NE in late Oct.

Hi,
I'm coming up on school break here in S. Maine (Lewiston). I was hoping on suggestions on where I might go for good basecamping (possibly with a 3-4 day backpacking loop). Unfortunately it needs to be within a couple hundred miles, as I'll be biking at least one way. I understand Baxter will be closed, so any suggestions would be most welcome.
Thanks,
Jamie

There's loads of good hiking about 60 miles away from you. There is the Eastern end of the White Mountain National Forest, for example. If you want to go a little further, you have the whole WMNF. Good starting places include Gorham, NH Grafton Notch and Andover, ME.

In your place, I would pick a stretch of the AT and get shuttled at one end of the trail. Gorham, Andover and Grafton Notch are all good places to strart. One sample plan would be:

Get yourself to The Cabin (a hiker hostel) in East Andover ME. Get the proprietor to shuttle you to Grafton Notch State Park to start your trip and arrange a pick up point and time somewhere north along the AT (or pre-position a car or bicycle). There are other hostels in the area you could use (such as Hiker's Paradise in Gorham, NH). Most of these hostels are great. Everyone seems to like the hostels they've been to. I suggest contacting the hostels in advance if you decide to make use of them. When the thru-hikers are hiking through, the hostels will shuttle to the AT for free if you spend the night at the hostel and nightly rates are pretty cheap (less than camp sites in some places). A link with info, and phone and email contacts for the Cabin is: http://www.thecabininmaine.com/