Aziscohos (Maine) trail status

[Vermonster]

Has anyone been up Aziscohos recently? There are no entries in NETC.
I had heard the trail was closed due to logging earlier in the summer, and I am hoping that is done and the trail open as I need to pass by that way in a few weeks and it's a personal favorite.

Thanks

 

[HockeyPuck]

Send a DM to Tom Rankin. I believe he's been nearby as recently as 9/12.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Send a DM to Tom Rankin. I believe he's been nearby as recently as 9/12.

LOL, sort of!

We tried to go in on a logging road, but that was not it.

A little up the Road (East), we saw flagging, but this turned out to not be the trail either.

Apparently, we missed the real trail a little further East of that point as well.

So, we did not see whatever signs might have been there forbidding or allowing hiking.

FWIW, this is apparently the trailhead https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=44.9326,-70.98644&z=15

Sorry...

 

[peakbagger]

When I last hiked it 10 years ago the only trail that was actively maintained was the North Trail. Google Earth Pro shows it as the Azicohos North Trail if you zoom in. Its very close to older logging road. Its roughly half way between the Dam and the Black Brook Road

Here is screen capture from Google Earth street view of the sign (kind of dark). Google indicates that they ran the street view car through in 2019 so its fairly recent image



The area the lower trail goes through is hardwood and was logged about 15 to 20 years ago so I expect it probably hasnt been logged since. Its basically leave the road avoiding some wet areas and then beelines to the drainage of the col between the two high points. Years ago there were still ceramic insulators in the trees for the fire tower phone line in the softwoods. When I first hiked it, the old tower was still there flipped over on its side along with hazardous waste dump of old batteries. The Rangeley Lake Land Trust removed the tower. I have copy of the fire tower sighting map.

 

[Vermonster]

Thanks for the responses. The old tower man's trail is no longer maintained, or even traversable due to logging.
The active trailhead is exactly 1 mile northeast of Aziscohos dam. At present the "AAA" on the telephone pole is in place, but can be hard to see.

I will try to check the current trail status this weekend. I heard from another source that logging is completed, but I don't know the state of the trail.

 

[peakbagger]

Bringing back this thread to report status. as of 7/13/23 I was in Rangeley this week and talked to couple of locals who hike. I also drove by the trailhead twice as I have hiked it in the past. I did not see any sign of a trailhead. One local stated that any trailhead signs had been removed a few years back because of logging in the area. She claimed that the trail could be located and hiked but the logging had made it more difficult. The other stated that the logging was over and that he had heard that the trail was reopened. The trail effectively followed the drainage from saddle between the two summits and the only merchantable timber was hardwoods down below so I expect the challenge is early on in the hardwoods. Too bad as that summit is located well to get a view of the region from a open summit.

 

[Ken MacGray]

This is from 7/3/2023 if anyone needs it:

https://www.newenglandtrailconditions.com/me/viewreport.php?entryid=67538