onestep
New member
Oncoman, PapaBear, and I spent a couple of hazy hot & humid days bushwhacking 3K peaks off the Beaudry Rd in Maine. For those of you into this sort of thing, "the Beaudry" must be as close to 3K bushwhack heaven / mecca / paradise as it gets! (but shhhhhh, don't tell anybody).
Friday 07-14-06; we set our sight on the Smarts. Our route took us up the SE ridge of W Smart - 3290' where we found the jar (bottle) at the summit. The jar and it's contents where in the best condition of all 8 we would find over the next 2 days. In addition to the jar, Papa Bear located a "bench mark" which was used to survey the US/Canada border way back when...
We left the summit and followed the ridge in a clockwise direction over to Smart Mtn - 3245' where we found the summit jar on the ground under a blowdown. It was half full of water, it's register unreadable. We rehung the jar and added a new register. Leaving the summit we made our way back to the car with thoughts of 'whacking Moose Mtn next.
We explored the logging roads north of Moose Mtn looking for a road that TerraServer shows ascending directly towards the summit. We could not find that road, and one thing led to another, and soon Oncoman & I where off to 'whack "Unnamed Boundry: BROWN (N PK)" - 3541'.
Our plan was to bushwhack Brown which is located on the US / Canada boundry swath. If time allowed we would then continue over to Rain Mtn SW Peak - 3510'. We approached from the E following Caribou Bog Rd as far as we could. This road is aptly named. It's upper reaches, and side branches, are very wet and boggy and built without the benifit of gravel. I assume they where only used as winter haul roads when the ground was frozen. Anyway's, we reached the summit of Brown and found the jar. It's plastic cover was cracked and it was 3/4 full of water! We rehung a new jar and placed a new register. After a brief rest we where off towards SW Rain.
Heading over to SW Rain was a bit of gamble. It was getting late in the day and the detailed map we had showed only 3/4 of the route along the ridge. For the remainder of the 'whack, including the descent off SW Rain, we would have to rely on a large scale "overview" map.
The bushwhack was pretty straight foreward, head E to a bump along the ridgeline and then bend right and over to SW Rain. We arrived at the summit to find another jar 3/4 full of water! Whats up with this? We drained the jar, added a dry register, and called it good. The time was 7PM so we dug out our headlamps. We really didn't know if we could make it back to the car before dark! We left the summit heading true north and found easy going all the way back down into the boggy wet valley. We made it back to the car before dark. (disclaimer, unprofessional whack-o's on closed course, do not try this at home
)
Saturday 07-15-06; On the agenda today will be a 4 peak loop 'whack that will again take us along the border swath. In the last 2 weeks I've been on and about the US / Canada border swath multiple times and marvel at the openness of it.
Oncoman, PapaBear, and I started the day out with a long road walk, and short "ATV" trail, to the summit of W Caribou - 3650'. What a scrappy summit. I'm glad both Oncoman & PapaBear knew exactly where the summit bump was! The jar & it's contents was in good shape but is still missing a pencil. Our "jar maintaince / resupply kit" was getting depleted at this point!
We left W Caribou and 'whacked easterly towards the border swath which we would then follow N. Along the border we first climbed Monument Peak 411 - 3582' which is on a Quebec list that Oncoman had. From there we continue N across an unnamed 3300' bump and on to "Unnamed Boundry: (S BUMP)" - 3319'. We easly found the jar, it's top tied to a tree, it's bottom half and contents no where to be found. We did not (could not) replace it.
From S Bump we bushwhacked NNE to the very open and broad summit of "Unnamed: ("BUMP")" - 3430'. We had a difficult time finding the jar even though (maybe because) it was located in plain sight! this jar too had water in it. We scrounged our packs finding yet another zip-lock and dry paper to place in the jar. We left the jar where we found it, sitting at the root base of a large tree that leans at a 45 degree angle.
Also on Bump, Papa Bear found yet another survey marker ("bench mark") that was used in the border survey. We read in the log that Eric Schlimmer also found the marker 2 years ago. What makes this interesting is that the marker is located in the middle of an island of thick spruce.
From the summit of Bump our 'whack would continue on towards the ENE and the final summit of the day... "Unnamed: (E BUMP) - Merrill Strip" - 3447'. We where enjoying mostly open woods since leaving the border. This was appreciated as we where starting to fatigue from the high heat & humidity of the day. We easily found the summit and jar. This jar was found on the ground. We rehung it and called it good. We descended off the peak towards the S and the logging road that would bring us back to our cars. While descending we heard the distant sound of thunder. The storm held off untill we where "safely" back on the logging road. The coolness of the rain felt good!
PICTURES HERE
Onestep
Friday 07-14-06; we set our sight on the Smarts. Our route took us up the SE ridge of W Smart - 3290' where we found the jar (bottle) at the summit. The jar and it's contents where in the best condition of all 8 we would find over the next 2 days. In addition to the jar, Papa Bear located a "bench mark" which was used to survey the US/Canada border way back when...
We left the summit and followed the ridge in a clockwise direction over to Smart Mtn - 3245' where we found the summit jar on the ground under a blowdown. It was half full of water, it's register unreadable. We rehung the jar and added a new register. Leaving the summit we made our way back to the car with thoughts of 'whacking Moose Mtn next.
We explored the logging roads north of Moose Mtn looking for a road that TerraServer shows ascending directly towards the summit. We could not find that road, and one thing led to another, and soon Oncoman & I where off to 'whack "Unnamed Boundry: BROWN (N PK)" - 3541'.
Our plan was to bushwhack Brown which is located on the US / Canada boundry swath. If time allowed we would then continue over to Rain Mtn SW Peak - 3510'. We approached from the E following Caribou Bog Rd as far as we could. This road is aptly named. It's upper reaches, and side branches, are very wet and boggy and built without the benifit of gravel. I assume they where only used as winter haul roads when the ground was frozen. Anyway's, we reached the summit of Brown and found the jar. It's plastic cover was cracked and it was 3/4 full of water! We rehung a new jar and placed a new register. After a brief rest we where off towards SW Rain.
Heading over to SW Rain was a bit of gamble. It was getting late in the day and the detailed map we had showed only 3/4 of the route along the ridge. For the remainder of the 'whack, including the descent off SW Rain, we would have to rely on a large scale "overview" map.
The bushwhack was pretty straight foreward, head E to a bump along the ridgeline and then bend right and over to SW Rain. We arrived at the summit to find another jar 3/4 full of water! Whats up with this? We drained the jar, added a dry register, and called it good. The time was 7PM so we dug out our headlamps. We really didn't know if we could make it back to the car before dark! We left the summit heading true north and found easy going all the way back down into the boggy wet valley. We made it back to the car before dark. (disclaimer, unprofessional whack-o's on closed course, do not try this at home
)Saturday 07-15-06; On the agenda today will be a 4 peak loop 'whack that will again take us along the border swath. In the last 2 weeks I've been on and about the US / Canada border swath multiple times and marvel at the openness of it.
Oncoman, PapaBear, and I started the day out with a long road walk, and short "ATV" trail, to the summit of W Caribou - 3650'. What a scrappy summit. I'm glad both Oncoman & PapaBear knew exactly where the summit bump was! The jar & it's contents was in good shape but is still missing a pencil. Our "jar maintaince / resupply kit" was getting depleted at this point!
We left W Caribou and 'whacked easterly towards the border swath which we would then follow N. Along the border we first climbed Monument Peak 411 - 3582' which is on a Quebec list that Oncoman had. From there we continue N across an unnamed 3300' bump and on to "Unnamed Boundry: (S BUMP)" - 3319'. We easly found the jar, it's top tied to a tree, it's bottom half and contents no where to be found. We did not (could not) replace it.
From S Bump we bushwhacked NNE to the very open and broad summit of "Unnamed: ("BUMP")" - 3430'. We had a difficult time finding the jar even though (maybe because) it was located in plain sight! this jar too had water in it. We scrounged our packs finding yet another zip-lock and dry paper to place in the jar. We left the jar where we found it, sitting at the root base of a large tree that leans at a 45 degree angle.
Also on Bump, Papa Bear found yet another survey marker ("bench mark") that was used in the border survey. We read in the log that Eric Schlimmer also found the marker 2 years ago. What makes this interesting is that the marker is located in the middle of an island of thick spruce.
From the summit of Bump our 'whack would continue on towards the ENE and the final summit of the day... "Unnamed: (E BUMP) - Merrill Strip" - 3447'. We where enjoying mostly open woods since leaving the border. This was appreciated as we where starting to fatigue from the high heat & humidity of the day. We easily found the summit and jar. This jar was found on the ground. We rehung it and called it good. We descended off the peak towards the S and the logging road that would bring us back to our cars. While descending we heard the distant sound of thunder. The storm held off untill we where "safely" back on the logging road. The coolness of the rain felt good!
PICTURES HERE
Onestep
