Champlain Mtn, via the Precipice Trail
Maine, United States, North America

Champlain Mtn, via the Precipice Trail

Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Location Lat/Lon: 44.08759°N / 68.55469°W
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 13, 2008
Activities Activities: Hiking, Scrambling
Seasons Season: Summer

Champlain Mtn. via Precipice Trail

After two days of climbing on Katahdin in bad weather we made our way south to Acadia where thankfully we found better conditions. I had been hoping to climb Champlain up the Precipice but the park website had said that the trail would be closed until later that week for falcon nesting. Fortunately, the trail was open and we had a beautiful day to climb. As expected, there were a ton of people in the park and a good few on this trail, although not enough to put a damper on the climb by any means.

Champlain Mtn.View from the trailhead, if you look close you can see hikers on the cliffs.


Almost immediately after starting the trail we were surprised to see how tough it was to climb up the first ledge. The girlfriend runs about 5ft nothing so we were a little concerned. This ledge, however, turned out to be by far the most difficult of the trail. I assume the park put the trail through that point as a kind of test to see if you could the rest of it.

From there it was some fun scrambling up the steep side eastern side of the mountain for probably an hour. Any point where the route became difficult at all there iron rungs to help out. The biggest concern during the hike was that there was running water throughout, making the climb a little tricky at points.

From summit of ChamplainView from the top of the cliff.


At the end of the trail there are wonderful views of the bay extending out into the Atlantic Ocean and from there it is just a short hike to the summit. I would say there was probably 50-60 people on the summit so you are from isolated but it wasnt too bad.

I would definitely recommend not going back down that trail as it is pretty steep and more importantly you will be fighting to get through all the people coming up. We ended up taking what I believe was the North Ridge Trail back. It was about 25 minutes down to the road and another 10 to the trailhead where we parked.

All in all it was a fun hike with just enough danger to keep the adrenaline up a little bit but should be fine for anyone who is not desperately afraid of heights, and I would doubt those people who be on this site right now.

Images

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maddie77777

maddie77777 - Aug 20, 2008 4:26 pm - Voted 10/10

Is this...

Is this the mountain that is fairly close to the Beehive in Acadia NP, or am I way off base? When I was there in June 2006, there was a difficult hike that I wanted to do that I THINK was closed b/c of falcons nesting. So I opted for the Beehive instead, which was pretty fun also.

irennie

irennie - Aug 20, 2008 4:53 pm - Hasn't voted

Yup

The Beehive is a little further down the road but pretty close and is considered the easier of the two. That being said the Precipice isnt too tough, there were small kids doing it as well as people who didnt look like they were in the best of shape at all and they seemed to all be doing pretty well.

maddie77777

maddie77777 - Aug 21, 2008 9:36 am - Voted 10/10

Ahhh

Stupid falcons. They caused me to miss out on a nice little climb for one of my first ever at the time!

Viewing: 1-3 of 3


Geography
Parents 

Parents

Parents refers to a larger category under which an object falls. For example, theAconcagua mountain page has the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits' asparents and is a parent itself to many routes, photos, and Trip Reports.

Acadia National ParkTrip Reports
 
Champlain MountainTrip Reports