buckyball1
New member
Strickland-2410' in Baxter State Park lies just north of Center Mt and east of Nesowadnehunk Lake.
Thanks to Spencer (and JP) for info/ideas/advice on this one.
I drove to Baxter late Saturday afternoon for a cold night at Nesowadnehunk Campground. I spent about 1/2 hour that evening trying to find traces of an old trail that lead from Camp Phoenix to Strickland, but saw no sign of it from the Loop Road. During the night, i got up twice just to watch the the stars seem to spill from clear, dark night sky; no "glow" from lights up here --wow, haven't seen this often since we moved to Maine from nowhere in the Adirondack Park
It was about 28 degrees as i made my way a bit further north on the Loop Rd early Sunday morning to my starting point at the old north entrance to Camp Phoenix. Another quick search for the "trail" yielded nothing so i just headed into the woods. There are multiple tops on Strickland and while i felt the "north" summit was the highest, i decided to also hit the "middle" summit just to be sure (and for the views). Looking at the old topos the "trail" seemed to zigzag wildly lower on the mountain and i thought i'd hit any trace of it sooner or later. Sure enough in less than 10 minutes i found it, but down low it was a rocky, overgrown ditch with too many blowdowns and the moderate thickness woods were easier going. About 1/2 way up (all decent woods and slope), I hit the old trail again and it was in pretty nice shape. The trail must have been heavily used at one time because although it's grown "over" from the sides, there isn't much new growth in the actual trail up here. I was able to follow the 'trail" pretty much to the middle summit area and found a large rock with superb 180+ degree views all the way from the Center Ridge/Traveler past the Pogys (bad memories
) "W", Center, Mullen?, some of the "big stuff", Doubletop and a great view of Nesowadnehunk Lake and Camp Phoenix (a sizable set of buildings on the eastern shore).
I paid the price for my good luck coming up when i 'whacked across to the north summit--real thick much of the 0.25 miles over. A wooded top with peek-a-boo views to the north from nearby. There appeared to be old trails coming up from the Dwelley Pond side. Even if it were a 'whack, doing just the northern (highest)) summit would probably be easier/shorter from that side. I found one of JP's old pill bottles hanging by that neat pink cord string--alas only a few sheets of green paper in jar with "Fred Worthington" from Randolph, NH (coincidence?) as the only entry--suspect the original book got wet/was taken. I straight lined it down toward the road, found an old "contouring" logging road that lead my back to my ascent line and was back in the car in no time--one nice hike and great views from Middle.
I'll edit out my comments on being in Baxter on the weekend to protect the guilty-reinforces the reasons i try to drive/hike there during the week.
Then i was off to:
Trout-1430' (yes 1430', but 860' of prominence) and yes this does signal i'm also foolishly thinking (now doing) a few of the ME P #151-200 in addition to trying to complete #100-150--don't want too many stragglers if i live long enough to do 200. Trout is NOT Trout Brook, a trailed peak in the northern end of Baxter, but rather a nondescript peak near Lower Togue Pond just outside the Park gate. I had seen a road headed in toward the peak on the sat pics and while it quickly "dwindled", i hoped to get at least 1/2 to 2/3 of the 2.5 miles in toward the peak. Oh well...locked gate at the start of the road, but it was "legal" so i walked in from the main road.
The road i saw in the pics (and on the older topos) just stopped after 1/2 mile (just no trace of anything after that??- i know the smaller scale topos are ancient, but it's beginning to appear the sat pics are pretty outmoded too) and i was left with a 2 mile 'whack to the summit-more than planned. It isn't that i was tired....this is a peak with little redeeming value (YMMV)--the 'whack was ugly-medium density woods, big moss covered rocks, moderate blowdown, but worst of all, endless small, tight, dead balsam that scoured you from head to toe with every step--yuck. This hike seemed endless-low angle ascent, nothing "terrible", but 2 miles of mostly crap and no open space, no cool cliffs, no tricky route finding, etc--just work. The crap eased about 0.3 from the summit and i topped out on a flat, featureless wooded summit -no hint of views anywhere during the hike----repeat in reverse going down. Avoid this one.
I'd love to know history of Camp Phoenix (won't say i checked it out as it's private) and also any thoughts on hiking Billfish Mt in north end of Park.
jim
Thanks to Spencer (and JP) for info/ideas/advice on this one.
I drove to Baxter late Saturday afternoon for a cold night at Nesowadnehunk Campground. I spent about 1/2 hour that evening trying to find traces of an old trail that lead from Camp Phoenix to Strickland, but saw no sign of it from the Loop Road. During the night, i got up twice just to watch the the stars seem to spill from clear, dark night sky; no "glow" from lights up here --wow, haven't seen this often since we moved to Maine from nowhere in the Adirondack Park
It was about 28 degrees as i made my way a bit further north on the Loop Rd early Sunday morning to my starting point at the old north entrance to Camp Phoenix. Another quick search for the "trail" yielded nothing so i just headed into the woods. There are multiple tops on Strickland and while i felt the "north" summit was the highest, i decided to also hit the "middle" summit just to be sure (and for the views). Looking at the old topos the "trail" seemed to zigzag wildly lower on the mountain and i thought i'd hit any trace of it sooner or later. Sure enough in less than 10 minutes i found it, but down low it was a rocky, overgrown ditch with too many blowdowns and the moderate thickness woods were easier going. About 1/2 way up (all decent woods and slope), I hit the old trail again and it was in pretty nice shape. The trail must have been heavily used at one time because although it's grown "over" from the sides, there isn't much new growth in the actual trail up here. I was able to follow the 'trail" pretty much to the middle summit area and found a large rock with superb 180+ degree views all the way from the Center Ridge/Traveler past the Pogys (bad memories
) "W", Center, Mullen?, some of the "big stuff", Doubletop and a great view of Nesowadnehunk Lake and Camp Phoenix (a sizable set of buildings on the eastern shore).I paid the price for my good luck coming up when i 'whacked across to the north summit--real thick much of the 0.25 miles over. A wooded top with peek-a-boo views to the north from nearby. There appeared to be old trails coming up from the Dwelley Pond side. Even if it were a 'whack, doing just the northern (highest)) summit would probably be easier/shorter from that side. I found one of JP's old pill bottles hanging by that neat pink cord string--alas only a few sheets of green paper in jar with "Fred Worthington" from Randolph, NH (coincidence?) as the only entry--suspect the original book got wet/was taken. I straight lined it down toward the road, found an old "contouring" logging road that lead my back to my ascent line and was back in the car in no time--one nice hike and great views from Middle.
I'll edit out my comments on being in Baxter on the weekend to protect the guilty-reinforces the reasons i try to drive/hike there during the week.
Then i was off to:
Trout-1430' (yes 1430', but 860' of prominence) and yes this does signal i'm also foolishly thinking (now doing) a few of the ME P #151-200 in addition to trying to complete #100-150--don't want too many stragglers if i live long enough to do 200. Trout is NOT Trout Brook, a trailed peak in the northern end of Baxter, but rather a nondescript peak near Lower Togue Pond just outside the Park gate. I had seen a road headed in toward the peak on the sat pics and while it quickly "dwindled", i hoped to get at least 1/2 to 2/3 of the 2.5 miles in toward the peak. Oh well...locked gate at the start of the road, but it was "legal" so i walked in from the main road.
The road i saw in the pics (and on the older topos) just stopped after 1/2 mile (just no trace of anything after that??- i know the smaller scale topos are ancient, but it's beginning to appear the sat pics are pretty outmoded too) and i was left with a 2 mile 'whack to the summit-more than planned. It isn't that i was tired....this is a peak with little redeeming value (YMMV)--the 'whack was ugly-medium density woods, big moss covered rocks, moderate blowdown, but worst of all, endless small, tight, dead balsam that scoured you from head to toe with every step--yuck. This hike seemed endless-low angle ascent, nothing "terrible", but 2 miles of mostly crap and no open space, no cool cliffs, no tricky route finding, etc--just work. The crap eased about 0.3 from the summit and i topped out on a flat, featureless wooded summit -no hint of views anywhere during the hike----repeat in reverse going down. Avoid this one.
I'd love to know history of Camp Phoenix (won't say i checked it out as it's private) and also any thoughts on hiking Billfish Mt in north end of Park.
jim
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