Redington(attempt!)

[MTNRUNR]

Redington is the only NE 4000'er I've never been on...since it's grown

Reading through several posts it seemed to be a long hike on "roads". Donna wanted to check Rangley XC Ski Trails for the races they are having next weekend.

We went up last weekend and as the CVR("Caribou Pond Road" was the sign on the main road) was plowed she was able to drop me off 3.3 miles in

The directions I had turned out to be great...until the left hand turn @ about 3500'/0.4 from the summit. The "road" was nowhere to be found. There were 2 spots that looked like possible bushwhack locations.

I tried one then the other...postholed in both and came back out. Then I continued down the road to see if maybe it went off to the left on the way down(not according to directions). Didn't find anything and came back up.

For some unknown reason I headed back out!!! I still can't believe I did that! Only 0.4 from summit and headed out!...what a wus!!!

After it was over I didn't understand why I didn't put my snowshoes on, take my time and get up there

Anyway...next time I plan to summit South Crocker, go to NC and back, bushwhack(plan on it this time!) to Redington then out either way...

A question for folks familiar with the area...is(was) there a road going up to the summit? I'm quessing there used to be but it has grown up in small evergreens. Also, what's the best way to get to the mountains(Kenn. Divide and others in that area) in NW Maine? I see that hikes have been done to several Maine Mountains from "trail conditions"...if you folks get a chance I love to read a "trip report" if you have the time w/ direction to the starting points...thanks

 

[king tut]

When i went up Redington this summer, i used the directions that Mohammed (did i spell that correctly?)had somewhere on this site. They were right on. The trail goes up one steep section when it is a wide road and there is a larger opening of a dirt pit or something on the right hand side. Just after that and before you go over the top of the hill, take a left onto a semi wide trail and go sideways for maybe 1/4 mile or so, no elevation gain. Then you needed to take a right on a hiking trail that does about .4 miles to the top. It is a 5-10 foot wide hiking trail, not a road.

 

[bobandgeri]

Mohamed's website is located at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~ellozy/index.html

We'd agree that the directions on his site are right on.

You can check out a couple of our trip reports for maps and info on the bushwhack - you might consider doing the bushwhack to Redington, then returning via the road so you get to see the best of both worlds.

http://rbhayes.net/laborday.html

http://rbhayes.net/Crockers-Redington.html

 

[MTNRUNR]

Those are the directions that I followed also(Mohammed's from 2001 I believe).

"Follow the road over a mile to a second fork, which is shown on the map. Take the right branch, the left branch immediately goes over a bridge. Continue through a logged bowl, and enjoy the raspberries in season! At the next fork take the right branch (again, shown on the map with dashed lines) and climb uphill. This is an older logging road, much rougher than the main Caribou Valley Road. Keep going up until you practically reach the ridgeline, you will find a very clear road branching off to the left, there are many cairns and an arrow made out of sticks to mark it. Towards the top of the road you will run into several cairns on the side of the road that do not signify anything, ignore them! They caused us some confusion.

Take the road that goes to the left (not shown on the map), and follow it. You will reach an obvious fork where a newer road goes up to your right, ignore it and continue straight ahead on the now grassy road (cairns and arrows mark it). It goes through an area of new growth spruce following a clear cut, once out of that area there is a trail going to the right, marked with heavy flagging. Follow the trail to the summit of Mt. Redington."

Snowmobiles had gone over these roads(trails) and it was all very obvious(?). Where I took a left("...on a semi wide trail and go sideways for maybe 1/4 mile os so..."), the one you described, it had been packed with snowmobiles and there were no other roads/trails off it. This semi wide trail went on for about a mile...at that point it was at the height of land(3500') in the saddle between Redington and South Crocker and 0.4 miles from Redington summit(this is where I started to bushwhack toward the summit). from there it continued downhill heading to the northwest.

I'm guessing it looks a lot different when the snow is gone.

Thanks so much for your reply! Sounds like you had a great trip on the Bigelows!! Haven't been to them yet...hoping for a clear day as I've heard the views are great!

 

[dms]

Go for it!

All these fine tuned, lengthy written directions are fine, but at some point you can always look at your map and the surrounding terrain, take a compass bearing and go for it! You can always take the "trail" down.

 

[Sir Edmund]

Reddington

I was there on Monday with friends and successfully used Gene Daniell's excellent directions.

Jeffrey

 

[askus3]

My hike on the AT from Stratton Pond Road to Caribou Valley Road is written up here . We climbed Redington and back from South Crocker on Wednesday, August 24. So scroll down to this date in the trip report. I don't know how much light this report will shed, but the pictures might help.

 

[pks4000]

Yes, no matter how you navigate it's a bit confusing. I found after several times summiting Reddington that the key was to stay left where my instinct wants to go right: Excerpted from Mohammed's excellent site:
"Take the road that goes to the left (not shown on the map), and follow it. You will reach an obvious fork where a newer road goes up to your right, ignore it and continue straight ahead on the now grassy road (cairns and arrows mark it). It goes through an area of new growth spruce ."

The valley has been ripped apart by logging,atvs,snowmobiles and fire, so
route finding is loaded with conflicting/confusing and altered natural signs.
Local knolledge says that there was a "cut" made between S. Crocker
and Reddington. We searched in snow for several hours from Crocker and only found cuts and bruises. We even tried descending west down an obvious right of way off S. Crocker summit to a valley toward Dallas, but had to climb back up and out to theCV Road ,wet and tired.

On the way down mt. I heard there is a very rough ATV path (which I think peters out)that goes east and down to the CV Road from the obvious height of land (approx 3250 ft where you took a sharp left turn on the road toward Reddington) This route may save considerable distance if it exists .

 

[weatherman]

almost there!

From all of the above, king tut's way is the most accurate I think, once you find the logging road that takes you most of the way up the hill. We did it about 2 weeks ago. The left turn is almost at the height of land at about 3500' (this was key for us, don't turn left too soon but also don't curve to the right) and there is indeed a smallish gravel pit on the right adjacent to the left turn. Then it's about 0.3 on the contour on a wide trail, a right turn on a narrower trail, and 0.3 more uphill to the top. It was tracked out when we were there and I'd be surprised if there aren't still some traces of our trip as there has been soooo little snow.

It really is much, much easier than it sounds.
Weatherman