T
Tramper Al
Guest
Hey,
I thought I'd get a good start on Maine AT section hiking this year.
So, on Friday afternoon I met up with Weatherman up in Monson, and we left his car there and shuttled down to the shore of Flagstaff Lake. He's written a 'Trail Conditions' report on our 19.9 mile section walk to Rt. 201 in Caratunk, so I'll just add a few of my comments. Camping the night prior on the shore of Flagstaff Lake was amazing, with all the peepers, loons, and views of the Bigelows. On Saturday, traversing the carry ponds route of the Arnold Expedition and native people for generations before that was very cool. That day we were good for 15.9 trail miles. The trickiest part of following every white blaze was definitely over the dam at the outlet of Pierce Pond. I had to do a kind of running long jump over about a 6 foot gap of dam spillway above nasty falls. After staying at Pierce Pond Lean-To through an all night rain, we continued in the drizzle down to the Kennebec for the canoe ferry, meeting Spencer at the Rt. 201 road crossing on Sunday morning. He had brought down the car from the Monson spot, so Weatherman could head home.
Taking the pace up a notch on Sunday, I did my best to keep up with Spencer on the way up Pleasant Pond Mountain. At our first Class 1 ford, he tossed his boot into the river so that we'd all get some practice chasing gear downstream through the rapids, pretty slick. We continued on through intermittent rain to our destination of Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to along it's roaring namesake, for me a good 18.7 trail miles for the day. All of our trail clothes and boots were thoroughly soaked and would remain so for the duration. It rained on and off all night again. For the most part we had daytime temps in the 40s and nights in the 30s all weekend.
Depite oversleeping well into daylight, we got ourselves fed and back into those wet clothes for another fine day of rainy trailwalking. Just out of camp we climbed up Moxie Bald Mountain and promptly lost the trail on the ledges, following amateur cairns well down ledges in the wrong direction. Reclimbing, we found our mis-turn just below the summit, ooops, and finaly began our proper descent by white blazes.
From here on this day was to be about boot-sucking mud and muck, deep standing water and fast moving river fords, and coping with the little aches and pains that go along will multiple high mile days in continuously rainy conditions. Once we were soaked to the core, our river-fording shoes just stayed on our packs and we waded through everything fully booted and gaitored. There were some deep fords and some mucky ones, but the most dangerous was surely at the West Branch Piscataquis River. The water was only about up to mid thigh, but it the current was very swift and strong, any slippage or mis-step meaning a long wet and cold swim through deeper class 1-2 rapids downstream. Spencer showed off his fording technique without poles.
The trip through Horseshoe Canyon was beautiful, with steep cliffs of Monson slate and high waterfalls on both sides. The river was roaring with class 2 to class 4 water, just amazing. We stopped at the Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to for a rare hot lunch, wanting to prepare oursleves as well as we could to continue putting in the miles. The East Branch crossing was deeper but not at all treacherous, and we continued on to Lake Hebron for another rest stop and more chattery loons. Putting one foot in front of another, we made our way up and over Buck Hill, I'm sure an easy little walk on fresh legs, arriving at Spencer's truck at Rt 15 around 5:30 pm, an even 22.0 trail miles for the day.
Thanks both Weatherman and Spencer for your company on this great and soaking section hike!
On to Abol Bridge next?
P.S. Sorry to repost this TR, but now with accurate title.
I thought I'd get a good start on Maine AT section hiking this year.
So, on Friday afternoon I met up with Weatherman up in Monson, and we left his car there and shuttled down to the shore of Flagstaff Lake. He's written a 'Trail Conditions' report on our 19.9 mile section walk to Rt. 201 in Caratunk, so I'll just add a few of my comments. Camping the night prior on the shore of Flagstaff Lake was amazing, with all the peepers, loons, and views of the Bigelows. On Saturday, traversing the carry ponds route of the Arnold Expedition and native people for generations before that was very cool. That day we were good for 15.9 trail miles. The trickiest part of following every white blaze was definitely over the dam at the outlet of Pierce Pond. I had to do a kind of running long jump over about a 6 foot gap of dam spillway above nasty falls. After staying at Pierce Pond Lean-To through an all night rain, we continued in the drizzle down to the Kennebec for the canoe ferry, meeting Spencer at the Rt. 201 road crossing on Sunday morning. He had brought down the car from the Monson spot, so Weatherman could head home.
Taking the pace up a notch on Sunday, I did my best to keep up with Spencer on the way up Pleasant Pond Mountain. At our first Class 1 ford, he tossed his boot into the river so that we'd all get some practice chasing gear downstream through the rapids, pretty slick. We continued on through intermittent rain to our destination of Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to along it's roaring namesake, for me a good 18.7 trail miles for the day. All of our trail clothes and boots were thoroughly soaked and would remain so for the duration. It rained on and off all night again. For the most part we had daytime temps in the 40s and nights in the 30s all weekend.
Depite oversleeping well into daylight, we got ourselves fed and back into those wet clothes for another fine day of rainy trailwalking. Just out of camp we climbed up Moxie Bald Mountain and promptly lost the trail on the ledges, following amateur cairns well down ledges in the wrong direction. Reclimbing, we found our mis-turn just below the summit, ooops, and finaly began our proper descent by white blazes.
From here on this day was to be about boot-sucking mud and muck, deep standing water and fast moving river fords, and coping with the little aches and pains that go along will multiple high mile days in continuously rainy conditions. Once we were soaked to the core, our river-fording shoes just stayed on our packs and we waded through everything fully booted and gaitored. There were some deep fords and some mucky ones, but the most dangerous was surely at the West Branch Piscataquis River. The water was only about up to mid thigh, but it the current was very swift and strong, any slippage or mis-step meaning a long wet and cold swim through deeper class 1-2 rapids downstream. Spencer showed off his fording technique without poles.
The trip through Horseshoe Canyon was beautiful, with steep cliffs of Monson slate and high waterfalls on both sides. The river was roaring with class 2 to class 4 water, just amazing. We stopped at the Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to for a rare hot lunch, wanting to prepare oursleves as well as we could to continue putting in the miles. The East Branch crossing was deeper but not at all treacherous, and we continued on to Lake Hebron for another rest stop and more chattery loons. Putting one foot in front of another, we made our way up and over Buck Hill, I'm sure an easy little walk on fresh legs, arriving at Spencer's truck at Rt 15 around 5:30 pm, an even 22.0 trail miles for the day.
Thanks both Weatherman and Spencer for your company on this great and soaking section hike!
On to Abol Bridge next?
P.S. Sorry to repost this TR, but now with accurate title.
weatherman said:
Last edited:
