docross
In Memoriam to a Deceased Member
It was a beautiful weekend for Terri Pinto to finish her NE HH, and I went along to bag my numbers 91 thru 94. We met at 10 am at Cathedral Pines campground north of Stratton, ME on Rte 27, after driving up from Portsmouth, RI (Terri) and Concord, NH (me).
We set off north on Rte 27 for the road into Chain of Ponds Snow. Because of all the construction, and the absence of a critical town line sign, we missed the road at first and had to double back. We found it eventually: it is signed North Road, and there is a Penobscot Indian Land sign also.
The gate was open, and we drove in 4.9 miles to a parking area, where the road ends in a track passable by 4 wheelers. The directions in the 8th Ed. of the AMC Maine Mountain guide are confusing and probably erroneous.
The climb to COP Snow summit was uneventful; we saw nobody else, although there was a big Dodge pickup with NH license something like 4KFTRS in the lot when we got back.
After eating dinner in Rangely, we had to decide where to spend the night. Since we planned to do Boundary and White Cap Saturday, we wanted to camp at a convenient spot. The Morton Cut-off, about a mile up from Rte 16, turned out to be just fine. A few vehicles passed us up to about 9 pm, but we had a nice sleep in our respective cars, got up at 5 am, breakfasted, and hit the road for Porter Brook Road.
No problem with Wiggle Brook road, and when we got to the junction with Cupsuptic River Road we turned sharp right, and followed the rough track all the way to Porter Brook Road. It's 3.9 miles on Wiggle Brook Road from the turn off from "New Wiggle Brook road" to the Cupsuptic R. Road junction.
From there, it is a further 3.5 miles to the Porter Brook Rd. junction. BTW, the latest 2005 Maine DeLorme is pretty accurate with the depicted roads.
We parked the Accord and the Forester at the Porter Brook junction; no way we could cross the brook. We set off at about 8 am up Porter Brook Rd looking for the herd path that cuts left toward monument 451 on the border. (This is the same route that Nate described in this forum).
The path is easy to find and easy to follow, although it goes through some "damp" spots before climbing up to the border swath.
The trek along the swath was just that--5.5 miles of up and down, great views, one taciturn hunter in a blind on the Canadian side, and some more "damp" spots as the swath crossed the end of Dennison Bog near monument 448.
We reached the register on Boundary at about 11:30 (we weren't trying for speed records) signed it, and re-attached the cannister to the post with parachute cord.
We then headed back south on the swath to monument 450 and took a beeline for White Cap. It was pretty thick in spots, interspersed with open glades. Terri navigated well, and we hit the register at about 2:45 pm, about 1:30 after leaving the boundary swath.
From the summit we headed 244 mag. to hit the Vee depicted on the Little Kennebago Lake 7.5 minute 1990 topo as 2847T, southwest of White Cap. Although initially pretty thick, the terrain opened up into glades for most of the way down. We hit the Vee right on the button at about 4:15 pm, and strutted out to the cars, reaching them by 5:15 pm for a good day's work of 13 miles.
Now, where to camp tonight?? We planned to do Cupsuptic Snow on Sunday from Wiggle Brook Rd. Without going into detail, we found a convenient and extremely quite and beautiful spot, cooked dinner, slept, and hit the logging road which heads south from Wiggle Brook Rd 0.2 mile east from its junction with the Cupsuptic R. Rd. On the above-mentioned topo it is marked 2510.
Starting off at 7:45 am, we reached the summit of Cup Snow at 10 am, for Terri's #100! She did a great job of navigating, and even better coming back, when we found herd paths that avoided most of the thick stuff we had gone through on the way up. Round trip was 4 miles, and we were back at the cars before noon. From there we headed out and down to the flatlands, with a real sense of accomplishment.
The roads we took were all passable by carefully driven passenger cars. There are some places where washouts are beginning, even on Lincoln Pond Road, requiring thoughtful maneuvering and low speeds.
From Wiggle Brook Rd to Porter Brook Rd, we could only go about 5 to 10 mph because of the road surface. Even on Lincoln Pond Rd, which is a pretty high-grade road, we kept the speed to 25 mph, since I had had a blow-out doing 30 on the Golden Road above Kokadjo over Labor Day. Persons intending to hike peaks in this area should leave plenty of time for car travel on these roads.
GPS tracks of our hikes can be found at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/docross2243
Click on the album of GPS tracks, click on one of the tracks, click "View Full Size" at the bottom right, then click on the image. You will get a "basketball" icon, which you can click for a detailed view of the GPS track on a USGS topo.
We set off north on Rte 27 for the road into Chain of Ponds Snow. Because of all the construction, and the absence of a critical town line sign, we missed the road at first and had to double back. We found it eventually: it is signed North Road, and there is a Penobscot Indian Land sign also.
The gate was open, and we drove in 4.9 miles to a parking area, where the road ends in a track passable by 4 wheelers. The directions in the 8th Ed. of the AMC Maine Mountain guide are confusing and probably erroneous.
The climb to COP Snow summit was uneventful; we saw nobody else, although there was a big Dodge pickup with NH license something like 4KFTRS in the lot when we got back.
After eating dinner in Rangely, we had to decide where to spend the night. Since we planned to do Boundary and White Cap Saturday, we wanted to camp at a convenient spot. The Morton Cut-off, about a mile up from Rte 16, turned out to be just fine. A few vehicles passed us up to about 9 pm, but we had a nice sleep in our respective cars, got up at 5 am, breakfasted, and hit the road for Porter Brook Road.
No problem with Wiggle Brook road, and when we got to the junction with Cupsuptic River Road we turned sharp right, and followed the rough track all the way to Porter Brook Road. It's 3.9 miles on Wiggle Brook Road from the turn off from "New Wiggle Brook road" to the Cupsuptic R. Road junction.
From there, it is a further 3.5 miles to the Porter Brook Rd. junction. BTW, the latest 2005 Maine DeLorme is pretty accurate with the depicted roads.
We parked the Accord and the Forester at the Porter Brook junction; no way we could cross the brook. We set off at about 8 am up Porter Brook Rd looking for the herd path that cuts left toward monument 451 on the border. (This is the same route that Nate described in this forum).
The path is easy to find and easy to follow, although it goes through some "damp" spots before climbing up to the border swath.
The trek along the swath was just that--5.5 miles of up and down, great views, one taciturn hunter in a blind on the Canadian side, and some more "damp" spots as the swath crossed the end of Dennison Bog near monument 448.
We reached the register on Boundary at about 11:30 (we weren't trying for speed records) signed it, and re-attached the cannister to the post with parachute cord.
We then headed back south on the swath to monument 450 and took a beeline for White Cap. It was pretty thick in spots, interspersed with open glades. Terri navigated well, and we hit the register at about 2:45 pm, about 1:30 after leaving the boundary swath.
From the summit we headed 244 mag. to hit the Vee depicted on the Little Kennebago Lake 7.5 minute 1990 topo as 2847T, southwest of White Cap. Although initially pretty thick, the terrain opened up into glades for most of the way down. We hit the Vee right on the button at about 4:15 pm, and strutted out to the cars, reaching them by 5:15 pm for a good day's work of 13 miles.
Now, where to camp tonight?? We planned to do Cupsuptic Snow on Sunday from Wiggle Brook Rd. Without going into detail, we found a convenient and extremely quite and beautiful spot, cooked dinner, slept, and hit the logging road which heads south from Wiggle Brook Rd 0.2 mile east from its junction with the Cupsuptic R. Rd. On the above-mentioned topo it is marked 2510.
Starting off at 7:45 am, we reached the summit of Cup Snow at 10 am, for Terri's #100! She did a great job of navigating, and even better coming back, when we found herd paths that avoided most of the thick stuff we had gone through on the way up. Round trip was 4 miles, and we were back at the cars before noon. From there we headed out and down to the flatlands, with a real sense of accomplishment.
The roads we took were all passable by carefully driven passenger cars. There are some places where washouts are beginning, even on Lincoln Pond Road, requiring thoughtful maneuvering and low speeds.
From Wiggle Brook Rd to Porter Brook Rd, we could only go about 5 to 10 mph because of the road surface. Even on Lincoln Pond Rd, which is a pretty high-grade road, we kept the speed to 25 mph, since I had had a blow-out doing 30 on the Golden Road above Kokadjo over Labor Day. Persons intending to hike peaks in this area should leave plenty of time for car travel on these roads.
GPS tracks of our hikes can be found at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/docross2243
Click on the album of GPS tracks, click on one of the tracks, click "View Full Size" at the bottom right, then click on the image. You will get a "basketball" icon, which you can click for a detailed view of the GPS track on a USGS topo.
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