buckyball1
New member
Arriving home after a visit with my daughter in Gettysburg, i headed out on a few hours sleep to do three peaks between Bingham and Jackman. The usual drive through Skowhegan, up Rt 201 past Bingham, Caratunk and the Forks. Cold night (26 up there around 6AM) with the full moon glistening off the Kennebec-very nice. Temps in high 20s with substantial wind all morning. I passed the Spencer/Hardscrabble Rd (home of #5 & #6 among others) and turned in a logging road at the north end of Lake Parlin--partially useless fact-the two largest towns up that way (Bingham and Jackman ) have NO cell service, but there's a tower/service at Lake Parlin which is truly middle of nowhere-odd.
Parlin-2450'-One of the nice things re having a number of 1500-3000' peaks in the current "to-do" group is that many have been logged with the accompanying road network (condition from excellent to non-drivable) and have overgrown/slash filled skid trails a fair ways up many of the peaks. Parlin falls into this category; you can drive reasonably close if you have a plan. I harp on "plan" too often, but if you haven't looked at sat pics, you can only find the "best" driving approach by time consuming hit/miss-the logging roads can feel like a corn maze if you're not sure where they lead.
The "open" field i saw on the lower reaches of Parlin in the sat pics is now well grown in with evergreens, but easy going. Whacking on the upper portion of the mountain was easy and lead me to a fairly heavily wooded, longish summit ridge with little change in elevation along it's length. I had hoped to find a "JP" plastic bottle (think there should be one?), but no luck. I searched a distance of about 0.25 miles on the ridge twice and found several possible "tops", but no jar-spent more time looking than actually ascending/descending the peak-silly me, Jo-Mary all over again. The jar 1) was never there 2) i missed it 3) fallen or removed by clearly active hunter population in area. I have a "spot" which i feel is the top (altimeter/"feel"), but i'd not quibble with 2/3 other possibilities-visited them all. Easy descent, back to Rt201 and about 8 miles south, past Lake Parlin and turn east on the Capital Road for..
Cold Stream-2254'-Approach was from the south back about 6-7 miles on the Capital Rd(good dirt) and on ever decreasing quality lesser log roads. There is serious active logging by an outfit with a "headquarters" just off Rt 201, so be careful especially on week days (for all of you who may climb this
). Ascent by grown over skid roads and thru decent woods-nothing hard/special. The top is in a very thick stand of evergreen. Fortunately there was only about 1/2" of snow above 2000'. Had the evergreens been covered, i'd have been quickly soaked/cold. Back to Rt 201 and head south for
Heald-2421'-I turned west on Lower Enchanter Rd--a great name, yes? The drive in was about 13 miles past Upper Enchanter Rd (been there for Hedgehog, etc) and onto Hunter Rd which lead past Granny Cap (been there recently before i planned to do Heald). This "straggler" thing happens a lot as the list plan grows. I was able to get to the north side of Heald on mostly good dirt roads and find my old log yard parking spot. Ascent was a mileish the first 2/3 using wet, boggy old skid roads and the last 0.3 on steep, thick, evergreen slopes with moderate blowdown. There is a semi-open summit clearing with nice views south and you have excellent views north as you descend back to the log road.
-I may be back this way next weekend to try 3 more off the Spencer Rd and hope to do two monster 1100'ers tomorrow in the easterly lowland region
good day again
jim
Parlin-2450'-One of the nice things re having a number of 1500-3000' peaks in the current "to-do" group is that many have been logged with the accompanying road network (condition from excellent to non-drivable) and have overgrown/slash filled skid trails a fair ways up many of the peaks. Parlin falls into this category; you can drive reasonably close if you have a plan. I harp on "plan" too often, but if you haven't looked at sat pics, you can only find the "best" driving approach by time consuming hit/miss-the logging roads can feel like a corn maze if you're not sure where they lead.
The "open" field i saw on the lower reaches of Parlin in the sat pics is now well grown in with evergreens, but easy going. Whacking on the upper portion of the mountain was easy and lead me to a fairly heavily wooded, longish summit ridge with little change in elevation along it's length. I had hoped to find a "JP" plastic bottle (think there should be one?), but no luck. I searched a distance of about 0.25 miles on the ridge twice and found several possible "tops", but no jar-spent more time looking than actually ascending/descending the peak-silly me, Jo-Mary all over again. The jar 1) was never there 2) i missed it 3) fallen or removed by clearly active hunter population in area. I have a "spot" which i feel is the top (altimeter/"feel"), but i'd not quibble with 2/3 other possibilities-visited them all. Easy descent, back to Rt201 and about 8 miles south, past Lake Parlin and turn east on the Capital Road for..
Cold Stream-2254'-Approach was from the south back about 6-7 miles on the Capital Rd(good dirt) and on ever decreasing quality lesser log roads. There is serious active logging by an outfit with a "headquarters" just off Rt 201, so be careful especially on week days (for all of you who may climb this
). Ascent by grown over skid roads and thru decent woods-nothing hard/special. The top is in a very thick stand of evergreen. Fortunately there was only about 1/2" of snow above 2000'. Had the evergreens been covered, i'd have been quickly soaked/cold. Back to Rt 201 and head south forHeald-2421'-I turned west on Lower Enchanter Rd--a great name, yes? The drive in was about 13 miles past Upper Enchanter Rd (been there for Hedgehog, etc) and onto Hunter Rd which lead past Granny Cap (been there recently before i planned to do Heald). This "straggler" thing happens a lot as the list plan grows
. I was able to get to the north side of Heald on mostly good dirt roads and find my old log yard parking spot. Ascent was a mileish the first 2/3 using wet, boggy old skid roads and the last 0.3 on steep, thick, evergreen slopes with moderate blowdown. There is a semi-open summit clearing with nice views south and you have excellent views north as you descend back to the log road.-I may be back this way next weekend to try 3 more off the Spencer Rd and hope to do two monster 1100'ers tomorrow in the easterly lowland region
good day again
jim
Last edited:
