buckyball1
New member
Long Mt 3021' near N Newry
-thanks to Marc H for ideas that saved much energy--i knew i could take the Grafton Notch Trail (east loop) up over Puzzle, down into the deep col and up Long (or come in from the Baldpates end)--had done both of these in the past and didn't look forward to the long up/down slog---the route i took was about 10 miles on the ground and avoided these peaks altogether-i have no idea what the preferred approach to Long was say 10 years ago before the GNTrail
Not wanting to waste a beautiful day, I drove west early this morning on Rt 2 through Rumford, turned up Rt 26 at Newry and turned right on the Branch Rd in North Newry. About a mile in (still houses), I parked at the gated Skyline Rd, talked to a homeowner for 10 minutes about the area and started to walk up this fairly steep, nice dirt road which goes NE , then SE. Don't take any of the numerous roads (some signed) off Skyline to the left that look like they "might" head directly toward Long. You reach the "top" of the road, descend a bit, then start climbing again. At an obvious intersection with a gate in front of you, turn left on the Kelliher Rd (signed). The Kelliher road is a wide, pretty, flat, grassy path that intersects with the GNotch Trail coming down from Puzzle which after "sharing" the road leaves to the left toward Long-just a nice hard walk to here.
This was my first time on this part of the Notch Trail and it's well done-good footing (you seldom need to break stride), not too muddy and of course still "new" looking-little erosion. It's about 1.8+ "crow fly" miles to Long, but due to excessive? wandering/switchbacking once you start up Long, I'd guess the trail miles are more like 2.5 or more. For the first 0.8 miles after it leaves the Kelliher, the trail parallels a very wide overgrown swath which reminded me of the boundary swath-it's that big. No idea why it's there-a long abandoned or perhaps future pipe or power line path? Perhaps there are reasons, but i always dislike the choice to route trail 100% in the woods right beside very walkable/open space-i get weary of all closed in woods walking-you see this way too much on the AT where over the years, the road walk/field/dirt road sections have been rerouted (of course that's just mho
)I managed to startle several owls and saw some very fresh bear prints. There are good views from several sections of the trail, the main features being Sunday River Whitecap, Sunday River ski area and the Puzzles.
Long seems to have a bit of a rep as a tuff jar to find-for some good reasons. The topo makes Long's summit look "obvious", a bit off the trail, north of a longish SE ridge. On the ground, it doesn't look like this at all. As you approach what appears to be the cone by a series of switchbacks, you slab left of a "summit" which using an altimeter/compass/map setup certainly appears about right (the trail goes "down" pretty quickly here and you see nothing higher). I suspect people have 'whacked up here and found this "top" within what they think is the altimeter's error for Long. Knowing there were "issues", i kept going and after the trail dipped steeply about 80-85 feet, it started "up" again and another "summit" cone appeared. You climb a small wooden ladder and there's a spur trail steeply up to the right which takes you to a nice view spot with a wooden bench. I GPS waypoint all the "tops" and it appeared Long was about 125 yardsfrom the bench into some very thick balsam crap. Unfortunately, I didn't take my normal care spotting the point (thought it would be easy) and knew i could be off 75? or more feet.
Of course then the fun began-thick ugly woods, a flat top with sooo many little knobs and only one set of eyes/legs. I searched the area I thought correct and after hitting 7-8 knobs, i kept coming back to the same 2 which felt "OK", but seemed perhaps 5-8' short and too thick to have "the jar". After 20 minutes or so of this, i was getting desperate --some of you know the feeling of not finding that little jar with a few scraps of paper--and about to "give up". I decided to take 10 more minutes and search out in "spoke like" fashion from where i thought the top was. Success-an obviously higher well treed rock/ledge with enough open space to stand/sit and there was the jar--about 30 yards west of where i diligently searched--so thick you could not see this higher point.
Had to rock hammer the rusted lid open-found original placement by Dennis C in 1987, replacement by a party including Roy and the Paisleys and latest notebook from DRitter and jt (BigMoose)-some pages were blurred beyond readability-many of the known 3K suspects past and present had signed the registers, but a considerable number hadn't--some 3K finishers or "almosts" have showed a large component of "anality" by returning to find this jar they missed the first time--this quality seems to afflict many of us 'whackers---so perhaps it was just me, but i do think this is a difficult jar to find.
Easy hike "down"-i straight lined off the summit to the trail and found the jar is closer to a point on the spur trail than to the bench from whence i 'whacked
Save for the last yards, this hike was so different from what i've been doing much of the last 2 years and a welcome change
I drove toward Bethel to check out a questionable approach road to a possible 'whack start point for another small peak on my list. The road IS private, but after a good chat with the owner, he said "sure, any time", but then casually asked why i didn't use the TRAIL the town had put in recently. This trailhead is just off Rt 2 and further checking indicates it will get me to within less than a tenth of a mile of the summit--ah. local knowledge.
jim
-thanks to Marc H for ideas that saved much energy--i knew i could take the Grafton Notch Trail (east loop) up over Puzzle, down into the deep col and up Long (or come in from the Baldpates end)--had done both of these in the past and didn't look forward to the long up/down slog---the route i took was about 10 miles on the ground and avoided these peaks altogether-i have no idea what the preferred approach to Long was say 10 years ago before the GNTrail
Not wanting to waste a beautiful day, I drove west early this morning on Rt 2 through Rumford, turned up Rt 26 at Newry and turned right on the Branch Rd in North Newry. About a mile in (still houses), I parked at the gated Skyline Rd, talked to a homeowner for 10 minutes about the area and started to walk up this fairly steep, nice dirt road which goes NE , then SE. Don't take any of the numerous roads (some signed) off Skyline to the left that look like they "might" head directly toward Long. You reach the "top" of the road, descend a bit, then start climbing again. At an obvious intersection with a gate in front of you, turn left on the Kelliher Rd (signed). The Kelliher road is a wide, pretty, flat, grassy path that intersects with the GNotch Trail coming down from Puzzle which after "sharing" the road leaves to the left toward Long-just a nice hard walk to here.
This was my first time on this part of the Notch Trail and it's well done-good footing (you seldom need to break stride), not too muddy and of course still "new" looking-little erosion. It's about 1.8+ "crow fly" miles to Long, but due to excessive? wandering/switchbacking once you start up Long, I'd guess the trail miles are more like 2.5 or more. For the first 0.8 miles after it leaves the Kelliher, the trail parallels a very wide overgrown swath which reminded me of the boundary swath-it's that big. No idea why it's there-a long abandoned or perhaps future pipe or power line path? Perhaps there are reasons, but i always dislike the choice to route trail 100% in the woods right beside very walkable/open space-i get weary of all closed in woods walking-you see this way too much on the AT where over the years, the road walk/field/dirt road sections have been rerouted (of course that's just mho
)I managed to startle several owls and saw some very fresh bear prints. There are good views from several sections of the trail, the main features being Sunday River Whitecap, Sunday River ski area and the Puzzles.Long seems to have a bit of a rep as a tuff jar to find-for some good reasons. The topo makes Long's summit look "obvious", a bit off the trail, north of a longish SE ridge. On the ground, it doesn't look like this at all. As you approach what appears to be the cone by a series of switchbacks, you slab left of a "summit" which using an altimeter/compass/map setup certainly appears about right (the trail goes "down" pretty quickly here and you see nothing higher). I suspect people have 'whacked up here and found this "top" within what they think is the altimeter's error for Long. Knowing there were "issues", i kept going and after the trail dipped steeply about 80-85 feet, it started "up" again and another "summit" cone appeared. You climb a small wooden ladder and there's a spur trail steeply up to the right which takes you to a nice view spot with a wooden bench. I GPS waypoint all the "tops" and it appeared Long was about 125 yardsfrom the bench into some very thick balsam crap. Unfortunately, I didn't take my normal care spotting the point (thought it would be easy) and knew i could be off 75? or more feet.
Of course then the fun began-thick ugly woods, a flat top with sooo many little knobs and only one set of eyes/legs. I searched the area I thought correct and after hitting 7-8 knobs, i kept coming back to the same 2 which felt "OK", but seemed perhaps 5-8' short and too thick to have "the jar". After 20 minutes or so of this, i was getting desperate --some of you know the feeling of not finding that little jar with a few scraps of paper--and about to "give up". I decided to take 10 more minutes and search out in "spoke like" fashion from where i thought the top was. Success-an obviously higher well treed rock/ledge with enough open space to stand/sit and there was the jar--about 30 yards west of where i diligently searched--so thick you could not see this higher point.
Had to rock hammer the rusted lid open-found original placement by Dennis C in 1987, replacement by a party including Roy and the Paisleys and latest notebook from DRitter and jt (BigMoose)-some pages were blurred beyond readability-many of the known 3K suspects past and present had signed the registers, but a considerable number hadn't--some 3K finishers or "almosts" have showed a large component of "anality" by returning to find this jar they missed the first time--this quality seems to afflict many of us 'whackers---so perhaps it was just me, but i do think this is a difficult jar to find.
Easy hike "down"-i straight lined off the summit to the trail and found the jar is closer to a point on the spur trail than to the bench from whence i 'whacked
Save for the last yards, this hike was so different from what i've been doing much of the last 2 years and a welcome change
I drove toward Bethel to check out a questionable approach road to a possible 'whack start point for another small peak on my list. The road IS private, but after a good chat with the owner, he said "sure, any time", but then casually asked why i didn't use the TRAIL the town had put in recently. This trailhead is just off Rt 2 and further checking indicates it will get me to within less than a tenth of a mile of the summit
--ah. local knowledge.jim
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