buckyball1
New member
-took advantage of an excellent Nov 1 day to do 4 small peaks in York and Cumberland Counties
The Halloween eve drive from Orrington to stay with my friend Amicus for early start on Sunday was a bit surreal. The small towns and roadsides were filled with the orange of hunters exiting the woods (it was an early bonus deer day for Maine residents) and hordes of small goblins accompanied by their parents.
Sunday promised to be a biathlon of sorts with relatively easy (i hoped) hikes coupled with some rally driving on a nest of back roads between the peaks-all about logistics today.The hikes had the potential to be "bunnies', but there's always the unexpected and hiking in "civilization" is a two edged sword. There are usually numerous approaches on old roads/trails, but also the problem of heavily posted/restricted access.
After a Saturday evening pig out at the local BBQ joint, we were off in the early Sunday dark to
Wiggin-1310'-(all four peaks today would have a combined height of less than Washington, and are between 156 and 179 on the ME "P" list)-Wiggin is west of S Parsonsfield. There's an old road (no drive) which runs E/W north of the summit. You can approach from either end and when north of the peak swing south towards it on an ATV trail-no problems-brisk uphill walk to start the day to a open summit. The views (as ones we had all day) were "nice", nothing spectacular, of lakes/small peaks/countryside i knew little about.
Off and flying on a few dirt roads, through Limerick to Cornish. I had an excellent navigator to help sort out all the "which way?" decisions..
Clark-1330'-Having done way too many of these, i had the nagging feeling that Clark, while drop dead easy on paper, might present access issues. We drove south from Cornish on High, Old Limington and Pease Hills roads to a spot east of Clark where i had two easy approaches scouted. The access points were all gone/gated/heavily signed-as with all day, you could see how $$ has moved into the area and systematically closed off access. At the urging of the navigator, i backtracked and tried the other side (west) of Clark and after a few false starts (ending in peoples' driveways) we found a new logging road which we were able to walk about 1/2 of the "crow fly" 1+ miles to the peak. A moderately easy density 'whack brought us to a no view summit-again no problems on a totally improvised approach.
By now the sun was full, a glorious Fall day, and off on Rts 5.113.107 to
Douglas Hill-1382"-easy to find, fully developed trails, parking area ($3 to Town of Sebago). There are a series of threatening, misleading signs (again, lots of new $ housing) that "forced" us into the fee parking area when we could have parked free in a small area right at the Ledges trailhead (we asked the locals)-don't let them sucker you. The trail is short, steep and leads to an small, old stone tower which provides excellent views -visibility not great, but Pleasant Mtn loomed north of us and Evans Notch? area appeared in the distance.
off through Hiram, E Brownfield, Brownfield, Dugway Rd for
Stone-1624', the middle and highest peak of the Burnt Meadow trio. This was the iffiest approach of the day. On the old topos and sat pics you could see a road/trail leading partway to the summit (1++ crow fly miles and 850' of ups), but...we found road chained (it was down) and drove in to a house under construction where we got permission to cross private land (as long as we parked outside the chain). We again were able to take the road/old trail about 1/2 way up before it disappeared. To the north was a summit with striking cliffs and evidence of new AMC trailwork in progress in that direction. That summit turns out to be the northern peak(old ski area) of the trio which has a real trail from Rt 160.
The 'whack up the last half of Stone wasn't bad; a bit steep with a need to avoid thick fir patches which we skirted using a POLR approach to find more open "fingers" i knew were there. Stone has a nice open top and a number of excellent views, the best for us being the cliffs on the north peak.
A day of good hikes in an area very different from my norm with the best part the company/conversation with a good friend-made the day fly
perhaps done for the year
jim
The Halloween eve drive from Orrington to stay with my friend Amicus for early start on Sunday was a bit surreal. The small towns and roadsides were filled with the orange of hunters exiting the woods (it was an early bonus deer day for Maine residents) and hordes of small goblins accompanied by their parents.
Sunday promised to be a biathlon of sorts with relatively easy (i hoped) hikes coupled with some rally driving on a nest of back roads between the peaks-all about logistics today.The hikes had the potential to be "bunnies', but there's always the unexpected and hiking in "civilization" is a two edged sword. There are usually numerous approaches on old roads/trails, but also the problem of heavily posted/restricted access.
After a Saturday evening pig out at the local BBQ joint, we were off in the early Sunday dark to
Wiggin-1310'-(all four peaks today would have a combined height of less than Washington, and are between 156 and 179 on the ME "P" list)-Wiggin is west of S Parsonsfield. There's an old road (no drive) which runs E/W north of the summit. You can approach from either end and when north of the peak swing south towards it on an ATV trail-no problems-brisk uphill walk to start the day to a open summit. The views (as ones we had all day) were "nice", nothing spectacular, of lakes/small peaks/countryside i knew little about.
Off and flying on a few dirt roads, through Limerick to Cornish. I had an excellent navigator to help sort out all the "which way?" decisions..
Clark-1330'-Having done way too many of these, i had the nagging feeling that Clark, while drop dead easy on paper, might present access issues. We drove south from Cornish on High, Old Limington and Pease Hills roads to a spot east of Clark where i had two easy approaches scouted. The access points were all gone/gated/heavily signed-as with all day, you could see how $$ has moved into the area and systematically closed off access. At the urging of the navigator, i backtracked and tried the other side (west) of Clark and after a few false starts (ending in peoples' driveways) we found a new logging road which we were able to walk about 1/2 of the "crow fly" 1+ miles to the peak. A moderately easy density 'whack brought us to a no view summit-again no problems on a totally improvised approach.
By now the sun was full, a glorious Fall day, and off on Rts 5.113.107 to
Douglas Hill-1382"-easy to find, fully developed trails, parking area ($3 to Town of Sebago). There are a series of threatening, misleading signs (again, lots of new $ housing) that "forced" us into the fee parking area when we could have parked free in a small area right at the Ledges trailhead (we asked the locals)-don't let them sucker you. The trail is short, steep and leads to an small, old stone tower which provides excellent views -visibility not great, but Pleasant Mtn loomed north of us and Evans Notch? area appeared in the distance.
off through Hiram, E Brownfield, Brownfield, Dugway Rd for
Stone-1624', the middle and highest peak of the Burnt Meadow trio. This was the iffiest approach of the day. On the old topos and sat pics you could see a road/trail leading partway to the summit (1++ crow fly miles and 850' of ups), but...we found road chained (it was down) and drove in to a house under construction where we got permission to cross private land (as long as we parked outside the chain). We again were able to take the road/old trail about 1/2 way up before it disappeared. To the north was a summit with striking cliffs and evidence of new AMC trailwork in progress in that direction. That summit turns out to be the northern peak(old ski area) of the trio which has a real trail from Rt 160.
The 'whack up the last half of Stone wasn't bad; a bit steep with a need to avoid thick fir patches which we skirted using a POLR approach to find more open "fingers" i knew were there. Stone has a nice open top and a number of excellent views, the best for us being the cliffs on the north peak.
A day of good hikes in an area very different from my norm with the best part the company/conversation with a good friend-made the day fly
perhaps done for the year
jim
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