Wilderness Betty

We ventured into the North Maine Woods (NMW) on 10/28/06 with a group of students from Northern Maine Community College's (NMCC) Discover Aroostook class to climb Deboullie Mountain. 15 of us made the trip. We left Presque Isle at 6:30 a.m. because the ride to the mountain is a 2 hour trip (one way) and the weather was calling for lashing rain and winds of up to 50 mph by the afternoon. The weather held off until we arrived just at the top of the mountain. SNOW! Our first real snow this year! The group picture was taken at the base of the mountain and you can see there is no snow yet. The picture on the far right, however, was when we were down off the mountain and there is plenty of snow. The snow turned to rain the further away from the mountain we went. By the time we reached Portage, it was rain only. Deboullie Mountain gets its name from the Frend word for "fallen," referring to the fallend rock in the Deboullie slide. It is the highest of a small cluster of mountains in the wilderness south of St. Francis on the the New Brunswick Border (gorp.away.com). It is a beautiful trip (even if you only hike to the base of the mountain). We saw several moose and deer on the early morning ride into the NMW. Can't wait to go back...