Papa Bear
New member
Part 1: The Bakers - August 6th, 2005
Last weekend I spent a busy Saturday and Sunday doing some peak bagging with Spencer. I am finishing up on my pursuit of the New England Fifty Finest List. I had two peaks left in Maine: The Traveler in Baxter State Park and Baker Mountain in the Moosehead Lake region. I hope to climb The Traveler when I go up to Baxter late this month, so I suggested to Spencer that we do some hiking in the Moosehead area. Since he is pursuing the Maine 3000 footers, and since Baker is one and is close to several others, he agreed. So to get my one peak, I would go with him as he went after his 7 peaks. But he has the truck, so that sounded like a good exchange
.
We went up Friday evening to Greenville, and followed the Greenville-Kokajo Road up to a point where we found a logging road which leads in towards Baker Mountain. Baker is part of a range that includes 3 peaks on one ridge which runs approximately north-south (Baker, Middle Baker and South Baker) and 2 peaks on an adjoining east-west ridge (Lily Bay and West Lily Bay). Our hope was to do all five peaks in a large loop starting with South Baker and circling around to West Lily Bay and then back down to the truck which would be in the valley, right in the middle. Anyway, that was the plan. It was dark by the time we found our road and we followed a moose along the road for a half mile or so until he finally disappeared into the woods. There were signs of lots of ongoing logging activity on this road. Finally we got to our "spot", did a little exploring of other logging roads which might help us in the morning, set up the tent and got to bed. The stars were out bright and clear that night. It looked like it would be a perfect day on Saturday.
We got an early start, had a quick breakfast of bagels and OJ and were off around 6:40 AM. Lucky for us, there were two old logging roads going off from our spot: one (not drivable) went east roughly towards South Baker and the other (drivable for about 1.5 miles) went north, roughly towards West Lily Bay.
We followed the east bound road past a fork to the left and then one to the right until we came to a clear-cut area on our left (north) that seemed to lead to the ridge leading up the west side of our target peak.
South Baker and the old logging road
So we started into the woods at about 7:10 AM. Unfortunately we had to cross a bog before we even got to the clear-cut, and that was slow. Slow as in getting your leg stuck mid-calf in muck and slowly pulling it out. Then when we got to the clear-cut it was still slow going since a huge amount of slash was left on the ground. This bears an uncanny resemblance to a large blow-down field. We though this would be a "short cut" but probably we should have bypassed this entire open area and just gone into the woods further along our road.
We finally got ourselves onto the ridge and headed up the slope, bearing slightly to the left of the gradient so as to get onto the rather broad ridge line. There were some tough spots where there was nothing to do then just push into thick spruce/fir. We both had on long sleeves and long pants, which, while protecting us from scratches, made progress very hot work. Luckily, there were not any significant blowdowns in this area.
Baker, South Peak (elevation 3307'). A bit after 9:00 AM, the slope became gentler and we were on the summit "dome"of the peak. We headed straight up and at 9:20 we were on top. Spencer investigated one high spot and I checked out another and soon I yelled "I've found it". There was a plastic jar which had been nailed to a tree by it's top, so you just unscrewed the jar from the top which was fixed to the tree.
The last register entry was dated 6-20-03 by E Schlimmer. He said he found the old register broken and replaced it, and also mentioned an old paint can (which was still there) which he thought may have been left by a surveyor. There was one other "entry". A business car dated 8-25-00 on the back. So that's two parties made it here in 5 years. Not exactly Grand Central Station!
We had taken a bit over two hours (not counting the road walk) and it was one down for the day. We took a break and then started towards Middle Peak around 9:30. We had been told there were animal tracks along this ridge and heading down towards the col we found one. In fact it was so good and seemingly well traveled that you would swear it was a human herd path. But with so few hikers climbing this peak, we discounted that. Perhaps it was surveyors, since there is a town boundary line shown on the map that goes close by and we could see some very old cut stumps and axe blazes. But these signs seemed much older than the path, so we left it as a mystery.
The path soon disappeared and that was the last path we found for the rest of the day. We passed through several areas with standing dead wood as we climbed Middle Peak but the blow downs were not terrible as we skirted these areas. In fact the going was, if anything, less thick in these areas than elsewhere. And these open areas afforded us a good number of views both of the peak in front of us, and of the surrounding area.
Baker, Middle Peak (elevation 3361'). The Middle Peak was a simple dome whose high point seemed to be at the center near a small clearing. We spend 5 or 10 minutes searching the surrounding trees for the canister, to no avail. Finally, Spencer spotted it on the ground in the clearing. We must have stepped right over it 2 or 3 times. The register within was the most complete we would find. It was placed on the peak by Dennis Crispo on June 25, 1988 and had numerous entries with familiar names including Dennis, John Swanson, the Paisleys, Roy Schweiker, Dennis Spurling and the most recent was once again E Schlimmer. Bea Paisley (8-17-90) left her usual poem:
We didn't doodle
We didn't diddle
We came from South Pk
To the Middle
Someone should make a collection of her peak bagging verses.
Spencer attached the canister to a tree and after a lunch break, we got moving. It had taken about an hour and 20 minutes to get from South to Middle, and after our break we were off again at 11:10.
The route to Baker was more complicated, since the ridge line makes a turn to the left (just west of north) at the col. So we set a bearing to the col which we would readjust it once we got there. This was also the longest gap between peaks. The peak itself is complicated: there is a shoulder on the south side (from which we were approaching) that had a bump with about 60' of prominence and which stood about 75' lower than the main peak, about .4 miles away. But because we were approaching this shoulder from below and the bump was closer, it looked like it was about the same height as the main peak behind it.
The going was rougher than before. I think the change in the direction of the ridge line, and the slightly higher altitude led to more blow down areas. We endeavored to work around these, but the heat of the sun together with the long areas of very thick spruce/fir made it very slow going. As we were nearing Baker's South Shoulder, I mentioned to Spencer that "Maybe 3 peaks will be enough for today". He said "OK" and we would decide later on how to get off the mountain.
As we got up to the South Shoulder, we found that it had a narrow rocky cleft across the top, in affect creating 2 minor bumps. The second was a bit higher and was extremely narrow (although not rocky) at it's summit. There was literally room here for only a few trees there (plus us) and the views were great in all directions. We got a good look at the main peak, about .4 miles away, and saw that it consisted of 3 minor bumps. The first (nearest one) is shown on the map but the other two were close together and don't show up on the map.
Baker Mountain with it's 3 bumps
Baker Mountain (elevation 3521'). We dropped off the shoulder and decided to contour around the first bump (which was clearly the lowest) and head for the second. It was not clear which of the two remaining bumps was the highest, but we suspected it was the last one. But we would go over the top of both "just in case". But each bump, whether we go around it or over it, takes time so we pushed on through the thick vegetation. If anything, the tops of the bumps were slightly easier going then the lower ground.
We crossed over the second bump and found nothing and then finally summited the last bump. It was 1:10 PM, 2 hours from the Middle Peak. Spencer found the canister, a glass jar. Alas it was broken and empty. So we got to donate a new canister consisting of a Gatorade bottle. I donated a zip lock bag and some note pages and we made our entry and took a break.
Continued on next note
Last weekend I spent a busy Saturday and Sunday doing some peak bagging with Spencer. I am finishing up on my pursuit of the New England Fifty Finest List. I had two peaks left in Maine: The Traveler in Baxter State Park and Baker Mountain in the Moosehead Lake region. I hope to climb The Traveler when I go up to Baxter late this month, so I suggested to Spencer that we do some hiking in the Moosehead area. Since he is pursuing the Maine 3000 footers, and since Baker is one and is close to several others, he agreed. So to get my one peak, I would go with him as he went after his 7 peaks. But he has the truck, so that sounded like a good exchange
.We went up Friday evening to Greenville, and followed the Greenville-Kokajo Road up to a point where we found a logging road which leads in towards Baker Mountain. Baker is part of a range that includes 3 peaks on one ridge which runs approximately north-south (Baker, Middle Baker and South Baker) and 2 peaks on an adjoining east-west ridge (Lily Bay and West Lily Bay). Our hope was to do all five peaks in a large loop starting with South Baker and circling around to West Lily Bay and then back down to the truck which would be in the valley, right in the middle. Anyway, that was the plan. It was dark by the time we found our road and we followed a moose along the road for a half mile or so until he finally disappeared into the woods. There were signs of lots of ongoing logging activity on this road. Finally we got to our "spot", did a little exploring of other logging roads which might help us in the morning, set up the tent and got to bed. The stars were out bright and clear that night. It looked like it would be a perfect day on Saturday.
We got an early start, had a quick breakfast of bagels and OJ and were off around 6:40 AM. Lucky for us, there were two old logging roads going off from our spot: one (not drivable) went east roughly towards South Baker and the other (drivable for about 1.5 miles) went north, roughly towards West Lily Bay.
We followed the east bound road past a fork to the left and then one to the right until we came to a clear-cut area on our left (north) that seemed to lead to the ridge leading up the west side of our target peak.
South Baker and the old logging road
So we started into the woods at about 7:10 AM. Unfortunately we had to cross a bog before we even got to the clear-cut, and that was slow. Slow as in getting your leg stuck mid-calf in muck and slowly pulling it out. Then when we got to the clear-cut it was still slow going since a huge amount of slash was left on the ground. This bears an uncanny resemblance to a large blow-down field. We though this would be a "short cut" but probably we should have bypassed this entire open area and just gone into the woods further along our road.
We finally got ourselves onto the ridge and headed up the slope, bearing slightly to the left of the gradient so as to get onto the rather broad ridge line. There were some tough spots where there was nothing to do then just push into thick spruce/fir. We both had on long sleeves and long pants, which, while protecting us from scratches, made progress very hot work. Luckily, there were not any significant blowdowns in this area.
Baker, South Peak (elevation 3307'). A bit after 9:00 AM, the slope became gentler and we were on the summit "dome"of the peak. We headed straight up and at 9:20 we were on top. Spencer investigated one high spot and I checked out another and soon I yelled "I've found it". There was a plastic jar which had been nailed to a tree by it's top, so you just unscrewed the jar from the top which was fixed to the tree.
The last register entry was dated 6-20-03 by E Schlimmer. He said he found the old register broken and replaced it, and also mentioned an old paint can (which was still there) which he thought may have been left by a surveyor. There was one other "entry". A business car dated 8-25-00 on the back. So that's two parties made it here in 5 years. Not exactly Grand Central Station!
We had taken a bit over two hours (not counting the road walk) and it was one down for the day. We took a break and then started towards Middle Peak around 9:30. We had been told there were animal tracks along this ridge and heading down towards the col we found one. In fact it was so good and seemingly well traveled that you would swear it was a human herd path. But with so few hikers climbing this peak, we discounted that. Perhaps it was surveyors, since there is a town boundary line shown on the map that goes close by and we could see some very old cut stumps and axe blazes. But these signs seemed much older than the path, so we left it as a mystery.
The path soon disappeared and that was the last path we found for the rest of the day. We passed through several areas with standing dead wood as we climbed Middle Peak but the blow downs were not terrible as we skirted these areas. In fact the going was, if anything, less thick in these areas than elsewhere. And these open areas afforded us a good number of views both of the peak in front of us, and of the surrounding area.
Baker, Middle Peak (elevation 3361'). The Middle Peak was a simple dome whose high point seemed to be at the center near a small clearing. We spend 5 or 10 minutes searching the surrounding trees for the canister, to no avail. Finally, Spencer spotted it on the ground in the clearing. We must have stepped right over it 2 or 3 times. The register within was the most complete we would find. It was placed on the peak by Dennis Crispo on June 25, 1988 and had numerous entries with familiar names including Dennis, John Swanson, the Paisleys, Roy Schweiker, Dennis Spurling and the most recent was once again E Schlimmer. Bea Paisley (8-17-90) left her usual poem:
We didn't doodle
We didn't diddle
We came from South Pk
To the Middle
Someone should make a collection of her peak bagging verses.
Spencer attached the canister to a tree and after a lunch break, we got moving. It had taken about an hour and 20 minutes to get from South to Middle, and after our break we were off again at 11:10.
The route to Baker was more complicated, since the ridge line makes a turn to the left (just west of north) at the col. So we set a bearing to the col which we would readjust it once we got there. This was also the longest gap between peaks. The peak itself is complicated: there is a shoulder on the south side (from which we were approaching) that had a bump with about 60' of prominence and which stood about 75' lower than the main peak, about .4 miles away. But because we were approaching this shoulder from below and the bump was closer, it looked like it was about the same height as the main peak behind it.
The going was rougher than before. I think the change in the direction of the ridge line, and the slightly higher altitude led to more blow down areas. We endeavored to work around these, but the heat of the sun together with the long areas of very thick spruce/fir made it very slow going. As we were nearing Baker's South Shoulder, I mentioned to Spencer that "Maybe 3 peaks will be enough for today". He said "OK" and we would decide later on how to get off the mountain.
As we got up to the South Shoulder, we found that it had a narrow rocky cleft across the top, in affect creating 2 minor bumps. The second was a bit higher and was extremely narrow (although not rocky) at it's summit. There was literally room here for only a few trees there (plus us) and the views were great in all directions. We got a good look at the main peak, about .4 miles away, and saw that it consisted of 3 minor bumps. The first (nearest one) is shown on the map but the other two were close together and don't show up on the map.
Baker Mountain with it's 3 bumps
Baker Mountain (elevation 3521'). We dropped off the shoulder and decided to contour around the first bump (which was clearly the lowest) and head for the second. It was not clear which of the two remaining bumps was the highest, but we suspected it was the last one. But we would go over the top of both "just in case". But each bump, whether we go around it or over it, takes time so we pushed on through the thick vegetation. If anything, the tops of the bumps were slightly easier going then the lower ground.
We crossed over the second bump and found nothing and then finally summited the last bump. It was 1:10 PM, 2 hours from the Middle Peak. Spencer found the canister, a glass jar. Alas it was broken and empty. So we got to donate a new canister consisting of a Gatorade bottle. I donated a zip lock bag and some note pages and we made our entry and took a break.
Continued on next note
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