buckyball1
New member
Desperate for fitting in a hike(s) this weekend, i seem to have spent endless hours looking at forecasts, 48 hr precipitation accumulation, storm radar...a long stretch of bad weather in the Western and "northern" mountains
My first choice, Pt 2938 on the AT east of Sabbath Day Pond (south of Rangeley) got over 8" (yes, 8 in a small area right around this peak) of rain in violent T-storms between 3PM Friday and early Saturday morning .... leaving that for another day. I can live with wet woods, but the possibility of dirt roads flooded/washed out is a major issue for most of my hikes
Today i took a flier to try 2 peaks near Greenville with hope of getting something done very early before predicted afternoon T-showers. It was 60 degrees with moderate soup/mist when i left Orrington and stayed that way thru Dover-Foxcroft and Monson. Then the fog got very thick (still dark)and i was driving below 30mph thru that moose infested stretch around Shirley and into Greenville. I saw 4 small foxes on the highway, but no moose-am sure they were lurking in the haze. The fog cleared a bit as i drove toward Kokadjo ( multiple moose on the road near Lily Bay), but returned as i swung onto the Spencer Bay Rd headed onto a peninsula jutting into Moosehead Lake. The Spencer Bay Rd was in very nice shape except for several areas of water from heavy rains running over the roadbed-very solid road. I went in about 16.5 miles for
Little Kineo-1927'-Not quite sure why i've never done this peak-not too far from home, short, nice trail (yes, a trail) and i'm sure great views. Today the pea soup severely restricted visibility and in places the ascent was tricky due to rocks/ledges/roots/leaves being soaked. A swift ascent took me past view ledges, to the high point at 615 and down the ridge a bit--i could see absolutely nothing. Very careful descent- no problems
Probably should have considered myself fortunate and called it a day, but decided to check out.....
Pt 2221-2221'-This point lies on a ridge running SW from Greenville Junction and "looks" accessible using the Dyer Rd and what appear on the satellite to be old log roads. I could get no beta from anyone having been there and info on the road from Greenville locals was contradictory. I hoped for whacking less than 2 miles RT (perhaps hard near the summit; looked steep, evergreens) and being able to park within 2 miles (at worst)from the ascent point. Ah, how wrong i was on this one.
My "roads" turned out to be wide ATV trails, very rocky and right now with large, muddy ruts and holes-some Subaru stoppers for sure if not handled exactly right.. Could i have driven further?-a weak maybe, but it was pretty bad. So i ended up walking about 4 1/2 miles each way to the whack point-nothing hard, just long, muddy. I finally peeled off the ATV trail and headed down a wide grassed over log road (very nice, but grass was soaked) to an area that had been cut over many years ago-- woods were soaked; every small depression coming down the hill was a stream today.
The 'whack was fine down low except for me being totally soaked almost immediately with water squishing in my boots. ...."slow, careful, don't slip"...then i hit the expected steep stuff where your face is in the moss-several small cliff bands and a ton of interlocking blowdowns--very tuff going. Lots of lateral movement and backing out of blowdown boxes to find small alleys allowing one to move higher--ended up going about 1/4 way "around" the peak just to reach the top--about 20 minutes for the last 0.2 miles. The top was actually nice;mossy, somewhat open under the tree canopy, but with numerous large uprooted trees. Several candidate bumps, but only one appeared to be the "top"--at 2221' about 200' too low for potential of a Person jar
Going down the steeps and thru the small cliffs was a bear-just crazy wet,fog getting denser and finding the right spots a chore. My glasses were wet/fogged/useless. This wasn't a good place to take a dive. I worried i'd just "walk off" an edge like i did years ago on Sawtooth #2 (saved by grabbing fistfuls of evergreens that time). Soon back on better ground, then to the old log road and had only the long slog out--blackflies were pretty bad.
NO RAIN and very fortunate to get these hikes in today
jim
My first choice, Pt 2938 on the AT east of Sabbath Day Pond (south of Rangeley) got over 8" (yes, 8 in a small area right around this peak) of rain in violent T-storms between 3PM Friday and early Saturday morning .... leaving that for another day. I can live with wet woods, but the possibility of dirt roads flooded/washed out is a major issue for most of my hikes
Today i took a flier to try 2 peaks near Greenville with hope of getting something done very early before predicted afternoon T-showers. It was 60 degrees with moderate soup/mist when i left Orrington and stayed that way thru Dover-Foxcroft and Monson. Then the fog got very thick (still dark)and i was driving below 30mph thru that moose infested stretch around Shirley and into Greenville. I saw 4 small foxes on the highway, but no moose-am sure they were lurking in the haze. The fog cleared a bit as i drove toward Kokadjo ( multiple moose on the road near Lily Bay), but returned as i swung onto the Spencer Bay Rd headed onto a peninsula jutting into Moosehead Lake. The Spencer Bay Rd was in very nice shape except for several areas of water from heavy rains running over the roadbed-very solid road. I went in about 16.5 miles for
Little Kineo-1927'-Not quite sure why i've never done this peak-not too far from home, short, nice trail (yes, a trail) and i'm sure great views. Today the pea soup severely restricted visibility and in places the ascent was tricky due to rocks/ledges/roots/leaves being soaked. A swift ascent took me past view ledges, to the high point at 615 and down the ridge a bit--i could see absolutely nothing. Very careful descent- no problems
Probably should have considered myself fortunate and called it a day, but decided to check out.....
Pt 2221-2221'-This point lies on a ridge running SW from Greenville Junction and "looks" accessible using the Dyer Rd and what appear on the satellite to be old log roads. I could get no beta from anyone having been there and info on the road from Greenville locals was contradictory. I hoped for whacking less than 2 miles RT (perhaps hard near the summit; looked steep, evergreens) and being able to park within 2 miles (at worst)from the ascent point. Ah, how wrong i was on this one.
My "roads" turned out to be wide ATV trails, very rocky and right now with large, muddy ruts and holes-some Subaru stoppers for sure if not handled exactly right.. Could i have driven further?-a weak maybe, but it was pretty bad. So i ended up walking about 4 1/2 miles each way to the whack point-nothing hard, just long, muddy. I finally peeled off the ATV trail and headed down a wide grassed over log road (very nice, but grass was soaked) to an area that had been cut over many years ago-- woods were soaked; every small depression coming down the hill was a stream today.
The 'whack was fine down low except for me being totally soaked almost immediately with water squishing in my boots. ...."slow, careful, don't slip"...then i hit the expected steep stuff where your face is in the moss-several small cliff bands and a ton of interlocking blowdowns--very tuff going. Lots of lateral movement and backing out of blowdown boxes to find small alleys allowing one to move higher--ended up going about 1/4 way "around" the peak just to reach the top--about 20 minutes for the last 0.2 miles. The top was actually nice;mossy, somewhat open under the tree canopy, but with numerous large uprooted trees. Several candidate bumps, but only one appeared to be the "top"--at 2221' about 200' too low for potential of a Person jar
Going down the steeps and thru the small cliffs was a bear-just crazy wet,fog getting denser and finding the right spots a chore. My glasses were wet/fogged/useless. This wasn't a good place to take a dive. I worried i'd just "walk off" an edge like i did years ago on Sawtooth #2 (saved by grabbing fistfuls of evergreens that time). Soon back on better ground, then to the old log road and had only the long slog out--blackflies were pretty bad.
NO RAIN
and very fortunate to get these hikes in todayjim
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