Rangeley / Stratton weekend August 14-16

I have a weekend in August (14-16) where I currently appear to be free enough to spend it peakbagging in Maine. The plan is to spend a Friday and Saturday night in a motel / hostel in the Rangeley / Stratton area and do two day trips, Sat and Sun. Depending on work, weather, and room availability, I might be able to extend it to include either a Thursday or Sunday night stay and three days of hiking.

I "need" all 10 peaks in this area. The four planned trips would be:

South + North Crocker, Redington
Abraham, Spaulding, Sugarloaf
Saddleback, The Horn
Bigelow (West + Avery), and the Horn (NEHH)

I am open to doing them in any order - weather priority, or length-of-trip priority make sense (shortest one on the drive-home day...)

If you are interested, please PM me (or e-mail) and we can discuss.

Route suggestions and/or accommodation suggestions also welcome.

Tim

Hey Tim, Zero-G and I are staying in the Maine Roadhouse midweek on the week of July 19, we expect to hike all those peaks in that area, I was given the rec of that place since they have a shuttle, with some being free. Sure you're probably working, but you're welcome to join us. We will probably do a mixture of backpacking on the AT there or dayhikes, depending on the weather.

http://www.maineroadhouse.com/

Jay

Stay at the Spillover Motel, eat dinner at the White Wolf Inn, and don't try to drive further up Caribou Valley Road than your car can handle.

Recommend Saddleback/Horn as your drive-home day since it's a long way from your other hikes.

MichaelJ said:

Recommend Saddleback/Horn as your drive-home day since it's a long way from your other hikes.

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Good idea, that is definitely the shortest of the 4 days you have planned. Abraham, Spaulding, Sugarloaf (I was going to abbreviate that! ) is definitely the longest.

Day One: Start with breakfast at the BMC Diner in Rangeley (good locals' greasy spoon). Hike Saddleback and the Horn via the ski area. You should have no problem being done before noon. Drive to and up Caribou Valley Road, park at AT crossing. Hike South & North Crocker, bushwhack over to Redington and return via the Ellozy route back to car.

Day Two: ASS thruhike, with car drop.

Day Three: Bigelow Range.

When I hiked in that area, I stayed at the Mountain View Motel. http://www.mountainviewmotelmaine.com/index.htm

It was clean, reasonably priced and minutes from Caribou Valley Road. It's not the Marriott Copley, but I'd stay there again.

Glenn

Jay H said:

Hey Tim, Zero-G and I are staying in the Maine Roadhouse midweek on the week of July 19, we expect to hike all those peaks in that area, I was given the rec of that place since they have a shuttle, with some being free. Sure you're probably working, but you're welcome to join us. We will probably do a mixture of backpacking on the AT there or dayhikes, depending on the weather.

http://www.maineroadhouse.com/

Jay

Click to expand...

I will be on the family vacation that week... but thanks for the offer! Do write a TR and take pictures...

Tim

We expect to be doing the same, but not sure of dates yet. I'll keep you informed. Did Sugarloaf and the Bigls last year. b/t/w, we stayed in the 'hotel' at Sugarloaf. Bookings were down, and the rates were low.

And be sure to jump in Smalls Falls after the hikes, it's on Route 4 southeast of Rangeley....

bikehikeskifish said:

I will be on the family vacation that week... but thanks for the offer! Do write a TR and take pictures...

Tim

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OK, I'll definitely take a lot of pictures!


Jay

bikehikeskifish said:

I have a weekend in August (14-16) where I currently appear to be free enough to spend it peakbagging in Maine. The plan is to spend a Friday and Saturday night in a motel / hostel in the Rangeley / Stratton area and do two day trips, Sat and Sun. Depending on work, weather, and room availability, I might be able to extend it to include either a Thursday or Sunday night stay and three days of hiking.

I "need" all 10 peaks in this area. The four planned trips would be:

South + North Crocker, Redington
Abraham, Spaulding, Sugarloaf
Saddleback, The Horn
Bigelow (West + Avery), and the Horn (NEHH)

Click to expand...

I second the Maine Roadhouse. Beds in the bunkroom are $20/night and worked fine for me.

Seeking the Crockers&Redington and would love to join you (or anyone else heading that way) for those peaks.

Tim,

A suggestion would be to do the Crockers and Spaulding-Sugarloaf on the same day. You can access both from the same spot (parking) on the Caribou Valley Rd. It makes for a 16 mile (6.2 + 9.8 respectively ) day but neither are difficult hikes. That leaves the shorter and easier Redington to do with Abraham with your between-hikes drive on the same day. As for Saddleback/Horn, I went in via the AT (14.8 mi; 3955 ft) and had a wonderful hike. It was Aug 9 and the trail was plastered with blueberries. Not sure about your tastes but I’m not a fan of hiking the ski areas. Hopefully you’ll have good weather for the Bigelows. Have fun.

JohnL

Thanks for the suggestions, all.

I heard one PM suggestion to do the Crockers and Redington and then go across the CVR and do Sugarloaf, Spaulding and Abraham all in one day - 24 miles and 6K+ which I suppose is probably less effort than a Presidential Traverse but more than the Bonds. If there were a way up to Abraham from the Caribou Pond area I would consider it.

At the moment I have the 'luxury' of waiting on the weather to determine which trip(s) go when, needing all four. Bigelows and Saddleback are definitely better weather trips in my mind. I wouldn't pick a ski area ascent for my first choice.

Is the Maine Roadhouse really a just-show-up place? Can I be pretty certain of finding a spot to crash? I e-mailed them but got no response. I suppose I can pick up the telephone . . .

Tim

Tim--the MRHouse is almost always a "just show up" place

-very basic with large bunkroom-for 16-20ish? (some "private" rooms"), linens/blankets/towels, modest kitchen/fridge/utensils-decent,showers,several TVs,

-often workers from highway or windfarm projects there during the week; sometimes, pretty empty

-works for me, seldom any "issues", but for sure a "hikers" place, not a family place

-Sue (owner) can often be found in Stratton at Stratton Motel during the day-or at MRHouse at night--she's very laid back re use of place--you can just show up, get a bunk, shower, whatever and pay when you see her--if you want to pitch your tent in back or sleep in car and use facilities , she'll probably let you for $10

-hope it suites your needs

jim

if its still there , we used an unmapped trail that goes up from Cvr rd to the AT below Spaulding to do Crocs/Red/Spauld/Sug to do the loop.We were gonna wack to the AT but by luck found the trail.Thought it might be for maintaining the leanto below Spaulding.

I've started up the Crockers from Rt 16, then droppped down to the CVR, then up to Spaulding and back over to Sugarloaf and to a car spot at the ski area parking lot. Have done that a couple of times, and was never tempted to include Redington, much less Abraham, on those days.

But, YMMV.

I've heard rumor of bushwhacking between CVR (technically, the logging road visible on Google Earth going northeast from the pond) and the AT near Spaulding. Anyone confirm or deny? It would certainly make things a lot easier to just go from CVR up to Sugarloaf, down over to Spaulding, then directly back down to the road...

JohnL said:

A suggestion would be to do the Crockers and Spaulding-Sugarloaf on the same day. You can access both from the same spot (parking) on the Caribou Valley Rd. It makes for a 16 mile (6.2 + 9.8 respectively ) day but neither are difficult hikes. That leaves the shorter and easier Redington to do with Abraham with your between-hikes drive on the same day.

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How does one do Redington alone and have it be shorter or easier than the 6.2 mile Crockers? It's at least 10 miles round-trip from the AT crossing on the CVR and associated logging network (shown in BLUE in my link below.)

MichaelJ said:

I've heard rumor of bushwhacking between CVR (technically, the logging road visible on Google Earth going northeast from the pond) and the AT near Spaulding. Anyone confirm or deny? It would certainly make things a lot easier to just go from CVR up to Sugarloaf, down over to Spaulding, then directly back down to the road...

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There is a road (YELLOW) that does go part-way up to the ridge between Sugarloaf and Spaulding. It may (or a similar road not visible here) reach the ridge closer to Spaulding in which case a decent loop can be formed, and Abraham can be tackled separately.

There is another road or maybe two (two different GREENs) which appears to almost reach the col between Spaulding and Abraham - this one is possibly the most useful one to make all 6 into a loop from the CVR - AT parking lot.

Google Maps picture

Tim

From the right hand green road, it's only a 1/2 mile bushwhack to the AT.

bikehikeskifish said:

How does one do Redington alone and have it be shorter or easier than the 6.2 mile Crockers? It's at least 10 miles round-trip from the AT crossing on the CVR and associated logging network (shown in BLUE in my link below.)

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Back in '02 when we did it, you could still drive on the CVR quite a ways past the AT crossing. SherpaK did a magnificent job getting us over some very sketchy bridge crossings (we got out of the vehicle just in case) and dropped us at the end of the road. We were up and down in about 2 hrs. My estimate of distance was about 4 miles.
The AMC 4000 Footer Club site indicates that you can still drive 1.1 miles past the AT crossing on the CVR and further if you have 4WD. Mohamed's site indicates the same. This is probably not as far as we could drive 7 yrs ago but every mile helps.

JohnL