buckyball1
New member
This has been a year I've let the "lists" control my hiking and thought I'd try something different today. Because of iffy weather elsewhere, I decided to travel up to the area above Greenville and Moosehead Lake, near Seboomook Lake and the Pittston Farm. The area is privately owned, but open to the public as a multi-use (fee) area as are other large tracts in northern and NW Maine (Katahdin Iron Works/Gulf Hagis, Jo-Mary, American Realty Road, etc.
I planned to climb two small peaks, Green and Little Russell which I hoped had their fire towers intact. In addition to a fairly long drive up to Rockwood (where I'd head onto the private land), I knew I'd be doing 110-120 miles on dirt roads. I checked in at the "20-Mile" gate above Rockwood about 6:30 and talked to several guys who were scouting territory for the coming moose hunt. There were also a lot of bear hunters headed in today as the season opens tomorrow. If you have any thoughts of giving this area a try, have at least a Delorme and do your homework as the road network can be very confusing. There are roads with no signs, roads with names different from in Delorme and sizable roads that aren't even in Delorme.
On my way to Green I checked out the old Pittston Farm which now seems to be a commercial operation where the hunters were gathering-also saw 3-4 moose in various bodies of water. I felt lucky to find the Green trailhead on the first try as there was a major road fork/decision point near there that wasn't on the map. The trail up Green was categorized as easy to follow and well beaten in several guides, but it must not be getting much use anymore as the woods are slowly reclaiming it. Much of the trail is heavily overgrown and trending toward a "good herd path" and there are numerous old/new deadfalls/blowdowns. There is a section of the trail just after the old warden's cabin(gone) site that is very boggy and should be skirted to the left.Someone has flagged much of the trail which was useful as it would have been very easy to just wander off into similar looking woods in several spots. Non-the -less, the trail is a pleasant, fun hike of about 3 miles round trip and 600 feet of elevation gain. Moose tracks were everywhere and there were what I gathered were bear tracks in several places.The summit is wooded and fire tower is in decent shape with its cab intact. The views are great if you don't mind climbing the ladder for at least 14 or so of it's 36 rungs(i remember about the same magic number for views on Kibby and others). It's a typical Maine firetower ladder with some "protection" provided as it's inside/close to the tower skeleton.
I doubled back and picked up the Golden Road to head for Little Russell. The Golden Road is an excellent dirt road which runs from the Canadien border in NW Maine to the mills near Millinocket. The other roads varied from mostly good to pretty horrible (Russell Mt Road). The drive to Little Russell was long, but actually enjoyable and I saw nobody even on the Golden Road in over an hour of driving (people seemed to be centered near Pittston Farm and several other commercial hunting outfits. The last 5-6 miles to my destination on the Russell Mt road were pretty grim and I would never have been able to get our Prizm back there-many (15?) small, deep enough washout and several eroded sections.
The MMG is very hazy on the trail to Little Russell "about 1.3 miles past Lost Pond"-"have to bushwack the upper part" -that's all. After a lot of searching (I really mashed the Forester in a washout while looking into the woodsline), I don't think the trail exists anymore. I traveled back and forth from Lost Pond to where the road dead ends on the Depot Rd (Russell MT Rd in road in very bad shape on this stretch) and could find nothing. I almost abandoned the quest, but decided to park and walk about 3/4 mile of the road looking for signs of of a trail. All of a sudden I saw an opening behind one of the way too many survey tapes and geared up to head into the woods. I was sure I'd found the trail and knew the 'top" was only perhaps 1.25 miles away and I'd just whack the upper end. I'm trundling along and about 150 yards into the woods, I see a large barrel with "meat" in it and bear tracks all around--yikes--it's not the Little Russell Trail, but a "signed" "commercial bear bait station"--double yikes--got out of there quickly. Just before I get back to the car, I see a possible opening behind the grown up brush on the roadside, so in I go again.
This seems to be a really old jeep track (for the tower?) and I follow it until it peters out on old skid road-flagging everywhere, but no trail. I followed the skid road around a bit to the N or NW side of the mountain until I knew it wasn't getting me any closer to the summit and then just turned up into the woods toward the top. I had no plans for a full out wack today, but I thought I was within 3/4 mile and maybe 500 vertical feet of the top and the woods looked pretty benign (for Maine at least) so I went for it(shorts/short T, no gloves as usual). The going was easy at first, but of course the woods got thicker as I went up (not too bad). With some effort, I made the westernmost of the 3 summit bumps, but knew if the tower was there it was about 0.2 miles on the eastern highpoint bump. When I got to the slightly lower middle bump, I found old skid roads piled with debris everywhere. The southern side and much of the central summit had been logged! I started toward the eastern bump (could see the tower skeleton). The woods got hellishly thick, but someone had flagged the last 0.1 miles (thanks). Even so, I had trouble at times seeing the next tape when they were only about 15' apart. When I reached the tower, I found the cab gone and the lower part of the tower literally intertwined with the evergreens--must have been abandoned for a long time. I clambered up the ladder again and got a great view from a perspective I've never seen. The Magic Mountain wasn't too far to the SE. I decided against taking the skid road down as I knew it would dump me on the south side of the mountain far from my car--reversed the wack and was lucky to come out right on the button
oh, PB, if you're reading this-i know nothing re the various "markers" found on summits, but i thought it curious that on Little Russell, the USGS disc said "Elevation Above Sea" and then was blank followed by "Feet"--no numbers for height--also had a triangle with a cross in it at center of disc--and i don't think Little Russell name was on it either
really happy I went up there today, if you're looking for something different, give it a try
jim
I planned to climb two small peaks, Green and Little Russell which I hoped had their fire towers intact. In addition to a fairly long drive up to Rockwood (where I'd head onto the private land), I knew I'd be doing 110-120 miles on dirt roads. I checked in at the "20-Mile" gate above Rockwood about 6:30 and talked to several guys who were scouting territory for the coming moose hunt. There were also a lot of bear hunters headed in today as the season opens tomorrow. If you have any thoughts of giving this area a try, have at least a Delorme and do your homework as the road network can be very confusing. There are roads with no signs, roads with names different from in Delorme and sizable roads that aren't even in Delorme.
On my way to Green I checked out the old Pittston Farm which now seems to be a commercial operation where the hunters were gathering-also saw 3-4 moose in various bodies of water. I felt lucky to find the Green trailhead on the first try as there was a major road fork/decision point near there that wasn't on the map. The trail up Green was categorized as easy to follow and well beaten in several guides, but it must not be getting much use anymore as the woods are slowly reclaiming it. Much of the trail is heavily overgrown and trending toward a "good herd path" and there are numerous old/new deadfalls/blowdowns. There is a section of the trail just after the old warden's cabin(gone) site that is very boggy and should be skirted to the left.Someone has flagged much of the trail which was useful as it would have been very easy to just wander off into similar looking woods in several spots. Non-the -less, the trail is a pleasant, fun hike of about 3 miles round trip and 600 feet of elevation gain. Moose tracks were everywhere and there were what I gathered were bear tracks in several places.The summit is wooded and fire tower is in decent shape with its cab intact. The views are great if you don't mind climbing the ladder for at least 14 or so of it's 36 rungs(i remember about the same magic number for views on Kibby and others). It's a typical Maine firetower ladder with some "protection" provided as it's inside/close to the tower skeleton.
I doubled back and picked up the Golden Road to head for Little Russell. The Golden Road is an excellent dirt road which runs from the Canadien border in NW Maine to the mills near Millinocket. The other roads varied from mostly good to pretty horrible (Russell Mt Road). The drive to Little Russell was long, but actually enjoyable and I saw nobody even on the Golden Road in over an hour of driving (people seemed to be centered near Pittston Farm and several other commercial hunting outfits. The last 5-6 miles to my destination on the Russell Mt road were pretty grim and I would never have been able to get our Prizm back there-many (15?) small, deep enough washout and several eroded sections.
The MMG is very hazy on the trail to Little Russell "about 1.3 miles past Lost Pond"-"have to bushwack the upper part" -that's all. After a lot of searching (I really mashed the Forester in a washout while looking into the woodsline), I don't think the trail exists anymore. I traveled back and forth from Lost Pond to where the road dead ends on the Depot Rd (Russell MT Rd in road in very bad shape on this stretch) and could find nothing. I almost abandoned the quest, but decided to park and walk about 3/4 mile of the road looking for signs of of a trail. All of a sudden I saw an opening behind one of the way too many survey tapes and geared up to head into the woods. I was sure I'd found the trail and knew the 'top" was only perhaps 1.25 miles away and I'd just whack the upper end. I'm trundling along and about 150 yards into the woods, I see a large barrel with "meat" in it and bear tracks all around--yikes--it's not the Little Russell Trail, but a "signed" "commercial bear bait station"--double yikes--got out of there quickly. Just before I get back to the car, I see a possible opening behind the grown up brush on the roadside, so in I go again.
This seems to be a really old jeep track (for the tower?) and I follow it until it peters out on old skid road-flagging everywhere, but no trail. I followed the skid road around a bit to the N or NW side of the mountain until I knew it wasn't getting me any closer to the summit and then just turned up into the woods toward the top. I had no plans for a full out wack today, but I thought I was within 3/4 mile and maybe 500 vertical feet of the top and the woods looked pretty benign (for Maine at least) so I went for it(shorts/short T, no gloves as usual). The going was easy at first, but of course the woods got thicker as I went up (not too bad). With some effort, I made the westernmost of the 3 summit bumps, but knew if the tower was there it was about 0.2 miles on the eastern highpoint bump. When I got to the slightly lower middle bump, I found old skid roads piled with debris everywhere. The southern side and much of the central summit had been logged! I started toward the eastern bump (could see the tower skeleton). The woods got hellishly thick, but someone had flagged the last 0.1 miles (thanks). Even so, I had trouble at times seeing the next tape when they were only about 15' apart. When I reached the tower, I found the cab gone and the lower part of the tower literally intertwined with the evergreens--must have been abandoned for a long time. I clambered up the ladder again and got a great view from a perspective I've never seen. The Magic Mountain wasn't too far to the SE. I decided against taking the skid road down as I knew it would dump me on the south side of the mountain far from my car--reversed the wack and was lucky to come out right on the button
oh, PB, if you're reading this-i know nothing re the various "markers" found on summits, but i thought it curious that on Little Russell, the USGS disc said "Elevation Above Sea" and then was blank followed by "Feet"--no numbers for height--also had a triangle with a cross in it at center of disc--and i don't think Little Russell name was on it either
really happy I went up there today, if you're looking for something different, give it a try
jim
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The triangle in the center shows that this is a triangulation point used for precise horizontal surveys (a cross would mean it was for vertical survey and an arrow would mean it was a reference disk with the arrow pointing to the main disk - there should be 2 reference markers on Little Russell). Here's the official NOAA report from a few years ago.
