Burn, Cut, and Bury

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spongebob

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Burnt Meadow Mountain, Cutler Mountain, and Bradbury Mountain. Hey, I need to get your attention somehow, since we have the wildest attacks and gun threads going right now. I need to use violence baby.

I decided to check out some mountains that I pass all the time going to the White Mountains that always catch my eye, but never climbed….and I wanted no snow for a change……Ok, and I got up late too. So in Brownfield, Maine I turned off route 113 onto route 160. I really didn’t know where to go to climb. After driving a bit (3.1 miles on 160) I found a parking area on the right with some paint markings on a tree. Looks like a trail. It is a pretty fun mountain to climb. The mountain has a Jekyll and Hyde personality. The mountain from the major road side looks neat, but the other side is really rocky and cliffy. (awesome) It has over 1000 elevation gain (mountain is like 1500 or 1600 feet tall.) for a 2.4 mile round trip if you go back and forth on the trail. When you get on the large summit you can see Chocorua, Pleasant mountain to the North, partially Sebago lake, and the Presidential range. The south ridge looked really neat, so I bushwhacked over to it. It is really easy to get there, and this is where you can see how neat it is to look back to Burnt Meadow mountain. (awesome) Lots of rocks and cliffy. The next time I climb this mountain I will get in that little valley between the south ridge and the summit to check it out. Some guy climbing down the Burnt Meadow mountain trail could see me on the south ridge and kind of watched me hike down. I hooked back to the trail lower down and got to my car. I am glad I finally climbed this mountain!
http://community.webshots.com/album/548988926xiLlBP

No Irving convenience store to stop at….Crap……So I drove down the road on route 113 in Hiram to Mount Cutler. The cliffy looking mountain always caught my eye crossing the Saco river. I turned on to River road, then on to Mt. View road, and parked by the railroad tracks. I ended up in a Honda Civic down by the river, so I could visit Matt Foley motivational speaker that lives in a van down by the river. The trail is easy, well except for that turn I missed. I had to go thru the woods for a bit. Easy going steep up and found a trail. You get to see the Saco river, cell phone towers, and three great views towards the Presidentials in the distance along the way. Mount Cutler is about 1200 feet tall, and about 3 miles round trip. On the way back I see how I missed the turn……I’m stupid and the visible red blazes go to a look out instead. If you see an “End” spray painted go back, and take the trail to the right and up.
http://community.webshots.com/album/548988953vRxglq

I really think this is a good combo hike putting Burnt Meadow and Mount Cutler together for a fun day….But I wasn’t finished. I drove up to the Freeport area, and went to Bradbury state park to climb Bradbury mountain. I never climbed this either. Pretty short climb as this is only about 460 feet tall. You can see the Atlantic Ocean and mountains into New Hampshire. I can’t say it really excited me for some reason. Oh, yeah dog puke on the summit will do it. I kind of liked Hedgehog Mountain in Freeport better just down the road for some reason. So this was a really fun day to check some mountains.

Oh and this Burn, Cut, and Bury thread is really just my alibi, since I did burn cut and bury HarryK. (Hey, he is just a Canadian. It‘s not like it is a real person) :)


Oh, and some New Zealand pictures if you are interested. I went in December. Kepler Track, Routeburn Track, Avalanche Peak, and Tongariro crossing. (Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings.(Mount Ngauruhoe)) New Zealand really rocks.
http://community.webshots.com/user/adrianhikes



You can also watch video 3 minutes 53 seconds(music montage.)
Or 13 minutes 14 seconds.(stupid semi funny little movies and the music montage. I even diss Frodo from VFTT at 6 minutes 12 seconds on Mount Doom.) http://www.streamload.com/apayeur/EL/M30E080DF9/Videos
Click on Stupid New Zealand videos, and you have the two choices.
 
Nice report, spongebob.

I love Bradbury Mountain, but not for hiking. It always seems better with snow. You can ski to the top, and then zip back down on the ski trail. (Or you can find some nice off-trail turning descents.) Plus, the boundary trail is high adventure on edgeless, skinny skis.

I also hear (shhh...) that it has some of the best bouldering in Maine. But I haven't experienced it yet.
 
Great NZ pics. Looks like you had great weather on the Routeburn - I'm jealous! My whole "day 2" was spent in a cloud, around January 13th.

We should catch up sometime to compare stories! PM me if you have any hiking trips on tap in the near future!
 
Fun report Spongebob! :) I also enjoyed seeing the NZ pictures... it was especially fun to see the Routeburn again through your pictures... it remains one of my alltime favorite hikes. :)

- Ivy
 
Hey Sponge, great pictures.. I guess we'll see a new avatar soon? I'm getting sick of looking at that person in the front there....

haha, just kidding..

In NZ, were all the trailsigns given in time instead of distance?

Jay
 
Neat! Thanks!
I had heard rumors that Burnt Meadow used to have a small ski area on it. Any signs of it? Or, does anyone know if this is something I conjured up on my own?

Thanks for the NZ pics. You have crushed my productivity for the rest of the day. :eek:
 
Trailbiscuit, you can still see where the trails on Burnt Meadow were. They're too overgrown for good skiing now (choked with regrowth; better in the mature trees that were uncut), which I discovered two years ago. Some folks have had issues with the landowner at the bottom, so I'd encourage any explorers to ask nicely and LNT.

Good bushwhacking along the ridges of both Burnt and Cutler. Hiking them will make your next Saco river trip more enjoyable -- that's a fine section to run along the east of both of these mountains.

Very interesting botany on some of the ledges of these two mountains, too...
 
spongebob,

Excellent TR and video! (even though you dis me :D ). I watched it with my 11 year old daughter and we laughed at all of humerous commentary. She also liked all of those shots you took of Sponge Bob in various places. :) What a spectacular place. One of the many I plan to visit in this lifetime... Also, loved the ending with Green Day...

Well done!
 
Frodo and Blue thanks for liking the NZ thing-a-ma-bob. Billie Joe goes really well with NZ. Too bad a semi Red Sox fan had to save Middle Earth with the first world series ring since 1918. Yet the Yankees with all those rings could not spare one. :)

Jay I think all the signs I saw had time as the measurement.(they were fairly conservative with the time too.) I did notice most people walked on the wrong side of the trail. :) Darn it, I have my big American "SUP" (sport utility pack) on, getting bad miles per calories. Destroying the ozone layer and causing global warming with the Mexican food I had. Now I might have to see you on Kaaterskill High Peak this weekend.....Ahhhh this is too much.

Ketch-Up no I have not hiked 2160 miles. Heck that would be too far to drive also. I just got the AT home edition Thru Hike game. Uhhh oh I landed on the "White Blaze" space, and I have to pick up a card.. The card say "Go directly to Rusty's Hard Time Hallow. Take a zero day. No mail drop. Pop Tarts for breakfast for two weeks."
 
HAHAHAHAHA, deal with it Pal! I might have to improve your avatar again....

Stay out of Camden Hills, punk. I'll send my goon squad if I see one piece of your hair in the park and I can recognize your Honda from a mile away. [insert evil smiley here]

Jay
 
I did the loop trail over Mt Cutler a few years ago, walking back on a dirt road where several residents seemed to have retained every car they ever owned. When I looked at the map afterwards, I don't remember climbing a second bump so it looks like the loop left the ridge before it got to the main summit. Still true?
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=43.87278&lon=-70.82472
 
Sorry for digging this thread up, but Webshots made my New Zealand Kepler Track day 2 or just the picture the Editor's pick for June 26th.

I didn't even know, but I got a bunch of emails of webshots users. Some saying to label the pictures, so I did for the most part.

Go to the Webshots main page.
http://www.webshots.com


Webshots must be running out of good pictures, when they have to use mine!
 
You did notice too that Webshots chose to pick a photo where Spongebob is not in the picture?

Jay :D
 
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