SteveHiker
New member
Newly Discovered New England Hundred Highest Peak
Some of you won’t like this. Others of you will. Let me explain.
One of my college roommates, Joe, was a double major in civil engineering and geology. He worked for a few years for the USGS after he got his PhD, got sick of the research world, and eventually started his own surveying company. He contracts out all over the country. He recently started work in an undisclosed location in Maine for an undisclosed client. I say undisclosed because he couldn’t tell me who it was because of confidentiality agreements and because I probably could never find where we went again on my own.
Joe called me a while back to tell me about something he thought I’d find interesting. The area his client is working in is rather remote and heavily forested. He knew that I was in to hiking, and asked how I’d like to make history. Unsure of what he meant, I asked for an explanation. It seems that there are several hills in the area he was working one of which is shown on most of the maps as being 2791’. Ok, great, but so what? Well, the reason he was called in was that when initial site work was being done, the GPS and altimeters showed readings that were off. Way off. So they called him in for surveying. What he found was that in fact the actual elevation at the highest point was 3794’. Further research into old records turned up a map from 1898 that showed the elevation to be 3791’. But you really had to squint to tell because whoever wrote it had terrible penmanship. Upon confirmation of this elevation, the client was not too happy. I guess there are severe restrictions in Maine on development above 3500’. The history part is that he told me I could be the first to climb the actual New England Hundred Highest. Unfortunately, that is probably not the case, as someone has undoubtedly already climbed it before me, and I’m 20 short of the 100 anyway. But I suppose we can dream. He hadn’t been there in a couple months, the survey having been done in late fall / early winter before the snowfall. He got permission to go back this spring to check out some geological anomaly that he had noticed previously, something that he is apparently an expert in, having written a paper on the subject a few years ago.
So on Friday night after work, Joe picked me up and we began the long drive to Maine. I drove most of the way on I-95 and then he took over after dinner just north of Freeport. I didn’t pay that close attention after we got off the highway as I was pretty sleepy at that point. Plus, in the dark there were so many twists and turns on those backroads that it likely wouldn’t have mattered anyway. We arrived at the company’s camp around midnight. It would only be about a 7 mile round-trip, so at least we could sleep in a little bit. The next morning we headed out through a rough footpath in more or less open woods. The grade was pretty moderate and there were a few outlooks along the way, and I must say the most varied terrain I think I have ever seen in such a small area. The snow and mud were intermittent and there was no ice to speak of, which was surprising. The view from the top was nothing spectacular, but I’ve seen worse.
So who does he work for? Well, he wouldn’t tell me, but I saw remains of a wooden crate in the camp area with the name Todosostolos Technologies on it (never heard of it and can’t find it on Google), so I suspect that they were planning a wind turbine or maybe a microwave relay station. Unless they discovered dilithium crystals in the rocks near the summit.
Click
here for pictures – They tell the story better than I do.
Some of you won’t like this. Others of you will. Let me explain.
One of my college roommates, Joe, was a double major in civil engineering and geology. He worked for a few years for the USGS after he got his PhD, got sick of the research world, and eventually started his own surveying company. He contracts out all over the country. He recently started work in an undisclosed location in Maine for an undisclosed client. I say undisclosed because he couldn’t tell me who it was because of confidentiality agreements and because I probably could never find where we went again on my own.
Joe called me a while back to tell me about something he thought I’d find interesting. The area his client is working in is rather remote and heavily forested. He knew that I was in to hiking, and asked how I’d like to make history. Unsure of what he meant, I asked for an explanation. It seems that there are several hills in the area he was working one of which is shown on most of the maps as being 2791’. Ok, great, but so what? Well, the reason he was called in was that when initial site work was being done, the GPS and altimeters showed readings that were off. Way off. So they called him in for surveying. What he found was that in fact the actual elevation at the highest point was 3794’. Further research into old records turned up a map from 1898 that showed the elevation to be 3791’. But you really had to squint to tell because whoever wrote it had terrible penmanship. Upon confirmation of this elevation, the client was not too happy. I guess there are severe restrictions in Maine on development above 3500’. The history part is that he told me I could be the first to climb the actual New England Hundred Highest. Unfortunately, that is probably not the case, as someone has undoubtedly already climbed it before me, and I’m 20 short of the 100 anyway. But I suppose we can dream. He hadn’t been there in a couple months, the survey having been done in late fall / early winter before the snowfall. He got permission to go back this spring to check out some geological anomaly that he had noticed previously, something that he is apparently an expert in, having written a paper on the subject a few years ago.
So on Friday night after work, Joe picked me up and we began the long drive to Maine. I drove most of the way on I-95 and then he took over after dinner just north of Freeport. I didn’t pay that close attention after we got off the highway as I was pretty sleepy at that point. Plus, in the dark there were so many twists and turns on those backroads that it likely wouldn’t have mattered anyway. We arrived at the company’s camp around midnight. It would only be about a 7 mile round-trip, so at least we could sleep in a little bit. The next morning we headed out through a rough footpath in more or less open woods. The grade was pretty moderate and there were a few outlooks along the way, and I must say the most varied terrain I think I have ever seen in such a small area. The snow and mud were intermittent and there was no ice to speak of, which was surprising. The view from the top was nothing spectacular, but I’ve seen worse.
So who does he work for? Well, he wouldn’t tell me, but I saw remains of a wooden crate in the camp area with the name Todosostolos Technologies on it (never heard of it and can’t find it on Google), so I suspect that they were planning a wind turbine or maybe a microwave relay station. Unless they discovered dilithium crystals in the rocks near the summit.
Click
here for pictures – They tell the story better than I do.
