| May 1, 2005 Rattlesnake Mountain, Raymond
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Unfortunately, we chose incorrectly (not uncommon for us). It proved a bit more challenging than the trail we meant to take, but it wasn't too difficult. We just kept heading up and found the trail again. According to the kids, one bonus of our off-the-trail trek was the discovery of piles of "poop." In fact, the girls entertained themselves with speculation about the piles of the stuff and who stepped in the most (I think my 9-year-old won that distinction). My imaginative 7-year-old thought maybe it was from monkeys, but my husband told her that it was more likely left by deer, since they actually live in Maine. The trip to the top of the mountain, which was a steady incline but not unmanageable for my 7-year-old, was a little over a mile (1.07 miles to be exact). The total elevation gain was 631 feet. I'm feeling pretty smug in my ability to report these numbers; I got a GPS for Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed using it on this hike. When researching Rattlesnake Mountain, I read there was a geocache on the mountain. Geocaching is like high-tech treasure hunting using a GPS. A website, www.geocaching.com, lists thousands of coordinates to geocaches hidden all around the world and I was surprised to find a large number of caches in Maine. So before our hike, I noted the location coordinates of the mountain's cache. I assumed I wouldn't actually find it since I haven't made the time to learn all the details of operating my GPS yet. But by chance, I glanced at the GPS during our water break. The coordinates indicated that we were within 30 feet of the geocache. I told my husband and he immediately spotted a path to a large boulder. And there was the cache! The kids were thrilled with the hidden treasures (and I'll admit it — so was I). The cache discovery reinforced our plan to learn more about geocaching and find other caches on future hikes. Once we settled down for a snack, we enjoyed the view, which overlooks Panther Pond, Jordan's Bay and Sebago Lake. There is a trail that looks like it winds around the mountain and I guessed hikers venturing that way would find a nice view of the White Mountains. We didn't get that far. Between the cache discovery and the desire to simply enjoy the beautiful spring day, we decided we'd found the perfect spot and didn't budge until it was time to go home. On our way down the mountain, my husband and 9-year-old felt the need to make an arrow from some logs to help other hikers find the established trail at the trail fork we had wrongly navigated. I was amused by their ardor to make sure others didn't make our mistake. In the end, I don't think they really cared for stepping over fallen trees and into deer droppings on the path we had taken. For families who have hiked Douglas Mountain, Rattlesnake Mountain offers a similar level of difficulty and an equally beautiful view of Sebago Lake. And it may prompt your kids, as it did mine, to try to spot the various places they've visited in this area. It was a great, practical lesson in geography.
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