buckyball1
New member
Trying to make the best of the recent rainy weather, i set out for what i hoped would be another "easy" hike. I made a few ill advised choices today, but all turned out well.
Mattamiscontis 1281' is located NW of Lincoln , ME. I drove north on Rt95 to the Howland exit, west to Seboeis Rd and north thru Seboeis, a very small village which appears as if it may have been a lumbering center?? at one time-another small slice of Maine that's new to me. I came in from this end because a few days ago i had gotten info at a local ATV shop that the gate north of Seboeis (shown closed in DeLorme) was only closed for mud season. Had this not been the case, i'd have had to go way up thru Brownville Jct to near Jo-Mary gate and head south on a long series of dirt roads. After i passed Seboeis and Whitney Ridge, the road became dirt.
There had been enough rain up there last night that I probably shouldn't have considered any in-the-woods hiking this morning (knew this as i'd been watching the radar last night), but at least i could see all the potholes in the road
. The road gradually deteriorated (it eventually reaches Jo Mary area on Rt11) as did my travel speed. I made a bad decision to drive further when i reached the "spur" road toward my planned start (should have parked). I really pressed my luck easing the Forester slowly over the next 0.9 miles--the type of road where the brush massages both sides of your car, you drive at walking speed over many sharp unavoidable rocks and then a very poor choice to go over a deep ditch (which was wet)-realized there could be problems trying to traverse this coming out. I turned onto the last little woods road and went 0.1 miles over steep lose rock which was all a tire puncture waiting to happen--i'm rationalizing these choices were influenced by my slugging migraine meds about an hour before to ward off the worst effects of an "attack" --just bad choices--i could easily/quickly have walked all this.
I parked, walked up the road another few tenths and started into the woods with a bearing directly for the top. The only problem today was very wet ground/leaves/rock -the woods themselves were pretty mellow and even the steep section had good steady ascent lines between the rocks/ledges. The top was flat, a bit open with no views. As it was so wet and i had tons of time, I tried to take what the mountain gave me today instead of my usual straight line style--worked very well -less effort and maybe faster.
What i found on top illustrates the point Roy was trying to make in his reply on the Musquash thread two days ago. I found what "could" have been the top-a small, open plateau, coincident with the topo "X" and also having 4 attachment points for what was probably a fire tower--large pieces of iron still embedded in them. The summit area was open enough to peer around a bit and you could see several other "bumps" nearby. One of these looked "promising" and i decided to walk at least a 100 yds in all four compass directions to see what was there. I reached clear drop off points on all four sides of the "x", but that bump i noticed about 75 feet northish of the "X" looked to the eye and showed on the Thommen to be about 5-6 feet higher than the "X". Tuff call, but i'm sure the top is there and not the "X"--lesson learned (again, as same thing happen on Beaver?? though that difference was as i remember more like 100+ feet and more difference in height). I also found a decent ENE view on a mostly wooded ledge
Easy descent-slow tortuous drive out the first mile--he rocks again and at the deep dip i eased the car down and when i tried to go up..wheel spin, bit of panic, but finally made it up and out--smoked the tires, a first--if you go, consider walking this stretch and don't even think about it w/o 4WD
had fun again
jim
Mattamiscontis 1281' is located NW of Lincoln , ME. I drove north on Rt95 to the Howland exit, west to Seboeis Rd and north thru Seboeis, a very small village which appears as if it may have been a lumbering center?? at one time-another small slice of Maine that's new to me. I came in from this end because a few days ago i had gotten info at a local ATV shop that the gate north of Seboeis (shown closed in DeLorme) was only closed for mud season. Had this not been the case, i'd have had to go way up thru Brownville Jct to near Jo-Mary gate and head south on a long series of dirt roads. After i passed Seboeis and Whitney Ridge, the road became dirt.
There had been enough rain up there last night that I probably shouldn't have considered any in-the-woods hiking this morning (knew this as i'd been watching the radar last night), but at least i could see all the potholes in the road
. The road gradually deteriorated (it eventually reaches Jo Mary area on Rt11) as did my travel speed. I made a bad decision to drive further when i reached the "spur" road toward my planned start (should have parked). I really pressed my luck easing the Forester slowly over the next 0.9 miles--the type of road where the brush massages both sides of your car, you drive at walking speed over many sharp unavoidable rocks and then a very poor choice to go over a deep ditch (which was wet)-realized there could be problems trying to traverse this coming out. I turned onto the last little woods road and went 0.1 miles over steep lose rock which was all a tire puncture waiting to happen--i'm rationalizing these choices were influenced by my slugging migraine meds about an hour before to ward off the worst effects of an "attack" --just bad choices--i could easily/quickly have walked all this.I parked, walked up the road another few tenths and started into the woods with a bearing directly for the top. The only problem today was very wet ground/leaves/rock -the woods themselves were pretty mellow and even the steep section had good steady ascent lines between the rocks/ledges. The top was flat, a bit open with no views. As it was so wet and i had tons of time, I tried to take what the mountain gave me today instead of my usual straight line style--worked very well -less effort and maybe faster.
What i found on top illustrates the point Roy was trying to make in his reply on the Musquash thread two days ago. I found what "could" have been the top-a small, open plateau, coincident with the topo "X" and also having 4 attachment points for what was probably a fire tower--large pieces of iron still embedded in them. The summit area was open enough to peer around a bit and you could see several other "bumps" nearby. One of these looked "promising" and i decided to walk at least a 100 yds in all four compass directions to see what was there. I reached clear drop off points on all four sides of the "x", but that bump i noticed about 75 feet northish of the "X" looked to the eye and showed on the Thommen to be about 5-6 feet higher than the "X". Tuff call, but i'm sure the top is there and not the "X"--lesson learned (again, as same thing happen on Beaver?? though that difference was as i remember more like 100+ feet and more difference in height). I also found a decent ENE view on a mostly wooded ledge
Easy descent-slow tortuous drive out the first mile--he rocks again and at the deep dip i eased the car down and when i tried to go up..wheel spin, bit of panic, but finally made it up and out--smoked the tires, a first--if you go, consider walking this stretch and don't even think about it w/o 4WD
had fun again
jim
