Five of Maine's 4K's 2/10-2/11/13

[procook131]

Won't bother with too many details, as the three of you who will read this know about these peaks and one of you was with me.....

Sunday 2/10, JoeCedar and I had a great time on Saddleback and The Horn. Around zero degrees Fahrenheit at the start, sun was shining so bright that we were quite warm despite being in single layers. That all changed above treeline and were quickly changed from snowshoes to Microspikes and donned a few more articles of clothing. Quick over and back to The Horn, then we made really good time heading back down the ski slopes. Ski Patrol told us that we should have gotten a free pass inside but when I had talked to the GM late last year he never mentioned it. Got mixed directions from other ski patrollers as to which side of the trail we should be on, but all ended up fine. Stopped in the base lodge to thank someone at guest services, and shot Jim the GM a thank you email this morning. All nice people over there!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4415481827004.2145716.1287576204&type=1&l=89b1053f4d

Monday 2/11, we headed down the CVR and started up Redington. Tight bushwhacking the whole way up, and even tighter on our way over to South Crocker. Pulled a ton of flagging; sure that won't make me too popular but where is the adventure in that? Could not get it all or we would have been there all day. And that was when the weather really started to deteriorate. Pushed over to Crocker and did our best to hustle out of there as quickly as possible, as things continued to stay inhospitable and we had a four plus hour drive back to Stowe on good roads, much less poor ones. Made it out safely in nine and a half hours total, and nearly six hours to drive back to Stowe.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4415539668450.2145717.1287576204&type=1&l=fa4593276e

Thank you as always Joe, my friend and hiking partner. Neither of us would have achieved these goals without each other, and there was no one else I would have rather been out there with!

Side note: We stayed at the White Wolf Inn in Stratton, and it was very nice. Between Sandy there and Sue next door at the Stratton Motel, there are some really nice people up there who are accommodating, friendly and reasonably priced!:tup:

 

[Tom Rankin]

Ok, the 3rd person had read it now!

When we went to Saddleback, the ski patrol office was empty. We left them a note telling them that we intended to walk up Green Weaver and then to Tri-color (as per other people's Trip reports) and then over to the Horn and back. A snowmobiler passed us on the way up and just waved. At the warming hut, (after we had returned from the Horn), we chatted with the patrol, and one of them mentioned the note was forwarded up the mountain. That was it. It was off weekend, so the trails were pretty clear.

I want to mention that it's hard to find trail signs for ski trails, as they are mostly oriented for the benefit of the downward skiers, so we downloaded a map and printed it out for reference. I highly recommend this for any ski area hike.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Nice... Seems to be popular to hit the Maine 4Ks... several people working on that winter 67 / winter 115 list.

Tim

 

[Tom Rankin]

We've done 10 Maine 4K peaks this winter and run into 1 other group of hikers. Granted we were with 6 other folks from various boards at different times, and we used ski slopes, which might have made it harder to tell if other hikers were on the mountains.

Perhaps it is more popular than last year, I was not paying attention then.

 

[JoeCedar]

Nice couple of days in the Maine woods, Dave. The BW from Redington to South Crocker was a little slow, though, 2 hours for 1.3 miles. The deep snow was enough but we had the snowstorm coming through too . . . whew! All in all, I think it beats going in there twice.

 

[Red Oak]

Nice couple of days in the Maine woods, Dave. The BW from Redington to South Crocker was a little slow, though, 2 hours for 1.3 miles. The deep snow was enough but we had the snowstorm coming through too . . . whew! All in all, I think it beats going in there twice.

Going back down to the cvr and hiking the crockers that way would be probably around the same time for you two.Did the a.t. heading north from north crocker look broken out to you?I believe it was last winter at some point.
Very awesome report and hike.Seems like the new york bros[and vermont] are owning the maine peaks this winter.

 

[Tom Rankin]

I took a quick peak at the trail heading up from the road and it seemed to be broken out. It also looked like someone had used it at the top. But the snow was so hard that day, it really would not have mattered.

 

[JoeCedar]

One of our earlier planned routes was to take the AT south from Rt 16 to Crocker first, then do the loop counterclockwise. We couldn't see from Rt 16 that the AT parking area was plowed, or even where it was. After the big snow, we thought that might be a lot of trailbreaking versus walking the road which is snowmobile-packed. We reached Crocker at the height of the storm with about 30 mph winds blowing across the summit, so even if someone had been that way it would have been blown in. The AT south from the South Crocker junction to CVR had been climbed two days before and it was almost completely drifted-in too (1 to 2 feet of loose snow). We also thought about going over from the Sugarloaf golf course, as recently reported, but decided against that too because of the new snow--easy walking on CVR was preferred over a bushwhack in unknown conditions.

 

[procook131]

Ok, the 3rd person had read it now!

I stand corrected. I should have made the over/under seven!

Nice... Seems to be popular to hit the Maine 4Ks... several people working on that winter 67 / winter 115 list.

Tim

Getting close....five hikes for seven peaks.

Going back down to the cvr and hiking the crockers that way would be probably around the same time for you two.Did the a.t. heading north from north crocker look broken out to you?I believe it was last winter at some point.
Very awesome report and hike.Seems like the new york bros[and vermont] are owning the maine peaks this winter.

Thanks for the kind words. I am actually a thirty year NY resident and just the past two in VT (had to live in the mountains, not just commute to them!).