buckyball1
New member
Amicus, BigMoose and I met at the post office in Bingham this morning to give Moxie a spin. We had talked about the hike for some time, but almost canceled due to potential rain (i just wasn't up for another battering today). We had fog/mist most of day and some wet woods, but in general the weather was OK (no rain).
After leaving cars in Bingham, we headed up Rt 16 to Troutdale/Townline Road and headed north toward Dimmick Ponds. Not one of the dirt roads was signed; bring your Delormes. We talked to a few locals along the way and were lucky to run into a guy on the Dimmick Pond Road who lead us right to our anticipated start point. There is extensive bear hunting in the area and our benefactor was one of a group that had been hunting for some days. They were doing a "drive" (his topo had a ton of bear bait sites on it), but fortunately they were hunting away from Moxie today and he said the worst we'd encounter was a bear running by chased by dogs.
We left the car and started hiking near the point used by Nate and Oncoman - followed skid roads/slash much of the way to find the bottom of the slide without too much difficulty (you play tag with a stream as you near the slide). The slide is fairly steep and a "crumbly" type with lots of bear tracks, but made for easy height gain. After one last really steep section, the slide ends abruptly and we headed into the woods on a bearing for the top. This section between the top of the slide and the summit was by far the most difficult part of the hike both up and down--moderately thick with a moose path now and then.
BigMoose was a super leader as we headed through the woods and after the requisite amount of effort to make it worthwhile, we found the summit with it's communications towers/buildings and helipad. I noticed the path used by Oncoman down the other side of Moxie, but no traverse for us today. After the obligatory summit photos with Amicus' bottle of Moxie we headed down to escape the wind and mist--no views at all from anywhere on this hike. As per usual, we fell off the ridge a bit and made things interesting as we had the always fun task of slabbing to get back to the slide. A nice trudge down the slide then back out through fairly open woods and the slash paths allowed us to chat easily.
As we left our start point and headed out past the trailers/tents of the bear hunters, we talked to another group headed by "Bear" a Maine guide. He was interested in what we were up to and regaled us for some time with ways we could defend ourselves from the large number of bears in the immediate area. Most of the procedures of defense Bear discussed involved implements we weren't in the habit of using often and the loud whistle defense seemed our best bet. Bear was a nice guy and seemed genuinely concerned with being a steward of the bear population he hunted.
Back to Bingham, some friendly chatter about our day and we scattered for home -BigMoose headed for Baxter. It was great being with these guys today-lots in common to banter about and we may have set the record for 3 fools on Moxie totaling close to 180 years.
jim
After leaving cars in Bingham, we headed up Rt 16 to Troutdale/Townline Road and headed north toward Dimmick Ponds. Not one of the dirt roads was signed; bring your Delormes. We talked to a few locals along the way and were lucky to run into a guy on the Dimmick Pond Road who lead us right to our anticipated start point. There is extensive bear hunting in the area and our benefactor was one of a group that had been hunting for some days. They were doing a "drive" (his topo had a ton of bear bait sites on it), but fortunately they were hunting away from Moxie today and he said the worst we'd encounter was a bear running by chased by dogs.
We left the car and started hiking near the point used by Nate and Oncoman - followed skid roads/slash much of the way to find the bottom of the slide without too much difficulty (you play tag with a stream as you near the slide). The slide is fairly steep and a "crumbly" type with lots of bear tracks, but made for easy height gain. After one last really steep section, the slide ends abruptly and we headed into the woods on a bearing for the top. This section between the top of the slide and the summit was by far the most difficult part of the hike both up and down--moderately thick with a moose path now and then.
BigMoose was a super leader as we headed through the woods and after the requisite amount of effort to make it worthwhile, we found the summit with it's communications towers/buildings and helipad. I noticed the path used by Oncoman down the other side of Moxie, but no traverse for us today. After the obligatory summit photos with Amicus' bottle of Moxie we headed down to escape the wind and mist--no views at all from anywhere on this hike. As per usual, we fell off the ridge a bit and made things interesting as we had the always fun task of slabbing to get back to the slide. A nice trudge down the slide then back out through fairly open woods and the slash paths allowed us to chat easily.
As we left our start point and headed out past the trailers/tents of the bear hunters, we talked to another group headed by "Bear" a Maine guide. He was interested in what we were up to and regaled us for some time with ways we could defend ourselves from the large number of bears in the immediate area. Most of the procedures of defense Bear discussed involved implements we weren't in the habit of using often
and the loud whistle defense seemed our best bet. Bear was a nice guy and seemed genuinely concerned with being a steward of the bear population he hunted.Back to Bingham, some friendly chatter about our day and we scattered for home -BigMoose headed for Baxter. It was great being with these guys today-lots in common to banter about and we may have set the record for 3 fools on Moxie totaling close to 180 years.
jim
