Advice for Maine 4000 footers

[Stan]

I think it has already been mentioned that the Maine AT Guide and its maps is useful and for Baxter Park you'll want Clark's guide to Baxter Park. The Delorme Maine book of maps is also helpful in finding trailheads and logging roads.

Under the leave no stragglers philosophy you may also wish to get Gene Daniel's instructions to the New England 100 Highest. I don't think they're available on-line. For those hikes you'll also need, in some cases, the topo map. Some 100 Highest hikes are on trail. For example, if you go to North Brother you should consider either a loop including South Brother and Coe, a bushwhack to Fort, or, for a long day, both.

You mentioned a couple hikes requiring car spots. Your Sugarloaf-Spaulding-Abraham route might be spotted with the assistance of a driver identified through the local Chamber of Commerce.

The car spot for the Crockers and Redington can be avoided by parking at the Caribou Valley Road crossing of the AT. Crocker is not that far from South Crocker and back at South Crocker you then have the option of 1) bushwhacking to Redington and hiking back to your car or, 2) returning to your car and driving further up Caribou Valley Road to a point closer to the unmarked trail that takes you to the summit.

Regarding the discussion on clear cuts, if they're done according to good forest management practices then I welcome them. They open up vistas and create habitats for different animal and plant life.

 

[poison ivy]

Under the leave no stragglers philosophy you may also wish to get Gene Daniel's instructions to the New England 100 Highest. I don't think they're available on-line.

Stan, or anyone else: Does anyone know of a place where I can find Gene's directions online? I tried mailing for them as outlined on the Four Thousand Footer website... the check was cashed in December but I never received anything. I've been trying to compile my own directions piecemeal (mainly from trip reports from Papa Bear, Bob & Geri, etc...) but would love to have Gene's directions as well.

- Ivy

 

[Stan]

Stan, or anyone else: Does anyone know of a place where I can find Gene's directions online? - Ivy

I obtained mine at one of the awards dinners. Try emailing Eric if you didn't get it by mail. I think they're intentionally not posted on-line so there will be less general availability.

 

[poison ivy]

I obtained mine at one of the awards dinners. Try emailing Eric if you didn't get it by mail. I think they're intentionally not posted on-line so there will be less general availability.

Thanks, Stan. I was planning to ask about the directions at the awards dinner on Saturday... I didn't want to bother Eric in case he was busy processing those last-minute applications. Just wondered if there was an easier way to get ahold of them elsewhere!

- Ivy

 

[askus3]

Access to Abraham & Saddleback

I checked this out last Sept. 28 and found I could get my Dodge Caravan with average clearance to the AT crossing of Perham Stream woods road. This is the directions from Kingfield. This woods road gives you access to Saddleback and Abraham as it crosses the AT between them, although closer to Abraham. It certainly makes a 15 mile traverse of Saddleback possible as a day hike without retracing your steps.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO AT ACCESS FROM KINGFIELD

1) From intersection of ME 16/27/142 in Kingfield take ME 142 southwest 12.7 miles.
2) Look for East Madrid Road (signed & paved) on right. Sign there is for (Hot Mix Plant).
3) 1.0 miles from there pavement ends & 1.9 miles pavement resumes.
4) 2.1 4-way intersection (crossroad) continue straight. Junction with Bray Hill Road.
5) 3.0 pavement ends again.
6) 4.5 cross bridge near houses. Just beyond, road becomes a little rough going up hill to left.
7) 5.3 cross roads with fences on far side of intersection. (plenty of posted signs at intersection) – make right. Rough narrow road from here.
8) 5.7 rotted bridge and I wasn’t sure I could trust it but asked around and they assured me the bridge was OK and safe to cross.
9) 6.9 green gate on right
10) 7.5 bridge over stream. Make immediate left at fork after bridge. Many snowmobile trail signs at intersection
11) 7.7 & 7.8 cross rough gullys
12) 8.0 another fork after another bridge – bear left.
13) 8.3 junction on left – stay straight
14) 9.2 fork again – stay left.
15) 10.7 cross AT, Perham Stream bridge & parking on left.

Total distance 27 miles.

 

[Papa Bear]

I checked this out last Sept. 8 and found I could get my Dodge Caravan with average clearance to the AT crossing of Perham Stream woods road.

Here's Aaron's woods road looking (trail) east from the AT:

As a side issue, when I climbed Abraham in 2002 from the AT, I met a trail maintainer. We walked back to the AT together and he kept going on an unmarked trail which went down accross the AT opposite the Abraham trail. He said his car was down there. I believed he went further along the self-same woods road and picked up the path up to Abraham (crossing the AT) much closer along. Judging from the AT map, this road is shown and would save about 600' of elevation.

In fact the end of this woods road would be rather close to Caribou Pond (see Map 29 of DeLorme) and I wouldn't be surprised if you could come at it from Caribou Valley Road, but of course there's a flakey bridge going that way.

 

[askus3]

PapaBear: You know if this is the case, instead of having a bushwack, using a trail that you suggest exists from the Abraham Spur Trail west to Caribou Valley Road, we might have a good peakbaggers monster hike here. Here is a circular using MarkJ's suggestion but instead of bushwacking from Spaulding down to Caribou Valley Road we now have an unmarked trail to follow and would facilitate the inclusion of Abraham into the circular. I wonder how far this would be and the elevation gain for such a hike. This sounds interesting! So do you think it is possible to park where the AT crosses Caribou Valley Road and climb both Crockers, Reddington, Sugarloaf, Spaulding & Abraham in one day? WOW!!

 

[Stan]

So do you think it is possible to park where the AT crosses Caribou Valley Road and climb both Crockers, Reddington, Sugarloaf, Spaulding & Abraham in one day? WOW!!

Why not be good sports about it and bag Middle Abraham while you're at it! It's no longer on the 100 highest lsit but, hey, about a little extra effort for sentimentality.

 

[Papa Bear]

PapaBear: You know if this is the case, instead of having a bushwack, using a trail that you suggest exists from the Abraham Spur Trail west to Caribou Valley Road, we might have a good peakbaggers monster hike here. Here is a circular using MarkJ's suggestion but instead of bushwacking from Spaulding down to Caribou Valley Road we now have an unmarked trail to follow and would facilitate the inclusion of Abraham into the circular. I wonder how far this would be and the elevation gain for such a hike. This sounds interesting! So do you think it is possible to park where the AT crosses Caribou Valley Road and climb both Crockers, Reddington, Sugarloaf, Spaulding & Abraham in one day? WOW!!

It's an interesting idea. But it will take a bit of scouting to find the right route from the Caribou Pond area up the side of Lone Mountain to that unmarked trail, but it's probably better than that long obliterated trail that once might have gone down from the Spaulding Lean-to.

The trail maintainer's name was Max (or Mack) Smith. Maybe we could track him down through the MATC. Here's a link to my little rondezvous with him on Abraham: Max Smith on Abraham

 

[MarkJ]

cvr 4 krs

askus3,I'm not sure how you figured my hike ,but you can do it..hike up to s crock from cvr road,over to n crock,back to South,wack to boundary line hike up it til you hit herd path over to redington,wack up Red,down traditional herd path,road to CV pond head, towards low point on ridge of AT towards Spaulding.Find unmarked trail that leads to At,go up to Spaulding,over to Sugarloaf,down to CV AT starting point.Can't take credit for this hike route ,Post'rs idea and it worked!! Next day we hiked the Bigalows,probably my most productive weekend of hiking to date!!!!MJ

 

[askus3]

Reading Papa Bear's post, I was thinking doing it in reverse, then you don't have to waste time searching for this unmarked trail down on Caribou Valley Road but can descend this unmarked trail opposite the Mt. Abraham spur. So the first peak to climb would be Sugarloaf. (note: I think this is an interesting proposition but I am not sure I am up for this at this time.)

Papa Bear mentioned Big Red. He is I believe Glenn Beckert ( a big fellow of about 250 pounds and red haired). PapaBear you can confirm that he is the fellow that slackpacked a good portion of the AT. (probably in 2002). I never met him but have e-mailed him and communicated with him on and off for several years. He gave me a document of trailheads of the AT and it included considerable directions on how to get to these obscure AT wood road crossings. I have since on an annual basis have updated his information with clarifications that have worked. (ie. the East Madrid Road.)

Here is a portion of his document that deals with this area:

Trail Section: State Route 4 to Perham Stream -- 15.4 miles. This is a long, but beautiful day over Saddleback Mtn. Get an early start.

Perham Stream –
1. From the trailhead on State Route 4, go south to State Route 142. (I apologize, but I lost my notes with exact mileages.)

2. Go east on State Route 142 several miles to Bray Hill Rd. I could not find a sign that said “Bray Hill Rd.,” but it is an unpaved road on the left several miles out of town. There is a sign for some sort of construction type company at the intersection.

3. Turn left onto Bray Hill Rd. and go several miles (the road goes from unpaved, to paved and back to unpaved) to a four-way intersection that has wooden fences on each of the far corners.

4. Turn right at the intersection. After about 3 miles, bear left after crossing a bridge. Continue on about 2 more miles.

5. The trail is hard to find. There is a pullover spot about the size of one car on the left side of the road. The trail is just before a small bridge over a small stream. Go slow just before the bridges and look for the trail and white blazes.

A high clearance vehicle is probably not needed, but recommended.

Trail Section: Perham Stream to Caribou Valley Road -- 8.5 miles.

Caribou Valley Road – Turn off State Route 27 about 2 miles south of where the A.T. crosses State Route 27. The trailhead is about 5 miles back Caribou Valley Road from State Route 27. There are pullover parking spots near the trailhead.
_________________________________________________________________

In following these directions, and scouting out this route, I got disoriented several times. But I asked around and finally got it right. That is why my directions are 15 steps instead of 5. I already sent him my update, I don't know if he used it to update his document. But it definitelywas helpful as nothing else out there even gave a clue to this woods route.

I don;t remember who or how I got in contact with Glenn in the first place but I do currently have his e-mail and his information here aind in the Hundred Mile Wilderness was extremely valuable. As I have proved you can hike ME on the AT with car shuttling with only one night backpacking. If that is something anyone would want to do.

Enough rambling.

 

[Raymond]

I don't see anything here about how you plan to get back to your car on Caribou Valley Road from the Firewarden's Trail on Abraham. As everyone seems to be saying, it's probably easier to do these three mountains as two day hikes.

Saddleback and The Horn out-and-back isn't too bad. Three of us did that last August, including my then 12-year old son. Took us maybe 10 hours, not hurrying. Bring protection from the sun. Once you get above treeline, there're many miles of abuse by Old Sol.

The situation is similar (no shade) if you follow the logging roads to or from Redington. Susan and I followed the herd path from South Crocker to Redington, then took the roads back to my car. It was hot, even in September.

All excellent hikes.

 

[spencer]

Here is a quick and dirty map I made of a very easy route GO and I took in March 2005. It actually wasn't easy b/c of tons of snow and spruce traps, but it would be very direct and easy in the summer.

if you want a higher quality version of the map, give me a shout.

spencer

 

[Papa Bear]

I don't see anything here about how you plan to get back to your car on Caribou Valley Road from the Firewarden's Trail on Abraham. As everyone seems to be saying, it's probably easier to do these three mountains as two day hikes.

Raymond

You are certainly right that this group of peaks would make a nice two day trip. The point of Aaron's and my suggestions is that if you went to Abraham via the AT rather than the Firewardens Trail, you could place one car at Caribou Pond and then (after doing Redington and the Crockers) do Sugarloaf, Spaulding and Abraham from the AT, and then go down the trail I described directly back to your car.

Think of Caribou Pond (reached via CVR) as the hub of a wheel, Redington, the Crockers, Sugarloaf, Spaulding and Abraham are all (more or less) on the rim of the wheel, and the trail I described down from the AT (Opposite the Abraham Trail which starts at the AT) would be a "spoke" so to speak back to the car.

Would anyone want to do this? On this list, yeah, some folks will take any challenge.

 

[askus3]

Well put Papa and thanks for saying what I am trying to say.

As for Saddleback, I agree up and back from ME 4 to the Horn is a nice hike. But having that option from the east makes it possible to do a traverse as opposed to an up and back hike (like the popular one from ME 4 or climbing the ski slopes). Especially since I am trying to hike the AT as a series of dayhikes, the Perham Stream woods road crossing gives me that opportunity.

 

[Papa Bear]

Papa Bear mentioned Big Red. He is I believe Glenn Beckert ( a big fellow of about 250 pounds and red haired). PapaBear you can confirm that he is the fellow that slackpacked a good portion of the AT. (probably in 2002).
...
I don't remember who or how I got in contact with Glenn in the first place but I do currently have his e-mail and his information here aind in the Hundred Mile Wilderness was extremely valuable. As I have proved you can hike ME on the AT with car shuttling with only one night backpacking. If that is something anyone would want to do.

Aaron

Yes, Big Red is Glen. When he started his thru hike he was 345 lbs! I met him several times in Maine in 2002 on a section (Gorham to Stratton) that I hiked with my daughter. I might have been the one who gave his name to you, I have a vague recollection of that. Here's his trail journal: Big Red's 2002 AT journal

But remember he didn't do it (I think he started shuttling himself in Pennsylvania) with one car. He partnered with a couple who called themselves Sunrise and Sunset (whom I met on South Crocker as I was about to start off on the bushwhack to Redington). They would park at either end of a section and hike to the other end and exchange keys when they passed each other in the middle. They would alternate doing the sections north or southbound. So every other section they did was done in the opposite direction from the one before. Some kind of injuries kept them from being able to carry full packs, but they all made it.