Although I climbed Bigelow Mountain dozens of times when I lived in the western mountains of Maine and explored most of the terrain on the northern side of the mountain when I was involved with the group that had notions of building a mega-ski area on the broad flank above Flagstaff Lake, Columbus Day in 1984 marked a very special occasion

A day hike I always save for the fall, after the traffic has thinned out on coastal Route 1, involves not one, but two special mountains, easy enough to climb and close enough together that they’re great fun to knock off in the same day.