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Peakbagger, are you saying you think the current plan is just a foot in the door in order to achieve the older park proposal? That is what much of the current anti-park side focuses on, despite consistent denial of that by EP.

"Closed off all access" is inaccurate. I think you mean access by vehicle. Either way, I've never heard any report of negative economic impacts so far from Quimby closing that piece of land to logging, atv, and vehicle access.

Lost Dad, I'm a part-time NOLS instructor myself, so I'm probably a bit biased in saying NOLS is pretty awesome. As for other programs, Chewonki definitely seems to have their act together (they're one of only three summer camps I've ever seen on a trail that didn't make me cringe), and Outward...

Got a fair bit of work done, although it's a never-ending battle in some spots there. There are a lot of leaners and widowmakers that will probably come down over the winter, and a lot of brushing that needs to be done when I have more time. And the lower portion of the trail, where it runs...

Look at those snazzy new bridges! No guard rails, so try not to swerve! If you drive straight after the second bridge, you'll be on wide, improved road. But you won't get to the trailhead. I could hear the logging from the bridge, and I saw a logging truck on Rapid Stream Road, so I'm guessing...

Woohoo! I'm especially happy to hear that, since I just adopted that trail this spring. I've been planning on heading in there to do end-of-season maintenance next week, and I wasn't particularly looking forward to fording two icy cold rivers with all of my work equipment. I guess this means I...

I'm going to copy a quote here from the other thread about this: I heard about the special permit from someone who works at ATC, but I haven't seen a single reference to it on any news article. Seems to me that most of the arguments against BSP wouldn't have a leg to stand on if that info was...

Hah! I was on the GLT this weekend also! Chinooktrail and Adventurous, you at the East Baldpate campsite on Friday night, right? If so, I think I popped in there early in the morning to check out the site while you were still in camp, but didn't stop long enough to say hi. Whoops :-) What a...

I'm sure others know more of these, but I was on the Six Husbands Trail and Great Gulf Trail a few weeks ago, and found several of those official USFS tent sites that are marked with a small tenting sign and have a bear box. The highest one I saw was on the Buttress Trail just across the stream...

I know we’re treading dangerously close to politics here, so I’m going to limit myself a bit :-) Millinocket, or Maine for that matter, isn’t unique in that its people don’t like being told by outsiders what they’ve done wrong. That’s human nature and pretty understandable. But I have little...

Peakbagger, it is true that the forest products industry is not dead, and is actually more productive than before. When I said it’s in decline, I misspoke— what I should have said was that it can’t sustain the level of employment that it has in the past, and will likely never return to its...

Thanks for the article, jniehof. I've never heard of thunderbear, and I don't have time to research him any further right now, but he brings up points that neither side seems willing to expound on very often. He does get some big details wrong, and his "unintended" puns are most definitely...

I agree that the Baxter plan wouldn't work in the Whites. There's also just the fact that adding restrictions like that to something that's been so free and unrestricted for so long would probably cause huge backlash. I for one really love how restrictive Baxter is-- I see heavy regulations as...

peakbagger, thanks for the historical perspective! I have heard of the backpacking boom of the 60's and 70's, but no one ever mentioned concrete numbers (100-200 people at Desolation sounds like a nightmare!!!), so that definitely puts the crowds of 70-80 at Liberty Springs or Guyot these days...

Guyot has some overflow camping up on the ridge just south of the junction to the campsite. 13 Falls has an overflow site near the kitchen (hidden until the caretaker decides to send people there). At sites with large tent platforms, the caretaker usually tries to get several tents on a single...

As expected, 13 Falls was full and had to resort to its overflow site on Saturday. Relatively quiet, despite the crowds, but it got me wondering about the Forest Service's plans for backcountry camping in high use areas. The availability of official tenting sites seems to depend on which...

Very good question! I'll be staying at 13 Falls tonight, so I can report on that tomorrow. I'm afraid it's going to be packed, but that's based on my last experience camping there, which was six years ago.

See above link... But in response to "how do they do that", they just tell people not to go on the trails during mud season, and hope that people are nice enough to follow the rules. So please do follow them. :-)

I would guess that was left out on purpose-- after so much focus on the PLB and GPS info in previous articles, and so much speculation that she was just some idiot who was relying on a locator beacon, I'd been waiting for a journalist to actually talk to the husband and see what was really going...

That is GMC, and that's Hugh and Jeanne-- they've been the caretakers there for decades, and they're amazing. Those two are my second favorite part of Stratton Mountain-- right after the mountain itself :-)