A Monday Morning Hike in the Snow at Maine Huts & Trails in Carrabassett Valley, Maine

On Monday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunshine-filled day and we decided to go for a hike in the snow. We decided to head up to our go-to place, Maine Huts & Trails in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. We haven’t been up there since November to take photographs of Poplar Stream Falls and hike the trails.

Well, the weather has changed a bit since we had been there last. Although the sun was out, it was bitter cold and windy. The temperature was about 17 degrees Fahrenheit, but with the wind chill factor, it felt much colder than that. As we walked up Carriage Road, we still had the warmth of the car with us on our bodies. When we got into the Poplar Hut trail, that warmth was long gone. We were dressed in warm enough clothes, but our faces and hands just couldn’t stay warm. Our cold hands were probably due to the fact of having to take our gloves off to take photographs. I have fingerless gloves for taking photographs in fair weather, but they weren’t going to cut it in the frigid weather. I had to bring my ski gloves. They are thick and don’t leave me with much dexterity. Have you ever had this problem? I am open to suggestions, if you have any. Anyway, this was also the moment we were debating on calling the day a loss and maybe we should just go grab coffee instead. I decided the coffee could wait. I mentioned to my partner, we live in Maine and this weather is to be expected. This is why we are here in this state after all. To take advantage of its ever-changing weather. He agreed and we kept going. We even had the chance to take a new trail during this hike.

A snow-covered Carriage Road.

Poplar Hut Trail sign.

The wooden bridge on the trail over Poplar Stream.

Crossing Poplar Stream.

A Maine Huts & Trails sign posted on a tree.

A view of a ice and snow-filled Poplar Stream.

A pine branch over the water.

Walking the trail.

Hiking Cut Off Trail.

Fresh woodpecker holes in a cedar tree (Cedrus).

Fallen bark on the snow.

A snow-lined stream.

Hiking through snow-covered rocks.

This section wasn’t as tough as it looked to get through.

A break in the ice.

Making our way to the end of the trail.

The end of the trail.

We pass this field of apple trees quite often and this time we decided to stop. The sun was in the perfect position for capturing the sunburst through the branches. As you can see from the first apple tree photograph, I didn’t capture the sunburst. In the second photograph, there is a bit of a sunburst. I have since taken several sunburst photographs since taking these. I hope to share a post on how to capture the perfect sunburst in your images using the aperture priority setting on your camera.

A field of apple trees with the sun setting.

An apple tree with a sunburst coming through the branches.

I hope you enjoyed the scenery and we eventually got that coffee to go, which we enjoyed on the way home.