una_dogger
Well-known member
Last week MichaelJ, Terra and I headed up to Maine to finish up some loose ends we had up there. We camped at Cathedral Pines in Eustis, which I highly recommend! Work and life have been pretty hectic this summer, and I was really looking forward to spending the majority of our week off lounging around in the woods, and getting in some quality hiking time with the 'fams.
We took a vote, and very democratically decided that it was in our best interest to "awaken naturally, without the encumberences of modern conventions". This meant generally hitting the trail about 11am each day.
Even more radically, we built a "zero day" into our plans... which gave us four days to leisurely stroll to Reddinton, Abraham, and Sugarloaf.
Tuesday:
About ten am we turned onto Caribou Valley Rd. With each passing bridge, washout, and mudpit, we'd wonder how far we'd get. We passed a group of cars parked just before the steel bridge. MJ pulled up to the foot of the bridge, and after some "discussion", he agreed to park with the other cars. Two of the hikers were also heading to Reddinton. They set off before us. We decided to leave our lunch in the car, because MichaelJ said that this would be a "short hike", a "peice of cake". We took a side trip to the banks of the Carabassett to see how it was running. Lots lower than it was when Terra and I backpacked through here in May 2003. We thought, "hey, maybe we will do Sugarloaf via the AT today after we have lunch at the car!"...LOL! Maybe on another day, but right now we are on vacation!
As we walked down to the end of the road, MJ was convinced that we could have driven over every bridge, even the ones that had piles of firewood in front of them for "running starts". I remained skeptical and unimpressed....
It was a good thing that there were big wooden arrows on the ground marking each turn, because we were completely unprepared. Well, at least I was...I did zero research for the entire trip and relied soley on MichaelJ for all my information. Yup...lazy peak-slacker that I am. We reached a small herdpath where someone had spraypainted the word "Towe" in pink on a rock. We weren't really sure what a "towe" was, but we decided to follow the path, which lead all the way to the summit, where a large tower lay dead on the ground in a clearcut. With all the trees cut down, its easy to find the cannister; and we had a good laugh reading all the entries. With one more peak checked off my list, we happily headed back down the trail. On the way back, we decided to take a side trip around Caribou Pond. Along the way we munched on blueberries and raspberries. We got back to the car 13.5 miles and about 6.5 hours later. As you can imagine, we were pretty hungry for our "lunch" by then. It was a good thing we had a cooler full of beer, cheese, and tortillas.....
Wednesday:
About ten am we rolled into the parking lot of the Woodsman in Kingfield for breakfast. Yum! Highly recommended eats. Today was predicted to be the sunniest day of the week, so we had reserved it for Abraham. After a few confusing turns, we found the trailhead and hit the trail at about 11am. It felt great to be on a trail after spending monday on the Boundary Swath and most of tuesday on logging roads. The trail was muddy in spots for the first few miles up to the old Firewarden's Cabin. We passed through stands of very old trees and crossed four rivers before reaching timberline. A long rocky climb lead to the firetower on a *very* windy summit. After tagging the summit we parked ourselves in a big stone chair and had lunch. The many sub summits of Abraham trailed off in the distance, each dotted by cairns. This looks like a great range to bushwack, and I'd really like to come back and tag all of the minor summits someday. We had a great dinner at the White Wolf Inn in Stratton, and headed back to camp to listen to the loons and kick back.
Thursday: zero day. Major activities include canoeing on Flagstaff Lake, eating ice cream cones, and shopping for a home made Apple Pie.
Friday: Last day here so last chance to tag Sugarloaf. After breaking camp, we drove to the Sugarloaf Ski Resort and spent some time driving around swanky subdivisions looking for the slope where the West Mountain Chair ran. Many new houses appear to have gone since our edition of the Maine Mountain Guide has been published, and we found a large "No Tresspassing" sign where the guide reported the trailhead to be. We drove a bit more and found a small access trail to the main ski slope. The hike up the slope was steep! We took this trail to the work road, which we followed to the summit. It was a GREAT workout! Happy to have hit all the peaks we needed, we headed home feeling very sucessful and well rested at the same time! On our way out of Kingfield we stopped at The Orange Cat Cafe for some of the best iced coffee and grilled chicken ceasar wraps I've ever had, highly recommended rest stop!!!
This was a great trip and a much needed respite. 111 down, four to go!!!
Special thanks to MichaelJ for leading the way.
Pics to come soon...
We took a vote, and very democratically decided that it was in our best interest to "awaken naturally, without the encumberences of modern conventions". This meant generally hitting the trail about 11am each day.
Even more radically, we built a "zero day" into our plans... which gave us four days to leisurely stroll to Reddinton, Abraham, and Sugarloaf. Tuesday:
About ten am we turned onto Caribou Valley Rd. With each passing bridge, washout, and mudpit, we'd wonder how far we'd get. We passed a group of cars parked just before the steel bridge. MJ pulled up to the foot of the bridge, and after some "discussion", he agreed to park with the other cars. Two of the hikers were also heading to Reddinton. They set off before us. We decided to leave our lunch in the car, because MichaelJ said that this would be a "short hike", a "peice of cake". We took a side trip to the banks of the Carabassett to see how it was running. Lots lower than it was when Terra and I backpacked through here in May 2003. We thought, "hey, maybe we will do Sugarloaf via the AT today after we have lunch at the car!"...LOL! Maybe on another day, but right now we are on vacation!
As we walked down to the end of the road, MJ was convinced that we could have driven over every bridge, even the ones that had piles of firewood in front of them for "running starts". I remained skeptical and unimpressed....
It was a good thing that there were big wooden arrows on the ground marking each turn, because we were completely unprepared. Well, at least I was...I did zero research for the entire trip and relied soley on MichaelJ for all my information. Yup...lazy peak-slacker that I am. We reached a small herdpath where someone had spraypainted the word "Towe" in pink on a rock. We weren't really sure what a "towe" was, but we decided to follow the path, which lead all the way to the summit, where a large tower lay dead on the ground in a clearcut. With all the trees cut down, its easy to find the cannister; and we had a good laugh reading all the entries. With one more peak checked off my list, we happily headed back down the trail. On the way back, we decided to take a side trip around Caribou Pond. Along the way we munched on blueberries and raspberries. We got back to the car 13.5 miles and about 6.5 hours later. As you can imagine, we were pretty hungry for our "lunch" by then. It was a good thing we had a cooler full of beer, cheese, and tortillas.....
Wednesday:
About ten am we rolled into the parking lot of the Woodsman in Kingfield for breakfast. Yum! Highly recommended eats. Today was predicted to be the sunniest day of the week, so we had reserved it for Abraham. After a few confusing turns, we found the trailhead and hit the trail at about 11am. It felt great to be on a trail after spending monday on the Boundary Swath and most of tuesday on logging roads. The trail was muddy in spots for the first few miles up to the old Firewarden's Cabin. We passed through stands of very old trees and crossed four rivers before reaching timberline. A long rocky climb lead to the firetower on a *very* windy summit. After tagging the summit we parked ourselves in a big stone chair and had lunch. The many sub summits of Abraham trailed off in the distance, each dotted by cairns. This looks like a great range to bushwack, and I'd really like to come back and tag all of the minor summits someday. We had a great dinner at the White Wolf Inn in Stratton, and headed back to camp to listen to the loons and kick back.
Thursday: zero day. Major activities include canoeing on Flagstaff Lake, eating ice cream cones, and shopping for a home made Apple Pie.
Friday: Last day here so last chance to tag Sugarloaf. After breaking camp, we drove to the Sugarloaf Ski Resort and spent some time driving around swanky subdivisions looking for the slope where the West Mountain Chair ran. Many new houses appear to have gone since our edition of the Maine Mountain Guide has been published, and we found a large "No Tresspassing" sign where the guide reported the trailhead to be. We drove a bit more and found a small access trail to the main ski slope. The hike up the slope was steep! We took this trail to the work road, which we followed to the summit. It was a GREAT workout! Happy to have hit all the peaks we needed, we headed home feeling very sucessful and well rested at the same time! On our way out of Kingfield we stopped at The Orange Cat Cafe for some of the best iced coffee and grilled chicken ceasar wraps I've ever had, highly recommended rest stop!!!
This was a great trip and a much needed respite. 111 down, four to go!!!
Special thanks to MichaelJ for leading the way.
Pics to come soon...
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