Hiking Straight Up!

My husband and I visited Baxter State Park, a beautiful state Park in Maine. Places like this are too rare today. They have to be set aside and dedicated as public land so that animals can thrive there and so that people can be part of a natural setting. Baxter is breathtaking and more beautiful than I thought it would be. Mt. Katahdin is majestic, and just looking at one of the many lakes, hearing the loons, hearing the animals in the forests made me want to move to the area instantly. It's too cold in the winter but it's definitely a spring through fall destination for my family. No pets are allowed, so we can't bring the dogs, but they would only bark at the wildlife anyway, making photo ops impossible.
We saw two female moose while there. They passed about 50 feet in front of us. The M.O.for nature photographers is to be as still as possible and not disturb the animals in any way. Someone viewing wildlife should not talk and be quiet. I had the tripod set up with the telephoto lens and the moose let me snap away for two hours. Of course, someone in a kayak (don't get me wrong, I have a kayak and I love kayaking, but that's not the point here) came as close as he could to one of the moose and she bounded out of the water. I turned the camera on the kayaker to let him know he was being disrespectful of the animals in their natural habitat and hoped he got the message to either be quiet or to leave. He left and came back two hours later. We were still there (I'm sure he was disappointed) and so were the moose. No point in trying to make this person understand that if the animal changes behavior while you're around, you're too close and making her uncomfortable.
The moose were in marshy water with lots of grasses and reeds. They stayed there and ignored me because I was still and quiet. Got some great moose shots which I will share when I load them.
I also climbed the mountain 1/4 of the way up with my husband, and we did NOT intend to do that. We were planning to see waterfalls. A new and obviously inexperienced ranger told us that the hike to the waterfalls was 1.2 miles but it was mostly level. We were not happy to find that the trail suddenly rose in a steep incline and stayed that way all the way to the waterfalls. Some of the terrain was treacherous. Going up and down granite rocks was slippery, and there were fields of boulders everywhere, making walking difficult. The backpacks with all the photo equipment were weighing us down. We brought fruit for the trip up but in hindsight should have lightened the load. We got the waterfall shots as well, which will be shared when loaded onto the computer.
We will probably be aching for the next few days. Not 25 anymore, and it was tough for us -- 2 hours up, 1 hour down, but we did it, so I guess that counts for something. The waterfall was indeed beautiful. I don't understand why rangers don't mark the level of difficulty of the trails. If we had known how difficult it was, we probably would not have gone --but yes, it was worth it.