buckyball1
New member
..two very different hikes, both fun...
I spend an inordinate amount of time (waaaaay too much) planning these hikes to mostly sparsely visited, smallish peaks--chat/help from those who have gone before, locals (and occasionally no beta at all) - Acme mapper for ability to "toggle" between topo, map and satellite views, Nat'l Geo Topo to compile my "plan" for road access, possible use of old logging roads, put decent 'whacking lines on maps and input some GPS points....if you read any of my TRs, you see that things never go as planned in the field and you need to adapt on the fly....well today one hike went just as drawn up; dead, solid perfect as we used to say
Blanchard (2239')-Orrington, Skowhegan, Madison, N Anson, N New Portland and then about 25 miles up the Long Falls Dam Rd to the "Big Eddy" crossing of the Dead River and took the dirt road to left which comes out in Eustis.
I drove up a logging road on the west side of Blanchard and noticed from the surface that there was probably current logging going on somewhere ahead. Sure enough just where I planned to park there was a contract crew getting ready for work. We talked a bit about "stuff" and they confirmed my approach roads were still there and walkable. It was a nice stroll up a steepish road, the only "obstacles" being the great/deep waterbars the guys had just put in as they plan to log up there next year and want to prevent as much road erosion as possible. I turned into the woods at the appointed spot and found nicely sloped terrain, moderate thickness at worse --no cliffs, no bad blowdown, no rock traps, just a great walk uphill. The top was flattish, totally wooded, but had a really obvious ledge/rock for the summit. I don't think I've ever had such a "fair" hike-do the homework and it goes just as planned (5 spruce grouse noted )
Then it was back down the hill, reverse my drive back across the Dead River and hope 15-17 miles of dirt roads might work as planned-they did-Carrying Place Rd, Bowtown Rd and some lesser roads brought me near
Otter Pond Mtn (2070')-As i neared the mountain, it was very obvious that some serious logging was going on in here. That was great in that the roads were still drivable even though it meant parking a bit further away than planned. I was able to chat with most of the crew of 6-they knew zip re the peak, but told me all about their jobs.
This was a serious logging crew. I often see this type of thing or it's results, but rarely get to watch the guys in action. There were 2 pulp trucks,a truck with a "claw" to load the pulp trucks, a gang skidder, a limber and a harvester. I really enjoyed the limber which picks up whole trees and quickly strips all the branches off and the harvester which saunters into the bush, wraps it's squatty grip around a big tree, saws it off and deposits it on the ground for the skidder to pick up and bring to the limber.--quite a show---looked a bit like "Transformers" in action
Anyway, Otter Pond--nothing went as planned. The old skid roads were so overgrown as to be unfindable and/or unwalkable. I plannrd to approach on skid roads from the SE and curve W toward the peak, but decided to walk up the good road further and did a straight whack of about 0.6 miles from the NE side . The going was moderately thick with all the "problems" I didn't find on Blanchard. The top is fairly large, flattish and with several "summits". I came up on the NE summit which someone clearly thought was "the" top because they flagged 100 yds leading to this knob--wrong of course. Down into the shallow col (30') I went toward the SW summit--misery; so much blowdown i finally backed out, back to the NE summit and around to approach the true (SW) summit from the north. The SW summit actually has two bumps 150' apart, one about 10' higher than the NE summit and the "real top" (more SW of the two) about 10' higher still--in exact spot as topo's "x". I decided to take a "direct" line back toward the loggers and while not terrible, it was an adventure.
enjoyed both hikes immensely--great weather again--a few days to heal the old bod and a nice relaxing type vacation before returning to this in 2? weeks
jim
I spend an inordinate amount of time (waaaaay too much) planning these hikes to mostly sparsely visited, smallish peaks--chat/help from those who have gone before, locals (and occasionally no beta at all) - Acme mapper for ability to "toggle" between topo, map and satellite views, Nat'l Geo Topo to compile my "plan" for road access, possible use of old logging roads, put decent 'whacking lines on maps and input some GPS points....if you read any of my TRs, you see that things never go as planned in the field and you need to adapt on the fly....well today one hike went just as drawn up; dead, solid perfect as we used to say
Blanchard (2239')-Orrington, Skowhegan, Madison, N Anson, N New Portland and then about 25 miles up the Long Falls Dam Rd to the "Big Eddy" crossing of the Dead River and took the dirt road to left which comes out in Eustis.
I drove up a logging road on the west side of Blanchard and noticed from the surface that there was probably current logging going on somewhere ahead. Sure enough just where I planned to park there was a contract crew getting ready for work. We talked a bit about "stuff" and they confirmed my approach roads were still there and walkable. It was a nice stroll up a steepish road, the only "obstacles" being the great/deep waterbars the guys had just put in as they plan to log up there next year and want to prevent as much road erosion as possible. I turned into the woods at the appointed spot and found nicely sloped terrain, moderate thickness at worse --no cliffs, no bad blowdown, no rock traps, just a great walk uphill. The top was flattish, totally wooded, but had a really obvious ledge/rock for the summit. I don't think I've ever had such a "fair" hike-do the homework and it goes just as planned (5 spruce grouse noted )
Then it was back down the hill, reverse my drive back across the Dead River and hope 15-17 miles of dirt roads might work as planned-they did-Carrying Place Rd, Bowtown Rd and some lesser roads brought me near
Otter Pond Mtn (2070')-As i neared the mountain, it was very obvious that some serious logging was going on in here. That was great in that the roads were still drivable even though it meant parking a bit further away than planned. I was able to chat with most of the crew of 6-they knew zip re the peak, but told me all about their jobs.
This was a serious logging crew. I often see this type of thing or it's results, but rarely get to watch the guys in action. There were 2 pulp trucks,a truck with a "claw" to load the pulp trucks, a gang skidder, a limber and a harvester. I really enjoyed the limber which picks up whole trees and quickly strips all the branches off and the harvester which saunters into the bush, wraps it's squatty grip around a big tree, saws it off and deposits it on the ground for the skidder to pick up and bring to the limber.--quite a show---looked a bit like "Transformers" in action
Anyway, Otter Pond--nothing went as planned. The old skid roads were so overgrown as to be unfindable and/or unwalkable. I plannrd to approach on skid roads from the SE and curve W toward the peak, but decided to walk up the good road further and did a straight whack of about 0.6 miles from the NE side . The going was moderately thick with all the "problems" I didn't find on Blanchard. The top is fairly large, flattish and with several "summits". I came up on the NE summit which someone clearly thought was "the" top because they flagged 100 yds leading to this knob--wrong of course. Down into the shallow col (30') I went toward the SW summit--misery; so much blowdown i finally backed out, back to the NE summit and around to approach the true (SW) summit from the north. The SW summit actually has two bumps 150' apart, one about 10' higher than the NE summit and the "real top" (more SW of the two) about 10' higher still--in exact spot as topo's "x". I decided to take a "direct" line back toward the loggers and while not terrible, it was an adventure.
enjoyed both hikes immensely--great weather again--a few days to heal the old bod and a nice relaxing type vacation before returning to this in 2? weeks
jim
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