firewarden's trail to mt abraham (me)?

[SteveHiker]

As you'll read in Tony's trip report (coming soon), we didnt' bother with the carspot and traverse across to Abraham on Saturday. The weather constantly deteriorated all day and the exposed ridge didn't seem like a good idea.

So sometime in the near future, I'll be going back up to that area. I'm a little concerned about the vagueness of the directions in the Maine AMC guide. From looking at the map, and knowing that not all of the logging roads and such are shown on the maps, I'm concerned that I could take a wrong turn and drive in endless circles.

Can anyone clarify what this means:
"... to 3.7 mi., where the road forks. From this point, the road is partially private. At 6 mi., a road turns left to a new bridge over Rapid Stream. Cross the stream and follow the road for about .5 miles to the trailhead at a crossroads ..." -- Maine Mountain Guide, 8th Edition.

First off, what do you do where the road forks? It sounds like an old Johnny Carson joke. Secondly, where do the double bridges everyone keeps talking about come in?

Could someone pretend that I'm a complete idiot (it won't be that hard) and explain this to me clearly.

thanks.

 

[David Metsky]

It's pretty easy to follow, actually. From town, just stay on the paved road until it becomes dirt. It curves right and starts following the stream. There's a fork somewhere along there that is easy to spot.

You're parallelling the river now, and following the milage you come to a turn to the left which crosses the river on two bridges. It's pretty clear where this is, the bridges are less than 100' from the turn. The first one had a somewhat difficult approach, we stashed some logs near the end and had only minor bumping with an Outback. After the second bridge (the two bridges are only 30' apart) you turn right and go uphill on a rougher road. That ends in a T intersection in about .5 miles, the trailhead is right there, parking on the left.

-dave-

 

[injektilo]

It's pretty easy to follow, actually. From town, just stay on the paved road until it becomes dirt. It curves right and starts following the stream. There's a fork somewhere along there that is easy to spot.

You're parallelling the river now, and following the milage you come to a turn to the left which crosses the river on two bridges. It's pretty clear where this is, the bridges are less than 100' from the turn. The first one had a somewhat difficult approach, we stashed some logs near the end and had only minor bumping with an Outback. After the second bridge (the two bridges are only 30' apart) you turn right and go uphill on a rougher road. That ends in a T intersection in about .5 miles, the trailhead is right there, parking on the left.

-dave-

Dave is spot on as usual... I'll just add that if you turn right at the trailhead T and have a Maine DeLorme you can shave a considerable amount of distance from the early part of the trail as the road will cross the trail again. The road is a little rougher past the trailhead but wasn't a problem for my Tacoma. An Outback would have easily made it as well... at least when I was there this past May. Also, there were a few others who had ventured in to this "secondary trailhead". If you are interested I will try to provide more details to get you there.

Enjoy Abraham! It's a great mountain.

 

[SteveHiker]

not to belabor this, but Dave, you said the same thing as the book. Or rather left out the same thing as the book. Which way at the fork?

This isn't the Teatime Movie is it?

 

[David Metsky]

Turn right at the fork. Then, just before the bridges, that's a left turn. It's pretty clear which way to go in each case.

While there is a way to drive up to the secondary trailhead, we started at the first one. I don't know if Eric wants to chime in on this to say whether or not driving to the second one is allowed for the FTFC considering it's not really a trailhead, but it appears legal for the general public to drive there. It's actually a pleasant walk between the two roads anyways.

-dave-

 

[amstony]

Kevin,

Reading that you thought the directions were vague makes me feel better!

Tony

 

[injektilo]

I like to think of the vague directions as part of the Maine hiking experience.

 

[askus3]

We had no problem getting in to Abraham from the East Milan Road. Only 2 miles on AT & 1.7 on spur, but much further from Kingfield, approx 1.5 hour car ride. By the way, the bathrooms are clean and had an excellent experience at Deer Farm CG. One of our group camped, the rest of us stayed in a cabin there for the week. I was told that the cabin we stayed in was occupied by Steve Longley of Kennebec AT canoe fame for 5 years. Owner is a member of AMC and an occaisional hiker.

 

[SteveHiker]

Yeah, it wasn't really that hard to find after all. Of course having GO along didn't hurt either. There are a lot of side roads back there so you do have to be careful. And as was mentioned in the trip report, someone decided to make a fire out of the trailhead sign.