Cube Mountain Corridor Monitoring 10/11/09

[Paradox]

Hillwalker, Zippy, Buddy and I had a great time yesterday doing somecorridor monitoring on Cube Mountain. We took the Baker Road from route 25A South to the Cross Rivendale Trailhead. Parking is limited for those headed East. The Cross Rivendell Trail is a recently constructed trail that runs from Flagpole Hill in Vershire, Vermont for 36 miles to Mount Cube in Orford, New Hampshire. We used the easternmost 2 miles of it to access the border monuments on the Western side of Mount Cube.

We quickly found the 193-NH-22 monuments and bushwhacked our way, following the yellow blazes, Northwest down the mountain for about .3 miles. Tom painted while I moved ahead finding blazes and monuments. turned right and bushwhacked Northeast for about .6 miles to 193-NH-25 and then turned right again and to find 193-NH-25A. The old AT was within 50' of our last monument. Tall thick spruce made for very slow going in the area of 193-NH24A and the steep slog up to 193-NH25A.

Corridor monitoring is a fun way to get to use map and compass skills and lots of bushwhacking.

We used the old AT to get to the summit of Cube. Views from the cliffs to the Northeast toward "The Moose" were beautiful. The Cross Rivendell Trail is well constructed, though a bit muddy near the top. Footing on the quartz rock near the summit of Cube can be quite slippery. Back to Tom's place for a couple Long Trails and were heading home.

GPS Track here.

 

[Jason Berard]

Cool.

Dogs, woods, crossing an old trail, and beer. What could be better!

 

[michael]

Fellow CMer

Spent a quiet day surrounded by glowing foliage on the westerly/northerly side of AT to Wyman Mt. (ME 115-39F to ME 115-37A)
Hiked to summit from Burroughs Bk rd near Surplus Pond and walked west down to the corridor swath. Found 7 monuments, missed a couple others and otherwise hacked and pruned my way through numerous thickets. The walking was for the most part relatively easy going and the corridor easy to follow though as I mentioned a few thick overgrown sections. Maybe 4 miles all said and done. Many of the witness trees and more than a few blazes in need of touch-up work.

 

[Hillwalker]

Missing Monuments

We found the triangular mounting holes for two "Rock Tablet Monuments" where the monuments should have been. They were located so remotely that they couldn't possibly been stolen. Our guess is that frost action broke them loose many years ago and that they were removed by Corridor Monitors from long ago, or were carried down the mountain by erosion. All had been set below grade, but in very wet rock faces.

http://thumb7.webshots.net/t/75/175/1/27/22/2414127220063988367TgyKJi_th.jpg

http://thumb7.webshots.net/t/96/196/1/38/85/2751138850063988367taggFE_th.jpg

http://thumb7.webshots.net/t/75/175/8/77/72/2307877720063988367HQajKe_th.jpg

http://thumb7.webshots.net/t/69/769/2/57/0/2525257000063988367BbJfBN_th.jpg

Kinda like hunting for buried treasure

 

[michael]

RT's

I admit, this time out I did not have as much time to spend kicking the sod trying to locate a couple of the RT's on this section of the corridor. I was pinched for time and really had only the desire to find as many as A-1 's as posible in the limited time I had. I definitely have a ways to go to bring my monitoring up to par with some of the more detailed CM's out there. Kudos to you all that really get down to business with all the tedious witness tree evals and way point captures. Good stuff and no doubt a valuable contribution/addition to the original documents.
My question is now, why the variation in monuments? Why not all A-1's for instance? I mean, i can understand it if it were a rock face vs a glade in the woods but my particular area is pretty consistently open woods with lots of underlying loose rock. I probably know part of the answer and maybe it is simply one of resource allocation at the time of the original survey.
Just seems that an aluminum monument is more stationary and stable than the Rock Tablets, so why bother with the RTs at all?

 

[Hillwalker]

Goverment Contracts?

I admit, this time out I did not have as much time to spend kicking the sod trying to locate a couple of the RT's on this section of the corridor. I was pinched for time and really had only the desire to find as many as A-1 's as posible in the limited time I had. I definitely have a ways to go to bring my monitoring up to par with some of the more detailed CM's out there. Kudos to you all that really get down to business with all the tedious witness tree evals and way point captures. Good stuff and no doubt a valuable contribution/addition to the original documents.
My question is now, why the variation in monuments? Why not all A-1's for instance? I mean, i can understand it if it were a rock face vs a glade in the woods but my particular area is pretty consistently open woods with lots of underlying loose rock. I probably know part of the answer and maybe it is simply one of resource allocation at the time of the original survey.
Just seems that an aluminum monument is more stationary and stable than the Rock Tablets, so why bother with the RTs at all?

It may have to do with the fact that the surveying was done under government contracts with strict specifications. However I believe that it might have been that three hand drilled holes with the center broken out might have been easier than digging a post hole thirty inches deep, big enough to accept the splayed base on the aluminum tube that holds the "standard monument". Especially in the bony soil of much of our woods. Much less weight and bulk to carry just the small monuments and a bag of mortar or epoxy resin and a tube of catalyst. Obviously I have wondered about this too.

Now, let's talk about those hard to find "offset monuments".

Some of the people who I have trained to be Corridor Monitors have asked why we can't just GPS monuments to find them. My answer has been: "good luck finding a three inch aluminum disk inside a 30 foot diameter circle defined by the EPE (error) of typically 15 feet of a good GPS".

 

[Paradox]

Some of the people who I have trained to be Corridor Monitors have asked why we can't just GPS monuments to find them. My answer has been: "good luck finding a three inch aluminum disk inside a 30 foot diameter circle defined by the EPE (error) of typically 15 feet of a good GPS".

Fifteen feet here, fifteen feet there.... what's 30 feet to a pot farmer?