Kineo, I need you... or "all alone whacking it" 8/25/05

[Double Bow]

OK, so after all the hoopla from the last couple of days, I needed to get out and whack some bushes and I wasn't going to let a little thing like work stand in my way! So, I took half a personal day and headed up to Mt Kineo, which had been on my radar for a long time, for my first solo 'whack. Everyday, I sit at my desk and look at the Moosilauke-Kinsman map on my cube wall and see it there looking all smug and such with it's trail bearing it's name which doesn't go to the summit. WHAT"S UP WITH THAT ANYWAY!?!?! I said "That 3K footer is MINE!" and left the office calm and cool

I decided to approach from Hubbard Brook Rd (passing CANT DOG Rd) and take the Mt Kineo trail to the height of land. Boy, that trail's a peach! There are many overgrown sections that if you were trying to whack and join up with the trail in that spot, you'd pass right over it. Lots of wet areas too where you are walking on wooden planks. This trail must be lots of fun in spring! It does get better as you near the height of land.

Once there, I followed my bearing first going through fairly open woods but later pushing through some thick spruce (I put on my raincoat to avoid being scratched to pieces). It's a very interesting area, being in the Hubbard Experimental Forrest. I wonder what kind of "experiments" they are doing there. I think they are studying peakbaggers...

Eventually, I made it to the summit and signed the log. I saw notes going back to when it was placed there in '86 including Pat and Audrey (with pup), Steve Smith and Mike Dickerman, and Bill Bowden. If everyone who went there this year left a note, I was only the second of the year. I guess I can understand why. I did get a couple good views including the one Mike mentions but also another one as well.

Heading back, I took a slightly different course which was more open (thankfully) than the one I took in. The down side to it was that it brought me out to the trail about 200' below the height of land on the opposite side of the ridge (whoops!) and so I needed to climb steeply back over the ridge to go down to my car.

All in all, it was fun (no blood loss) and I would have done Cushman too but, I ran out of daylight. I guess that's what I'll use the other half day for!

 

[arghman]

It's a very interesting area, being in the Hubbard Experimental Forrest. I wonder what kind of "experiments" they are doing there. I think they are studying peakbaggers...

Ask spencer, I think he's worked at exp. forests. My understanding is they use these areas to study over long periods of time to understand the effects of various kinds of forest management, + to understand the effects of acid rain deposition, etc.

 

[Barbarossa]

Kineo was also my first solo bushwhack. I followed the same route, except for the finding the cannister part.

Good job!

 

[post'r boy]

did you happen to find the "pressure treated" forest??????
you know,the wood used for building decks.

 

[spencer]

DB,

Hubbard Brook is an NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site that was established first in 1963 by Bormann and Likens.

They are two legendary biogeochemists who studied elemental cycling at the watershed level. Primary interest include how hydrologic cycles affect (and are affected by) nutrient cycling.

It goes on and on, but that is the gist.

You can learn more at NSF's website or at the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study website.

Cheers,
spencer

 

[Double Bow]

From the NSF site:

"They proposed to use the small watershed approach at Hubbard Brook to study linkages between hydrologic and nutrient flux and cycling in response to natural and human disturbances, such as air pollution, forest cutting, land-use changes, increases in insect populations and climatic factors."

I guess bushwhackers would qualify as "human disturbances"!

Thanks for the great info, Spencer!

 

[spencer]

You bet, DB. A lot of really seminal work has come out of HB in the last few decades. There aren't a lot of paired watershed studies like it with baseline data available.

Ecological monitoring is the basis for all our modeling. Continue to fund long-term research!

spencer

 

[dms]

DB, you could have then gone east on the ridge and bagged East Kineo, a NH 200 Highest!! When you fall off the ridgeline make sure it's to the side your car is parked on. So, after this, do we have a new 3k list person???

 

[Double Bow]

DB, you could have then gone east on the ridge and bagged East Kineo, a NH 200 Highest!! When you fall off the ridgeline make sure it's to the side your car is parked on. So, after this, do we have a new 3k list person???

Yeah, I only got that list today but, even if I had known, I still wouldn't have had the daylight for it.

Am I a new 3k list person? Well, I'm going to keep track of 'em but, I'm more concerned with finishing my NE 67 first! Still, anytime you want to 'whack some 3ks, let me know!