Hiking with Kids - Mount Agamenticus York, Maine

Today's topic is Mount Agamenticus which is located in York, Maine. It's pretty easy to get to. See the directions below.

We did Agamenticus last year and it was great. There are a lot of trails to choose from so you can pretty much plan your route according to the abilities of the kiddos that are traveling with you. For example, when we went we started at the bottom parking lot on the main road (Mountain Road). From there we took Ring Trail, right on Rocky Road, left on Porcupine, left of Chestnut Oak, right on Goosefoot, and left of Wilburs view straight to the top. It took a good part of our afternoon. There is a road that you could drive to the top and have a nice picnic and hike down a little ways. Here is a trail map.

There is also a Learning Lodge at the top that is open on the weekends. Because we were hiking later in the day, they had already closed but I have heard it is interesting and was appreciated by other children.

When we went it was a HOT muggy day. We walked around the top after we had our picnic lunch. In one of the trees there was a wild animal that I have never seen alive in nature. It was a porcupine. He was straddling a limb with his legs hanging down and he was just chilling. It was too hot to do much else (yes, we were crazy for hiking that day). The kids absolutely loved seeing the porcupine so close up!

Because it was so hot we all felt pretty yucky by the time we made it back to the car. We had had plenty of water to drink which we put punch and lemonade into. Many times when I hike I get a migraine. I did some reading of this subject. When you are out in the hot weather and you are losing water to sweat, there is a lot of salt in that sweat, and your body needs salt to function correctly. The salts in your blood stream also affect how your heart in handling the blood flow. If the liquid that you are drinking does not contain the salts that you are losing you can start to feel really yucky. And by that I mean, a headache, dizzy, and even sick to your stomach. This season we are going to try out the Gatorade singlets to see if that doesn't do the trick with the electrolytes. If it doesn't, our next step will be to try the Nuun tablets. When I went to the grocery store to check out singles that are added to water none of them seemed to have the needed ingredients to combat this problem except the Gatorade.

On the top of the mountain, there is also a viewing area that you can walk up on to see over the trees. In the 60's and 70's this was a ski area but with the salty air and energy crisis it closed in the early 70's. It is very pretty. You can see the White Mountains, and the Atlantic Ocean. The elevation is 635 feet.

After we completed our hike that day we drove the few minutes to the top on the road, and the kids were like, we could have just done that?!?! It was still worth the family time!

Until next time, get out there!