Hiking Pleasant (a.k.a., Shawnee Peak #13)

View from the Summit of Pleasant Mountain
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Over the weekend one of my former athletes posted pictures on Facebook of his hike on Shawnee Peak, a southern-Maine ski area we'd raced at a lot over the years. On Sunday morning, I packed up The Rig and took off. After a squirrely ride on back roads––through Bethel, Stoneham, Lovell, North Lovell, Bridgton, Fryeburg––we pulled into the parking lot. The Fire Warden's Trail is a steady climb that took us 56 minutes of nonstop hiking––it reminds me of the Bald Mountain climb in the Rangeley area. Bailey hiked well and greeted people appropriately at the top and on the way down.

On the way back, we stopped at the famous Maine foreign countries' sign and traded pictures with a family. I also noticed the sign for Evergreen Valley, an abandoned ski area in Stoneham. I'm going back there to check out the old lodge. I remember racing at Evergreen Valley during my first year as a high school coach in 1979. I'm pretty sure we skied against Oxford Hills HS. I'm interested in returning because I saw a news clip of the abandoned ski area and a long-time friend says there's an access road to the mountaintop.  It's kind of eerie but kind of fun, too. I'm also interested in an abandoned ski area in Michigan called Sugar Loaf, a place I'd visited in 1978 at Christmas with a family from Indiana.