Saddleback Mountain
Saddleback Mountain is a mountain located in Franklin County, Maine. It is part of the Rangeley-Stratton mountain range which also includes Mount Bigelow and Sugarloaf Mountain. There are two main peaks to Saddleback, Saddleback itself and a sub peak, The Horn. There is a ridge that descends slightly between the two, giving it the profile of a saddle when viewed from afar. Saddleback's peak elevation is 2446 feet and The Horn is 4041 feet at its highest. The Appalachian Trail runs over the summit and along the ridge between the two peaks. The first campsite 1.4 miles from the trail head features the land mark Piazza Rock, a huge cantilevered boulder sticking out from the mountainside. This campsite also has a double outhouse with a board game in between the two toilets. Buzzard's Roost or Eagle's Nest usually does the trip to Saddleback. Rangeley Lakes, a trip senior campers do, is very close to Saddleback.
Near the start of the trail up Saddleback there is the trail head of an old obsolete trail. In 2006 the Buzzards Roost trip to Saddleback took this trail instead of the real trail. Not far along the trail there was a stream with no bridge across it but the trip continued without thinking it was strange that the trail would be so unmaintained. Buzzard's Roost ended up going deep into the woods on the old trail until it seemed to go straight up a rock face. At that point they decided they must be on the wrong trail so they turned back but had to camp out on a makeshift campsite in the woods for the night. The next day the trip went all the way back to the road and found that the correct trail was a few hundred feet to the left of the trail they just took. For the rest of the second day the trip went up to the first campsite and came back down on the last day.
