onestep
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Over the weekend Pig Pen and I spent 2 days bushwhacking 3k peaks up on the Beaudry Road in Maine. On Sunday Gamehiker joined us too. We managed to leave tracks in the snow on Sunday.
#5, #6, & Crispo Peak
Friday evening I drove up to the Maine Roadhouse in Stratton to meet Pig Pen. The following morning we headed out to “the Beaudry” to ‘whack 5/6/Crispo. We spotted a car south of Crispo Peak – 3011’ and then drove over to the start of the “hiking trail” that leads up Number 5 Mtn – 3186’. We started hiking at 9AM. The trail up #5 is rough, wet, and not marked very well, but easy enough to follow. It took us an hour to reach the summit and its firetower. Great VFTT !!
The ‘whack over to Number 6 Mtn – 3315’ was straight forward and pretty easy. The woods where open for the most part. Once past the col we where faced with a route choice… do we ascent the scree slope to our right or attempt to work our way around the cliffs on our left. I guess we where up for a rock climb.
Once atop the steep cliffy area we came upon a cairn and another terrific view! From there is was a short whack over to the ever elusive jar. We came upon it rather easily. It was empty except for an inch or two of water! We replaced the jar and donated a spare map for use as the register.
The whack down to the col with Crispo peak was, well, to say the least difficult. Thick and scrappy would sum it up. What was amazing was we found in the middle of this mess a pile of fiberglass insulation! It didn’t look very old and it wasn’t scattered all about. If it’s yours and you lost it… well it must have a good story behind it!!
From the col up to Crispo peak was through mostly open woods… but then again, compared to what we just went through anything would seem better. We found the jar with no problem. The normal list of suspects have signed the log since Dennis Crispo placed it in 1988.
All that remained was to find out way back to the car we spotted. It was rough, steep, and
mostly thick until we reached a very pretty little pond south of the peak. From there to the car the woods opened up and the going was easy. We reached the car at 4:30, 7-1/2 hours from when we started our hike. Pictures HERE
Merrill, and Van Dyke
The next morning Gamehiker met us at the Stratton Diner for breakfast. From there the 3 of us drove out to “the Beaudry”, this time to do Merrill – 3330’ and Van Dyke – 3190’. We navigated a series of logging roads till we found ourselves just to the east of these 2 peaks. We started off for Merrill first. It was colder this morning than yesterday. The upper elevations received a dusting of snow last night.
Our route took us thorough open woods all the way to the jar atop Merrill! Easy-Breezy. We didn’t linger long at the summit though as we all where “loosing core” quickly. The descent to the col was again easy along a ridge with mostly open woods. The ascent from the col to the summit of Van Dyke though was difficult. We worked our way as best we could up through the thick stuff. Near the summit the woods thinned out enough for Phil to spot the jar from a hundred yards away! (well, maybe it wasn’t that far but I’ve never seen anyone spot a jar from anywhere near the distance he did). If there’s a long distance jar spotting record, Phil holds it.
We bundled up with all the layers we had and kicked back for lunch.
Initially the descent started out thick but soon the woods opened up and we cruised back down to the car, spotting a pair of moose along the way. All in all a most enjoyable bushwhack! Pictures HERE
Onestep
#5, #6, & Crispo Peak
Friday evening I drove up to the Maine Roadhouse in Stratton to meet Pig Pen. The following morning we headed out to “the Beaudry” to ‘whack 5/6/Crispo. We spotted a car south of Crispo Peak – 3011’ and then drove over to the start of the “hiking trail” that leads up Number 5 Mtn – 3186’. We started hiking at 9AM. The trail up #5 is rough, wet, and not marked very well, but easy enough to follow. It took us an hour to reach the summit and its firetower. Great VFTT !!
The ‘whack over to Number 6 Mtn – 3315’ was straight forward and pretty easy. The woods where open for the most part. Once past the col we where faced with a route choice… do we ascent the scree slope to our right or attempt to work our way around the cliffs on our left. I guess we where up for a rock climb.
Once atop the steep cliffy area we came upon a cairn and another terrific view! From there is was a short whack over to the ever elusive jar. We came upon it rather easily. It was empty except for an inch or two of water! We replaced the jar and donated a spare map for use as the register.
The whack down to the col with Crispo peak was, well, to say the least difficult. Thick and scrappy would sum it up. What was amazing was we found in the middle of this mess a pile of fiberglass insulation! It didn’t look very old and it wasn’t scattered all about. If it’s yours and you lost it… well it must have a good story behind it!!
From the col up to Crispo peak was through mostly open woods… but then again, compared to what we just went through anything would seem better. We found the jar with no problem. The normal list of suspects have signed the log since Dennis Crispo placed it in 1988.
All that remained was to find out way back to the car we spotted. It was rough, steep, and
mostly thick until we reached a very pretty little pond south of the peak. From there to the car the woods opened up and the going was easy. We reached the car at 4:30, 7-1/2 hours from when we started our hike. Pictures HERE
Merrill, and Van Dyke
The next morning Gamehiker met us at the Stratton Diner for breakfast. From there the 3 of us drove out to “the Beaudry”, this time to do Merrill – 3330’ and Van Dyke – 3190’. We navigated a series of logging roads till we found ourselves just to the east of these 2 peaks. We started off for Merrill first. It was colder this morning than yesterday. The upper elevations received a dusting of snow last night.
Our route took us thorough open woods all the way to the jar atop Merrill! Easy-Breezy. We didn’t linger long at the summit though as we all where “loosing core” quickly. The descent to the col was again easy along a ridge with mostly open woods. The ascent from the col to the summit of Van Dyke though was difficult. We worked our way as best we could up through the thick stuff. Near the summit the woods thinned out enough for Phil to spot the jar from a hundred yards away! (well, maybe it wasn’t that far but I’ve never seen anyone spot a jar from anywhere near the distance he did). If there’s a long distance jar spotting record, Phil holds it.
We bundled up with all the layers we had and kicked back for lunch.
Initially the descent started out thick but soon the woods opened up and we cruised back down to the car, spotting a pair of moose along the way. All in all a most enjoyable bushwhack! Pictures HERE
Onestep
