buckyball1
New member
...in my crazed rush to get in as many hikes as possible before the snow flies, many of the peaks themselves and my trip reports are beginning seem almost indistinguishable...
Another nice, cold, sunny day--north on RT95 to Medway, west on Rt 11 past East Millinocket and swing north on the Roberts Rd, a good dirt road i've used before. You pass a large railroad siding for shipping logs(overflowing this past May), and Dolby log yard (almost empty these days) . After about 12 miles on Roberts, i turned west, then north on several other dirt roads and parked (everything frozen) on the east side of
Whetstone-1488'-The peak appears to have been totally cutover some years ago, but like many of the little mountains i've been doing, the log/skid roads are pretty useless; on Whetstone, the paths were eroded bogs, filled with slash and 15' high new growth. Consequently i straightlined it to the top through more "jail bar" hardwoods, but with much less blowdown than encountered yesterday. These small hardwoods often "lean" slightly downhill which makes upward progress annoying at times.
As i approached the summit, the woods opened up and the top was on a steep "cap like" ridge. Some decent views on this stretch with the top at a large erratic just into the woods near the viewless summit clearing....yes this hill seemed just like all the rest of late.
Then it was off to The County, passing views of the Katahdin area peaks and the Traveler group as i sped up Rt 95 toward Houlton. I got off at exit 291 and took Rt 2 toward New Limerick and
Bates Ridge-1230'-Bates was an enjoyable adventure. As i got close, i just could not find a logging road that appears really obvious on the sat pics. I stopped at the house where i thought the road should be, knocked on the door and was invited in to chat. The log road turns out to be private, begins behind the man's garage and isn't passable by my Forester. The guy offered to let me walk across his land (would have added about 4 miles road walks to this hike) and then suggested a drivable, multi dirt road workaround that would get me to where i had planned to park-with the assurance i could get the car there safely with care
-always good for my head.
The new route worked perfectly and i was able to park at the base of Bates, a triple headed monster-yes 3 summits/bumps all with the same contour lines. I had already decided to climb only the "SW" summit as that was designated 'the' top by the list i use (with no multi top designation). There were old skid roads leading straight up all over the ridge-heavily grown in with waist high briers. The roads and the entire ridgeside was covered with slash and tops-one of the worst messes i've seen left in the woods.( and i see many)
My path to the SW summit was no problem, just hard work. After going most of the way on an overgrown road, it was an easy 'whack to a large almost flat summit area (about 0.2 mile long within the same 20' contour line). I walked all over the place and surmise the tippy top must by in the southern half of the area-no way to know for sure. It would have been about 0.6 -0.8 miles across to the two NE bumps (wasn't going). Easy descent as the briers that claw at you going up aren't bad going down. Very nice view "out" over the County and especially of Drews Lake aka Meduxnekeg Lake.
I got near the car, realized i was way ahead of schedule and thought "why not try the other two bumps for completist's concerns?" I just pivoted in a different direction and took another brier filled road up toward the "south" NE bump--see paragraph above for ascent description-was identical going. Expecting to find nothing on the flat, but smaller summit, i was "rewarded" with a "Witness Post", in fact 2 of them. These are signs announcing the presence of a nearby survey point/marker-i've seen several of them before on N Maine hills. I'm still not sure why they are there? One was small,older, rusted, filled with bullet holes and on a steel post stuck in a rockpile. The other sign was newer, larger, rectangular, green and white, nailed to a tree -similar to those i've seen before. A quick look yielded no sign of actual marker, but then there was thick duff and a carpet of leaves. I leave it to others as an exercise.
I headed over about a quarter of a mile to the "north" NE bump thru pretty flat, open woods (great stroll) expecting to find nothing. Surprise-two very small tin structures which held old firewood + nearby chairs, several large barrel type cook/smoker? stoves (badly rusted) and an axe made from welding an axe head to a large metal fence latch? (or something similar). I am guessing this might have been a spot to dress, butcher and cook/smoke deer w/o leaving the woods? I have no better ideas right now. You?.........all in all, a pretty cool 3 bump peak.
On the way home, i drove Rt 2 through Smyrna and toward Island Falls (really hurting town, sad). You have excellent open views of the County from parts of Rt 2.....wide, flat stretches where the peaks just "pop" up..the whole area a desolate, but beautiful "gray" right now. From Dyer Brook (a town) , i could look back on a panorama of the Bates Ridge. From another spot the mountain groups around Chase, The Traveler and Katahdin were easily visible.
I was scouting approaches to Pt 1249 (midway between Smyrna and Island falls) for a later hike--access/crossing private land appeared a potential issue. I stopped at a house where the guy was bringing in his wood with a tractor and we talked. He wanted to know what i was up to and gave me 2 excellent ways i might climb "1249" without bothering anyone--yes.
running out of smaller (1200-2200') peaks and hikes within 2 hours or so one way drive--next 2? years will be return to more 2500-3800' peaks and back to one way drives usually 3-4 hours and a few probably 5-6 -- Churchill Depot/Clayton Lake area (see Delorme map 55-56) are a very long way in)
an aside-i've been getting cell signals on the side of hills in a lot of "nowhere" places recently-the towers must be proliferating
jim
Another nice, cold, sunny day--north on RT95 to Medway, west on Rt 11 past East Millinocket and swing north on the Roberts Rd, a good dirt road i've used before. You pass a large railroad siding for shipping logs(overflowing this past May), and Dolby log yard (almost empty these days) . After about 12 miles on Roberts, i turned west, then north on several other dirt roads and parked (everything frozen) on the east side of
Whetstone-1488'-The peak appears to have been totally cutover some years ago, but like many of the little mountains i've been doing, the log/skid roads are pretty useless; on Whetstone, the paths were eroded bogs, filled with slash and 15' high new growth. Consequently i straightlined it to the top through more "jail bar" hardwoods, but with much less blowdown than encountered yesterday. These small hardwoods often "lean" slightly downhill which makes upward progress annoying at times.
As i approached the summit, the woods opened up and the top was on a steep "cap like" ridge. Some decent views on this stretch with the top at a large erratic just into the woods near the viewless summit clearing....yes this hill seemed just like all the rest of late.
Then it was off to The County, passing views of the Katahdin area peaks and the Traveler group as i sped up Rt 95 toward Houlton. I got off at exit 291 and took Rt 2 toward New Limerick and
Bates Ridge-1230'-Bates was an enjoyable adventure. As i got close, i just could not find a logging road that appears really obvious on the sat pics. I stopped at the house where i thought the road should be, knocked on the door and was invited in to chat. The log road turns out to be private, begins behind the man's garage and isn't passable by my Forester. The guy offered to let me walk across his land (would have added about 4 miles road walks to this hike) and then suggested a drivable, multi dirt road workaround that would get me to where i had planned to park-with the assurance i could get the car there safely with care
-always good for my head.The new route worked perfectly and i was able to park at the base of Bates, a triple headed monster-yes 3 summits/bumps all with the same contour lines. I had already decided to climb only the "SW" summit as that was designated 'the' top by the list i use (with no multi top designation). There were old skid roads leading straight up all over the ridge-heavily grown in with waist high briers. The roads and the entire ridgeside was covered with slash and tops-one of the worst messes i've seen left in the woods.( and i see many)
My path to the SW summit was no problem, just hard work. After going most of the way on an overgrown road, it was an easy 'whack to a large almost flat summit area (about 0.2 mile long within the same 20' contour line). I walked all over the place and surmise the tippy top must by in the southern half of the area-no way to know for sure. It would have been about 0.6 -0.8 miles across to the two NE bumps (wasn't going). Easy descent as the briers that claw at you going up aren't bad going down. Very nice view "out" over the County and especially of Drews Lake aka Meduxnekeg Lake.
I got near the car, realized i was way ahead of schedule and thought "why not try the other two bumps for completist's concerns?" I just pivoted in a different direction and took another brier filled road up toward the "south" NE bump--see paragraph above for ascent description-was identical going. Expecting to find nothing on the flat, but smaller summit, i was "rewarded" with a "Witness Post", in fact 2 of them. These are signs announcing the presence of a nearby survey point/marker-i've seen several of them before on N Maine hills. I'm still not sure why they are there? One was small,older, rusted, filled with bullet holes and on a steel post stuck in a rockpile. The other sign was newer, larger, rectangular, green and white, nailed to a tree -similar to those i've seen before. A quick look yielded no sign of actual marker, but then there was thick duff and a carpet of leaves. I leave it to others as an exercise.
I headed over about a quarter of a mile to the "north" NE bump thru pretty flat, open woods (great stroll) expecting to find nothing. Surprise-two very small tin structures which held old firewood + nearby chairs, several large barrel type cook/smoker? stoves (badly rusted) and an axe made from welding an axe head to a large metal fence latch? (or something similar). I am guessing this might have been a spot to dress, butcher and cook/smoke deer w/o leaving the woods? I have no better ideas right now. You?.........all in all, a pretty cool 3 bump peak.
On the way home, i drove Rt 2 through Smyrna and toward Island Falls (really hurting town, sad). You have excellent open views of the County from parts of Rt 2.....wide, flat stretches where the peaks just "pop" up..the whole area a desolate, but beautiful "gray" right now. From Dyer Brook (a town) , i could look back on a panorama of the Bates Ridge. From another spot the mountain groups around Chase, The Traveler and Katahdin were easily visible.
I was scouting approaches to Pt 1249 (midway between Smyrna and Island falls) for a later hike--access/crossing private land appeared a potential issue. I stopped at a house where the guy was bringing in his wood with a tractor and we talked. He wanted to know what i was up to and gave me 2 excellent ways i might climb "1249" without bothering anyone--yes.
running out of smaller (1200-2200') peaks and hikes within 2 hours or so one way drive--next 2? years will be return to more 2500-3800' peaks and back to one way drives usually 3-4 hours and a few probably 5-6
-- Churchill Depot/Clayton Lake area (see Delorme map 55-56) are a very long way in)an aside-i've been getting cell signals on the side of hills in a lot of "nowhere" places recently-the towers must be proliferating
jim
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