Long & Puzzle Mtn's... ME3K's

[onestep]

Left the house at 6AM and after a stop to Dunkin Donuts headed west to Newry Maine to hike/'wack these two peaks. Soon after waking up, somewhere around Bethel I think , I realized that I didn't take the maps that show the logging roads I want to use to access the Grafton Loop Trail. Oh well, too late to turn around now...
I arrived in downtown Newry around 7 AM and proceded up the Branch Rd relying on memory to find the logging road. At 7:30 I decided I found it so I parked the car and started hiking. After a wrong turn or two I finally spotted a blue blaze up ahead! I arrived at the Grafton Loop Trail in the valley between Long & Puzzle Mountains at 8:25.
I headed North up the GLT towards Long Mtn. I've hiked this trail twice, but never took the time (or understood the importance of a 3K peak!) to go to the actual summits. I arrived at the highest point the GLT reaches on Long Mtn at 10 . It sort of surprised me as BOTH of my altimeters indicated I still had 250' to go. (I did remember to calibrate them this morning, didn't I?) Anyways, 15 minutes of 'wackin later I found the cannister bump. It took a little searching as there are several bumps up top and the woods are pretty thick. I finally spotted the canister lying on the ground, next to a tree with a shoelace tied to it. I did my best to re-tie the canister back to where it fell from.
I reset both altimeters and headed back down reaching the vally at 11:30. I stopped for lunch beside Chase Brook. The sun was breaking thru the clouds and the woods where quiet. I felt good sitting there eating lunch.
One down, one to go. Off I went towards Puzzle Mtn. From the valley the trail heads uphill quite steeply following the Town Line. Soon though it leaves it's direct ascent and starts a series of long gradual switch-backs through a very nice open fir forest. I stopped breifly at the side trail to the Stewart Johnson campsite but decided to check it out on my way back.
I reached the open ledges of Puzzle around 12:30. I decided to begin my bushwhack where the trail makes a sharp right off the ridge and into woods. At first the terrain was easy, open ledge thru scrub. Then I hit the thick stuff with lots of hidden blowdowns to navigate over/under/and around. I wasn't far from the summit when I hit a herd path that led me directly to the canister.
Reading the canister made me realize how much easier today was for me than those who reached these 2 peaks 18 or so years ago. My "bushwhacks" where very short thanks to the Grafton Loop Trail. I read entries of people following the town line blazing to reach Long Mtn, and of those who bushwhacked 5 hours from Rt 26 to reach Puzzle Mtn... jeeeeeeeez I'm so undeserving.
I decided to follow the herd path back to see if/where it connects with the GLT. Sure enough approx 100 yards from where I began my 'wack the herd path connects to the GLT! Oh well, it will be easier next time!!
As the sun was now completly out I decided to head over to the West Peak to take in the views. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt Black & Wheeler from the Oz peak of Sunday River Ski area. I took advantage of the summit view to scope out the ski trail route I'm planning to taking up.
I left the W Peak at 1:30 and headed back down towards the valley. On the way I stopped to check out the Stewart Campsite... it's getting a lot of use! I reached the logging road in the valley at 2:50, and my car at 3:35.

For anyone interested in accessing the GLT via this logging road:

*From Rt 2 take Rt 26 towards Grafton Notch.
*Turn right off Rt 26 in Newry onto Branch Rd.
*1 mile on your right is the logging road. There is a street sign "Skyline Drive" and you'll also see "ITS 89" (snowmobile route sign). Park on Branch Road as "Skyline Drive" is gated.

Once on the logging road:

* In 10 minutes or so Cross a Bridge with a cement surface.
* Go right at Y-intersection. (Street sign "Candlewood Rd" & metal gate post on right).
* Bear Right at next intersection (to the left is a camp in 150')
* Go left at T-intersection. (street sign "Kelliher Rd)
* Soon you'll see the blue blazes of the GLT!

Onestep

 

[Double Bow]

Great report! Too bad you didn't find that herd path for the way up but, at least your descent was easier.

 

[RoySwkr]

I did them together as a bushwhack with a large group on a hot day, this allowed us to spot cars. We used a route up Puzzle described in the Maine Mountain Guide and may have come down the way you described which we didn't know about and didn't come out at the cars. Oh well, mine was at the other end so it was somebody else who had to walk for them.

At that time our leaders had been told (by DC?) they couldn't be done the same day, but civilization is coming to ME (see Greenwood Pond note) and now it seems only moderate.

P.S. If you're reading this Spencer, they have apparently improved the road all the way to the base of East Turner.

 

[dms]

I did these two peaks in 1993, we found a gated logging road on Rte. 26 that generally headed towards Long, it was a long way to Long and an even longer way to Puzzle. Definitely one of the longer bushwacks i've encountered in doing the 3's.

 

[Nate]

I was up on Puzzle and Long today, and the going is definitely easier now than it used to be. Thankfully it didn't take me anywhere near five hours just to reach the true highpoint on Puzzle (but then again, unlike the Sawyers, I managed to sidestep all the wet snow ). From what I had read in recent posts, I was under the impression that the canisters on these two mountains were within steps of the GLT. Hence, I wanted to hike these two sooner rather than later, for fear that the registers would be removed before I could leave my mark. As it turns out, I needn't have worried, since the highpoint on Puzzle is about a hundred yards from the trail, while Long's is a little under 200 feet. Like Onestep, I didn't know to use the herd path on Puzzle, and instead whacked in from the highpoint on the GLT (even though I had passed by where the herd path comes out on the trail, but at the time I didn't think anything of it, since it was before the highpoint on the trail, and I thought the true summit would be closer to the trail than it was). Needless to say, the herd path came in awful handy when I returned to the trail.

As for Long, I kind of wish there had been a herd path (especially once I learned my lesson on Puzzle), particularly since the high point wasn't as obvious through all the thick spruce, so I had to poke around for a good fifteen minutes before I found it. In fact, were it not for the surveyor's tape on the canister tree, I probably would have kept looking in vain, because the string holding up the jar had broken again, so after spotting what was probably the correct tree, I found the canister lying at its base. I tried tying it back to the tree with the lanyard from my GPS, but unfortunately it was too short. I ended up simply bending some of the tree's branches in order to form a bit of an upright cradle for the jar to rest against. However, I don't think that setup will last through any serious storm. Hence, whoever heads up this way next, please bring a solid piece of twine with you.

Just overall, it was a long day (no pun intended), since I had followed the GLT in from the parking lot on Route 26. Surprisingly, I did not see another soul the whole time, and the parking lot was as empty at seven in the morning as it was at four. Considering it was equally empty when I was there two weekends ago (when I first meant to do this hike), I hope people are using this quality trail.

 

[jjo]

Thanks for a great TR!!