buckyball1
New member
On the spur of the moment, I took off early Friday morning to try Poplar 2703' located SE of Carrabasset. I turned off Rt27 onto the Carriage Rd and parked in the nice, new? trail head parking for several nearby hikes. Close by is the old bed of a narrow gauge railway which I used to make my approach. I planned on going in/up about 2 miles on the east side of Poplar and then turn straight west through the woods to the summit.The Guage Rd was a nice uphill walk, but when I got to my planned "whack start, I got too clever and followed a road that (i thought from an old topo) "fishhooked" further SE, then straight north and came up on a level spot fairly close to the summit (saving 'whack distance). As usual I was wrong (think the road was "gone") and ended up walking extra miles with a longer 'whack. The woods is of moderate thickness so you can see all the old blowdown that litters the forest floor-no pace, but at least you don't fall over the stuff. There were some excellent view ledges near the top (as suggested by RS) and the top itself had grown up/occluded views in most directions. Top was obvious spot, small cairn, no jar. Descent was down my original route and much easier than ascent.
I headed up to Stratton, paid Sue for a night at the Roadhouse (hiker hostel west of Stratton) and headed for Black Mt 3183' located west of Eustis. I drove in the Tim Pond Road (easily passable, but very bumpy in spots) about 11-12 miles and turned north for a mile on an "obvious" dirt road east of Alder Stream and on the West side of Black. You can find old slash roads which take you to the col about 0.6 miles SW of Black and then bush to the summit in woods very similar to Poplar, moderate thickness, easily seeable old blowdown. Good view of Bigelows from top, newly placed orange nalgene jar. (11/1/08-thanks Mac/Damon-no other signers).
Cleaned up back at the Roadhouse, had a good burger at the Looney Moose and wandered around Stratton/Eustis. There's lots of activity with Cianbro putting in a huge electrical transmission line (for the Kibby wind turbines I'm sure)-large 27 mile slash through the woods. Business doesn't look great; local people were genuinely friendly, but seemed "worried". It's 3K madness again in the area. I ran into 1/2 dozen seekers at the Roadhouse, around town or in parking lots-more were there. I'm sad about the adversarial relationship between many of the current 3Kers (a number have been banned or just left VFTT) and some Views people.The hiker community could benefit from a bit more tolerance/understanding by both groups-end of stating the obvious/Rodney King plea.
Tried to clean up ugly blister issues from my walking in soaked boots on Flagstaff last Friday (stupid stunt, first blisters in maybe 25 years) and planned for Saturday--good chat with Link and N Dave
jim
I headed up to Stratton, paid Sue for a night at the Roadhouse (hiker hostel west of Stratton) and headed for Black Mt 3183' located west of Eustis. I drove in the Tim Pond Road (easily passable, but very bumpy in spots) about 11-12 miles and turned north for a mile on an "obvious" dirt road east of Alder Stream and on the West side of Black. You can find old slash roads which take you to the col about 0.6 miles SW of Black and then bush to the summit in woods very similar to Poplar, moderate thickness, easily seeable old blowdown. Good view of Bigelows from top, newly placed orange nalgene jar. (11/1/08-thanks Mac/Damon-no other signers).
Cleaned up back at the Roadhouse, had a good burger at the Looney Moose and wandered around Stratton/Eustis. There's lots of activity with Cianbro putting in a huge electrical transmission line (for the Kibby wind turbines I'm sure)-large 27 mile slash through the woods. Business doesn't look great; local people were genuinely friendly, but seemed "worried". It's 3K madness again in the area. I ran into 1/2 dozen seekers at the Roadhouse, around town or in parking lots-more were there. I'm sad about the adversarial relationship between many of the current 3Kers (a number have been banned or just left VFTT) and some Views people.The hiker community could benefit from a bit more tolerance/understanding by both groups-end of stating the obvious/Rodney King plea.
Tried to clean up ugly blister issues from my walking in soaked boots on Flagstaff last Friday (stupid stunt, first blisters in maybe 25 years) and planned for Saturday--good chat with Link and N Dave
jim
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