Spruce, Wilbur, Abram, Farwell 8/22

[buckyball1]

short peaks, long day

I left Orrington around 3 this AM for my second round of the Rumford/Bethel series. One of the problems with the set of peaks I'm playing with is that there's not much info available from previous hikes. Local information is also hard to come by as most people pay no attention to mountains/hiking and the few that do are hard to find and usually not up at 530 . Most of the day went at least close to "plan", but as always there were surprises.

Spruce (near East Milton/Bryant Pond)-after studying Delorme, my Nat'l Geo Topos and Google Earth, I thought I saw an old trail that went much of the way up Spruce from the north. Navigation to the "trail head" wasn't bad and I was on my way up before 6. The climb was a combination of very overgrown old logging roads, a super wet power line cut and about 0.4 miles of whacking here and there. Even after careful planning, it was a bit of feel your way up/gut instincts, but as with last week in the same area, I found the woods to be only medium thick and no big problem. The elevation gain is about 1400' in 2 1/2 miles up , much of it at the top. When i hit the top, i found (as suggested to me by RS) a lot of communications equipment and of course a nice road up the south side (but my route was much more "interesting" )-decent views off the south side..down ..and on to

Wilbur (just east of Milton)-i thought i saw a gravel pit with a road leading part way up Wilbur and after asking around found the owner who was super about me walking over his land-he also provided some route advice. I followed his logging road, etc (not obvious) to it's highest point and started a 0.6 mile whack toward the summit. The badly overgrown skidder trails i used now and then (head high with vegetation) cut me to shreds with berry plants and i actually stayed in the moderately dense woods most of the way. The area was extremely wet in spots. The top was actually a large "open"area (pretty cool), but with little in the way of views-elevation gain of about 1300 feet in maybe 2 road miles up+ the wack...then off to

Abram (ski resort near Locke Mills)-I had heard the owners were not disposed to humor hikers and had failed to reach them by phone, but was pleasantly surprised to find the mountain under new ownership who were very nice and said "go on up and have fun". After the confined hiking/whacking on the other two , it was nice to just choose a black diamond/lift route straight for the top and put the hammer down with no thought/decision needed, 1 mile and about 1050' ups-hot, exhausting, felt great. Man was it hot on the open slopes/blazing sun.There are no VFTT and i think the "top" is in the woods to the "left" of the summit building; some nice views on the way down some of the intermediate slopes...pushing my luck, i moved on to

Farwell (just north of Bethel; oddly enough, there's another Farwell just south of Bethel) I had made some calls to people in the area and thought this would be a relative bunny/no brainer to finish the day. I went up the Middle Intervale RD and took the Swan Hill Rd as far up as I could(had the Forester as it was very rough higher up). I had great plans and a tentative route mapped out,expected a 600' climb of perhaps 3 miles round trip from the south (ah, sorry north) probably using an old road. This just didn't work out as there were no trails headed toward the summit and I didn't think my body could take another 3/4 mile wack. So I ended up circumnavigating on some decent paths (and losing 300 feet of altitude) way around to the east and then following a path to the summit area(after several failed direct approach excursions into the woods); no views from top, but a nice outlook area nearby with a good view to the east/north. The hike turned into a 7 mile/1200' of ups-too much at that point

If anyone is interested in any of these, I'm always happy to share details if you PM me.

...and, yes, I've decided to try the ME 1000' prominence list--may never finish it, but....it's difficult to get much information on road approach and possible hike lines for many of these peaks, but that also makes the quest pretty interesting..a fair number of them are in obscure/lonely places, back long series of iffy dirt roads ("is that bridge out or not?") so I'll be asking for your help on VFTT all too often, hoping someone has done it and is willing to share...... you often see nobody all day long; this constant solo whacking in odd places can be a great thing, but i do worry about the real possibility of injury banging around on thick slopes while alone....if anyone has a burning desire to do some of these, let me know

for the moment, I'll just enjoy that glow of exhaustion, almost like a drug i guess

jim

 

[RoySwkr]

The PeakMaster and I were looking for a relatively easy hike on a hot and humid day Sunday, and he picked Farwell. The previous report was confusing (Swan Hill Rd is N not S) and didn't sound that attractive. Instead I drove my Ford Focus about 1.3 miles up Farwell Rd and parked at the sharp turn which is the closest point to the summit. We followed a woods road and then a skid trail NE awhile but ultimately bushwhacked up the obvious ridge to the S summit, it had some steep and thick spots but was generally all right. Just before the summit we hit a snowmobile trail that passed a few vertical feet from the S summit. Looking at the map it was obvious from the steep slopes where this trail must go, so we followed it L maybe .4 miles to the N summit. This had been cut over and seemed like a bake oven, it was too hazy for views so we headed back after a quick altimeter reading showing this one 10' higher which is not what I would have guessed from walking between them.

We went back past the S summit on the trail as from the contour lines it was obvious it must lead to the highpoint of Farwell Rd. Even so there was one steep pitch with a warning sign that I think would be impossible to get a snowmobile up in deep snow, never mind finding someone brave enough to go down it. This route down was double the length of our up route but probably faster, and would have been faster yet had we parked at the high point of the road. Total maybe 2.9, 900' but could have been 2.6, 700' with no bushwhack.

Now I have my token ME p1k for the year, and can think about VT, MA, and NY.

 

[buckyball1]

jim

 

[RoySwkr]

Apparently this trail is actually in a guidebook:
http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=SGN018-020

and is allegedly for x-c not snowmobiles:
http://www.cartersxcski.com/maps.html

 

[RoySwkr]

Wilbur from the N, 10/12/13

The PeakMaster and I decided that the route used by bb1 didn't sound too appealing and looked for something better. The S end of Bird Hill Rd had a Private sign and the N end was gated, and the end of Taras Rd was a big new house with keypad gate. [This is at the 1340 end of JEEP TRAIL although the present approach is via Grand View.] This left us with what looked best from satellite photos, a log yard at 1580'. We chose to park at a turnaround on Grand View Rd at about 930' by the last utility pole - above that the road would be hazardous to your paint job. This area may change with continuing development. It was just over a mile up to the log yard, choosing the best road uphill at forks. The road ended here but an ATV/snowmobile trail continued sometimes steeply toward the N bump. At the high point of the trail a short path leads L to a viewpoint near the summit of the bump, but it was so foggy that we couldn't even see the true summit a quarter mile away.

The main trail continued down toward the col but became less and less cleared, finally we turned L toward the peak on what was probably a moose trail that looked better used. As usual the moose trail was intermittent, but it was a mixture of mossy ledges and sparse trees with only a few thick spots. The summit itself was a flattish area of ledges covered with moss and lichen with no obvious highest point, and enough trees to obstruct views. This would be a nice hike on a sunny day, but the fog was damp enough that we didn't bother with another peak.