buckyball1
New member
well, perhaps i lied......
After the soaking rain of the last few days, i headed for Stratton this morning under a veil of fog (clearing promised)--destination....
Cranberry-3194'--so how have i managed not to do Cranberry with all the ME hiking i do?....pretty far down most "lists"?..a bit too far to just wander over when doing the rest of the Bigelow Range?..regardless, i'm not alone as i don't remember any TRs for Cranberry in the last few years?
The hike route is straightforward (it's a trail) - the Bigelow Range Trail which departs from a small lot down a road that runs east from Rt 16 right near the Loony Moose. The first 1/2 of the trail was pretty mellow, but the jumbled mossy rocks, roots, and leaf blanket (all thoroughly soaked) on the last 1 1/2 miles to the summit made for a pretty ugly hike-no way to establish any sort of rhythm or look anywhere except at your feet. I thought the long ridge would be open rock, but was disappointed by the ridge being wooded with limited/absent views.
The last 5-7 minutes to the peak were a fun scramble over open slabs and the fog lifted as i reached the top--superb 360 views. You could see almost every individual windmill of the two Kibby projects-amazing to me the heated reactions these generate (but then i probably should avoid that topic) So an excellent top, but pretty crappy trail (you might try the longer approach from the AT?). Descent was slow, treacherous and no fun at all given the conditions-a few minor dives- many "almosts"
I'm having a bit of an "existential crisis" and haven't done a Maine "P" (prominence) peak in almost 3 months------have been doing large rockpiles in CO, OR and ME lately with no accompanying trip reports and had/have serious thoughts of stopping my "Nowhere", ME bushwhacks altogether. The descent of Cranberry included lengthy conversations with myself trying to rationalize "stopping"....was almost convinced
There's a small peak across the road on the west side of Rt16 called Hedgehog Hill and though i had it scoped i decided to pack it in and head home. Stopped in Fotters for a Dr Pepper, sat in the sun at the Stratton Motel for a bit and thought i'd at least look at the approach road to Hedgehog in case i changed my mind next Spring. I was familiar with the dirt road leading from Rt 16 to the newish large powerline cut and found it in good shape. When i got to the cut, it didn't look like the bog i expected so of course
Hedgehog-2090'-pretty routine-it was about a crow flies mile from where i parked to the peak, but i did a right triangle approach following the sides rather than the hypotenuse. I started up the cut and rather than head into the woods after gaining 350' as i planned, i was able to gain over 600' by adding distance to the hike.
Sat pics showed hardwoods most of the way to the top on my originally planned route, but by going higher up on the cut, i knew i'd hit evergreens-a tradeoff-a bad one, as the last 0.35 'whack was typical "Mainey" evergreen, blowdown, rock jumbles/"traps", but really wasn't bad. Top was wooded, fairly obvious and of course no jar. I decided to revert to my original line for the descent and though the 'whack was longer, it was pretty sweet. The descent down the powerline cut allowed me a panorama of the entire Bigelow Range very different from the views of it i normally see.
..and i was having fun again...yesssss...
...the two peaks are both in the #200-300 batch on the ME "P" list so maybe i've not quit yet
...the $16/pr cheapo poles from Mardens worked fine as usual-the $100 pairs of Black Diamonds size frozen and useless in the garage, maybe soaking uo penetrating oil
jim
After the soaking rain of the last few days, i headed for Stratton this morning under a veil of fog (clearing promised)--destination....
Cranberry-3194'--so how have i managed not to do Cranberry with all the ME hiking i do?....pretty far down most "lists"?..a bit too far to just wander over when doing the rest of the Bigelow Range?..regardless, i'm not alone as i don't remember any TRs for Cranberry in the last few years?
The hike route is straightforward (it's a trail
) - the Bigelow Range Trail which departs from a small lot down a road that runs east from Rt 16 right near the Loony Moose. The first 1/2 of the trail was pretty mellow, but the jumbled mossy rocks, roots, and leaf blanket (all thoroughly soaked) on the last 1 1/2 miles to the summit made for a pretty ugly hike-no way to establish any sort of rhythm or look anywhere except at your feet. I thought the long ridge would be open rock, but was disappointed by the ridge being wooded with limited/absent views. The last 5-7 minutes to the peak were a fun scramble over open slabs and the fog lifted as i reached the top--superb 360 views. You could see almost every individual windmill of the two Kibby projects-amazing to me the heated reactions these generate (but then i probably should avoid that topic) So an excellent top, but pretty crappy trail (you might try the longer approach from the AT?). Descent was slow, treacherous and no fun at all given the conditions-a few minor dives- many "almosts"
I'm having a bit of an "existential crisis" and haven't done a Maine "P" (prominence) peak in almost 3 months------have been doing large rockpiles in CO, OR and ME lately with no accompanying trip reports and had/have serious thoughts of stopping my "Nowhere", ME bushwhacks altogether. The descent of Cranberry included lengthy conversations with myself trying to rationalize "stopping"....was almost convinced
There's a small peak across the road on the west side of Rt16 called Hedgehog Hill and though i had it scoped i decided to pack it in and head home. Stopped in Fotters for a Dr Pepper, sat in the sun at the Stratton Motel for a bit and thought i'd at least look at the approach road to Hedgehog in case i changed my mind next Spring. I was familiar with the dirt road leading from Rt 16 to the newish large powerline cut and found it in good shape. When i got to the cut, it didn't look like the bog i expected so of course
Hedgehog-2090'-pretty routine-it was about a crow flies mile from where i parked to the peak, but i did a right triangle approach following the sides rather than the hypotenuse. I started up the cut and rather than head into the woods after gaining 350' as i planned, i was able to gain over 600' by adding distance to the hike.
Sat pics showed hardwoods most of the way to the top on my originally planned route, but by going higher up on the cut, i knew i'd hit evergreens-a tradeoff-a bad one, as the last 0.35 'whack was typical "Mainey" evergreen, blowdown, rock jumbles/"traps", but really wasn't bad. Top was wooded, fairly obvious and of course no jar. I decided to revert to my original line for the descent and though the 'whack was longer, it was pretty sweet. The descent down the powerline cut allowed me a panorama of the entire Bigelow Range very different from the views of it i normally see.
..and i was having fun again...yesssss...
...the two peaks are both in the #200-300 batch on the ME "P" list so maybe i've not quit yet
...the $16/pr cheapo poles from Mardens worked fine as usual-the $100 pairs of Black Diamonds size frozen and useless in the garage, maybe soaking uo penetrating oil
jim
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