slowly, but uneventfully, to the ledges, where I stopped to enjoy the fine views to the south (including mighty Mount Agamenticus in York).
I made the decision to go for the summit very quickly and for my reward experienced a continuation of the vistas experienced on the ledges as the trail continuously as I gradually climbed an open ridge most of the way to the summit.
The view from the summit was spectacular. And the jewel in the crown of mountains visible in this panorama of peaks in the Presidential range was Mount Washington, at 6,288 feet the highest mountain in New England.
It was hard to leave this summit and its amazing views, but I promised myself that I would return in a future season to this wonderful little mountain in southern Maine.
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