I was lying in bed the other morning, wondering what hike I could write about this week. As you can imagine, this is a familiar scenario. Some hikes are old friends. I can picture scenes along their trails and often one hike stands out and invites me back.
Such was the case with Burnt Meadow Mountain (1,570 feet) in Brownfield, Maine, last Wednesday. I thought of the sunlit ledges on the way up the Burnt Meadow Trail, looking out over the golden hills of southwest Maine, and the steep scramble just below the summit.
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