Rangeley High Peaks 10+1 - Day 1: South Crocker, North Crocker, Redington

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hikersinger

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Feb 28, 2012
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Location
New Boston, NH
Day 1 - South Crocker (4055'), Crocker (4168'), Redington (4001')

Route:
  • Route 27 to end of Caribou Valley Road, at the gate
  • Gate to AT junction (.5 miles)
  • AT (north) to South Crocker summit (2.1mi)
  • missteps along Redington herd path, ending up at (North) Crocker summit (~1.2mi)
  • back to South Crocker summit from North Crocker (1.0mi)
  • herd path to Redington, successful this time (1.0mi)
  • herd path back to South Crocker, then back down to Caribou Valley Road (~3.6mi)
  • Total 10.7 miles, 6.5 hours, 4278' elevation gain
    (above total includes a few wrong turns along the Redington herd path; a successful traverse would total more like ~8.3 miles)

GPS track: https://www.strava.com/activities/743964791

Photo Library: View on Facebook

Links to other posts:
- Introduction
- Day 2 - The Bigelow Range: Avery (4088') and West (4145') peaks, plus South (3831') and North (3820') Horns
- Day 3 - Spaulding (4010'), Abraham (4049'), Sugarloaf (4250')
- Day 4 - Saddleback (4120') and Saddleback - The Horn (4041')


We drove from Stratton Brook Pond back out to Route 27, west a mile or so, then 4.4 miles south on Caribou Valley Road to the yellow, closed gate. The road itself is in great shape, save an isolated rock protruding from the road. (This was not so much the case as recently as a year ago, due to rickety bridges and uneven grading.)

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(view from our campsite, across Stratton Brook Pond, to the Crockers)

The AT trail north proper heads off the road on the right on at a small cairn (pay attention!), .5 miles beyond the gate, and climbs modestly for a mile to the junction with a spur path which takes you to Crocker Cirque Tentsite. This is one of many places along the AT, provided mainly for thru hikers to set up camp. These places are usually no more than 10 or 15 miles apart, tops. I'd encounter at least a few more of these in the days ahead.

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The trail gets noticeably steeper, climbing up and along the shoulder of Crocker Mountain's south peak, the first of the summits we'd reach that day. This area included a couple open ledges, where we could see the (North) Crocker summit in the distance, and north out over the Carrabassett Valley to the Bigelow Preserve, and Bigelow Range, which would be the next day's hike.

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(looking north, toward the Bigelow Range - next day's hike!)

At the South Peak summit, we decided we'd try and hit Redington first, since it was not real early and the trail to it was a little less certain. After a quick bite, we headed off on the "herd path" - there's no official trail to Redington, but the path is well-traveled. With relatively detailed directions in hand, we were finding our way pretty easily, following a path of ribbons tied to branches every 30-40 feet.

The first turn to the right was straightforward, at the point the path joined the National Park Service (NPS) boundary trail. We followed this a short distance until the path took a sharp but clear right, staying with the boundary trail. Here we continued on the trail for some time, until we realized something wasn't quite right. We were still on the boundary trail, but it wasn't so clear we were heading toward Redington. We ended up realizing we were actually approaching the North peak of Crocker instead, thanks to the Garmin GPS unit I had, as well as decent phone reception to look up data that way as well. Rather than backtrack, we continued on since this boundary trail nearly intersects with the AT near the North peak summit.

(Side note: along this stretch of the NPS boundary trail, we noticed several Appalachian Trail markers, which seemed to indicate this might have been the old Appalachian Trail at one time. We're unsure if this is actually the case, though.)

Following along our position closely with the GPS unit, we picked an appropriate section that seemed open enough, just past the summit of the North peak, and bushwhacked our way over. It was only about 150-200 feet, easy enough. Now on the real AT, we headed north over the North peak summit, and back over to the South peak.

Ok, so... Redington Take 2. We paid closer attention this time to the herd path description I printed out. The first turn to join the boundary path; the sharp right to stay on the boundary path shortly after that. We knew we didn't want to stay on the same long boundary path toward the North peak, so we watched closely, and sure enough, found a turn to the left, marked with ribbons of course. But this turn wasn't obvious, so we built up a small wall of branches to help those after us find their way. (I do realize it's possible some travel this boundary trail, perhaps especially in winter for skiing; but I think it's fair to say the larger majority travel the herd path only in this area.)

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(the infamous left turn we missed the first time; we had headed straight (toward the clearing); the barrier of branches wasn't there the first time; we fashioned it on our way back to help those after us -- just not sure if the boundary trail is traveled by others for other reasons, especially in winter?)

From here, the herd path continues clearly enough to the Redington summit, joining and leaving an old logging road along the way. The summit itself is somewhat open, though with limited views to the south. We had a quick bite, but got under way relatively quickly since it started to rain/mist lightly. At this stage, we pretty much knew we'd be hiking out in the dark; it was a possibility given our late start, but "losing our way" the first time didn't help either...

We were familiar enough with the way back, that we made our way relatively quickly; so quick, in fact, that we missed two turns on the trail. Things were wet and light levels were going down pretty rapidly, so it was a good deal harder to stay focused considering the surroundings. Thankfully we did have our sense of direction, and our recollection of the trail, to guide us. The GPS unit also proved invaluable to help us double-check whether we'd veered off-course or not.

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(our track - don't go where the red is :) )

By the time we got back to the South peak summit, it was nearly dark. We readied our headlamps and headed down the mountain. It was pretty much fully dark with two-plus miles to go, so we "hurried carefully," perhaps going a bit faster than we really should have in the end. My friend Matt's knees were giving him trouble as it was, and mine weren't exactly happy either. Matt even suggested he may not be able to join up in the next day's hike, it was getting that bad.

We were back to the car by about 5:30, then headed to the site. We had originally planned to make burgers, but in our drenched and cold state, we opted to just get into the tent with dry clothes and use the JetBoil to cook up some freeze-dried meals. They were awesome, best meals ever... almost. :)

As the evening progressed, the rain continued, but wind also began to pick up. Still, the tent was quite effective at keeping in enough heat to keep us comfortable. Overnight, as the rain stopped and skies cleared, a cold front came in as expected, bringing chilly temps and even higher wind. I'd say wind chills easily got down into the teens. I knew tomorrow's hike of the Bigelows would be a cold one...

... continue to Day 2: Bigelows & South Horn
 

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Following the Boundary trail and missing the herd path in rain and fog is why I still need to bag Redington. The AT markers along the AT Boundary are AT Boundary markers. You will find more of them than you will find AT Trail markers. They are mostly to keep people from encroaching on the AT corridor, although in some areas, loggers aren't too fussy on where they cut trees, or where abutting property owners will dump trash or store their junk. The last is not much of a problem here in the less populated part of the NE
 
(Side note: along this stretch of the NPS boundary trail, we noticed several Appalachian Trail markers, which seemed to indicate this might have been the old Appalachian Trail at one time. We're unsure if this is actually the case, though.)

I volunteer for another AT section in Maine for maintaining boundary. The aluminum disks (actually referred to as tablets) are marked with individual numbers that reference a set of National Park Service survey maps. Unfortunately the boundary survey was done just prior to widespread GPS use for surveys so there isn't a good resource for the coordinates for each one, although Dave Field with MATC most likely has a fairly complete list. Finding similar disks on the actual AT is rare but I have seen a few. There have been mixed interpretations on the extent of boundary line clearing acceptable by maintainers. Some pro crews have been quite aggressive leading to what you encountered on South Crocker which appears to be a trail. The direction given to the volunteers is to do the bare minimum to provide passage. Unfortunately this doesn't work well in dense spruce fir and the boundary rapidly disappears unless its cleared for several feet to either side and even then on neglected sections the only way to follow the boundary is by following old stumps at the base of the new growth. Given the difficulty to access and lack of volunteers, the effort to keep the boundaries clear and monitored is a battle that may be lost at some point

Most large logging firms are responsible for marking and holding to their boundaries in Maine and NH. The biggest reported timber trespass from several years ago was a contractor hired by a wind farm to build a power line right of way across RT 16 between North Crocker and Stratton. They ended up having to upgrade the hiker parking area as mitigation. Many of the boundaries lines in my section have different colored blazes by the adjoining landowner along the NPS survey line. The biggest abuse of AT land in Maine is actually fisherman stashing boats on NPS land on remote ponds. These boats are frequently stolen or beat up old boats hauled in by snowmachines in the winter and left in place usually padlocked to a tree. The surrounding landowners may act more aggressively and ensure they don't remain but the MATC mostly documents it and attach notifications to the boats that the boats are considered abandoned. The clubs have zero rights to enforce boundary issues, they just serve a monitoring function, there are informal discussions with landowners who are encroaching but ultimately its the NPS that enforces encroachments and currently there is one 1/2 time NPS enforcement officer assigned to the entire AT from Maine to Georgia.

Some trivia is that length of the maintained boundary of the AT in Maine is longer than the Yellowstone National Park Boundary.
 
I think we ran into you guys as we were heading over to N Crocker. Either that or several groups took a similar detour via the boundary swath. We got back to the car with just some light showers. ☔
 
Thank you for the great feedback and input, egilbe and peakbagger! Fascinating stuff. Thank you for all your efforts, peakbagger.

Wayne, you guys were moving well - we were heading away from North Crocker and you would have been heading to it, I believe. We still had to get Redington at that point (for try #2). If we were the ones you ran into, we were talking with an AT Sobo hiker and his female friend when you guys came by. Didn't see many others that day!
 
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