25 Miles of Wintery Mix in the Wilderness

The 2015 Adventures started with our annual trip to Greenville, Maine and the entrance to the 100 Mile Wilderness. We've been continually increasing the group from our initial four snowshoers three years ago, to six of us last year, and stretching to eleven this year--Jim and Lisa Nowak, John and Suzanne Cimochowski, Leslie and Eva Sweetnam, Charlie and Kelly Bottieri, Carolyn Hart and ourselves.

As in past years we headed out from Woodstock in the late afternoon on Friday. The first stop was at an Applebee's in Tewksbury for a group dinner...

then on to the Morris estate in Standish, Me. 

James and Stephanie graciously welcomed us all to camp out in various rooms of the house...giving us a great jumping off point for the last three hour drive on Saturday.

James provided not only stories, but a nice selection of single malts...along with descriptions and differences.


We left their house close to 6 am so we could be at Aunt M's diner in Greenville for breakfast and then at the Winter Parking Lot for a 10 am start to the snowshoeing.




Eight of us started out in -6 degree weather on snowshoes, and three (Eva, Kelly, and Suzanne) rode in with our luggage on a sled behind a snowmobile. Other than being cold and windy it was a beautifully clear day.

We travelled along the Katahdin Ironworks (KI) Road from the Winter Parking Lot on the map below for a little over a mile and then turned onto the Trout Pond Trail...

The original plan was to travel in completely on the Gorman Lodge Trail, but I didn't recognize that the snowmobile trail we crossed along the way was part of the trail...so we ended up missing that turn.

But in the end it worked out in that we found one of the campsite outhouses along the trail...and took advantage of our find...

From there we headed out on the alternate route...crossing Long Pond on a trail marked by small trees stuck into the ice and snow...

Fortunately the wind was behind us as we crossed the pond--pushing us...a little...instead of being straight into our faces. With the low temperatures and lower wind chill (estimated at one point to be -20 F or about -30 C) this was certainly a blessing.

With a short stop to eat our trail lunches along the way, it took us about 4 hours to make the trek into the Gorman Chairback Lodge.

The advance crew of three ladies were not idle as we were making our way along the trail. On arrival we found our bags in our cabins...wood stoves all lit and warm...and the Cimochowski's cabin set up for cocktail hour...we should have an advance group more often!

The lodge had a full turkey dinner for us that evening and some of us followed the meal with a trip to the wood fired sauna to ease out the muscle soreness from the day. Then a little bit of reading in our cabins before lights out and snuggling down into a well deserved sleep.

Sunday morning we loaded up with a hearty breakfast before splitting into two parties for the day's adventures.

Carolyn, Eva, Kelly and Suzanne decided to keep their travels closer to the Lodge and planned on snowshoeing around Long Pond and the nearby areas...although Kelly did venture out much further and snowshoed over some of the same trails the main party used on Saturday.

The rest of us started out on the Long Pond Trail for a little over 1.2 miles and then started up the ungroomed Third Mtn. Trail (the dotted red line on the map above).

The pictures don't do justice to the steepness and iciness we encountered at some points along the trail...but we pressed on making our way further up to the ridge.

After 1.5 miles we connected with the Appalachian Trail and turned north towards the Third Mtn. peak.

At one outcropping we met up with a couple that had been ahead of us and stopped for them to take a group photo.

Then it was another push to reach the Monument Cliff of Third Mountain and limited, but spectacular views (limited because of blowing snow below us and a wintery mix of weather around us).

From Monument Cliff we continued north and began our descent towards the Lodge. Climbing up over icy patches earlier in the day was tough, but climbing down over them after already hiking for 3.5 miles made them a new challenge.

Some attacked the downhill areas by turning around and stepping backwards (using the crampon portion of the snowshoe to dig into the ice)...and some of us faced down the hill and pushed onto the balls of our feet to engage the crampons. It was an effective and stable way to go down unless you sat back a little and then your feet would slide out from underneath.

Either way...we did it and about half way down the trail stopped for our lunch.

Then it was back to the Lodge for some quick naps, cocktails, dinner, sauna and another deep sleep (it's becoming a routine...but a very enjoyable one).

During the night the wintery mix of weather turned into rain and then the temperature dropped again. With the freezing rain and "dodgy" trail conditions the Lodge staff offered additional sled trips out to the Winter Parking Lot.

So we split up again with the Nowaks, Cimochowskis and Carolyn riding behind the snowmobile, and another group of us braving the trails to head out...of course we had to first call upon John to clean up any spare bottles...and pay the bar tab.

Instead of crossing the pond following the recommendation of the staff, we took the Gorman Lodge Trail out. While on the groomed trail in the woods the snowshoeing was not too bad, but once we got into the open areas we were breaking through the crusty cover and sinking down about 8-10 inches and breaking trail for more than half of the hike out.

We stopped at the new Phoenix Shelter by the Trout Pond for a mid morning snack. This is a nice shelter and would be an enjoyable place for a future stay and some fly fishing (as long as it wasn't black fly season).

As we approached the last hill on the Katahdin Ironworks Road the snowmobile and our companions went by. We were just far enough behind that the cars were all warmed up and packed by the time we reached the lot.

It was a fairly quiet ride home...sharing the driving and taking naps. By 7:30 that night we were all safely home...smug in our accomplishments of the weekend. 

A great first Adventure of 2015!

Posted with Blogsy

Sun Bathing in the Great White North – Suits Optional

Our Second Annual Trek to the Great White North added another couple this year—besides Jim and Lisa Nowak and ourselves, we brought along John and Suzanne Cimochowski. Since an important part of the trip includes the camaraderie of a six to seven hour transit from Woodstock to Greenville, ME we decided to squeeze into a single vehicle for the trip. That meant borrowing a vehicle that could seat six from Lisa’s sister and then packing the equipment and ourselves into and on to the SUV…Lisa had to hold things in while we closed the door…maximizing the available space.


We headed out of Woodstock late Friday afternoon…stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Wrenthan, MA to begin carbo-loading for the weekend…and then on to the Morris’ in Standish, ME to spend the evening. James and Stephanie have been very gracious in opening their home to us as a resting place along the way…and it is a nice break in the travels. A warm fire was provided for the ladies and the gentlemen retired to the pool room for some lessons from James (he did finish the evening with the most pennies).


Saturday morning we were up and on the road by 6 am…on our way to Greenville and the Hundred Mile Wilderness. The three hour trip went by fairly fast with some story-telling along the way…the Cimochowski’s exposed to us some of their adventures in Mexico…good stories all around, although we barely covered the topic.


Breakfast was at Auntie Em’s Diner in Greenville (more carbo-loading) and we then drove in to the Winter Parking Area. Chuck James (the Manager at Little Lyford Pond Camp—LLPC) arrived on a snowmobile soon after we pulled into the lot. He had a sled that would carry a bag for each of us plus our sleeping bags.



 



Besides the luggage, Suzanne was going to ride into the camp iinstead of snow-shoeing so she put on a helmet and rode off with Chuck.




It wasn’t as windy this year, but we still bundled up to start heading out on the trail…

We started along the Katahdin Ironworks (KI) Road and after about a quarter mile we turned onto the Hedgehog Gate Trail… The trail was fun and we seemed to make good time…stopping at the same rock outcropping as last year for lunch (packed for us by Auntie Em’s)…

it wasn’t long before we were stripping down to low layers of clothing. and then on into LLPC. Overall we snow-shoed for 7 miles (11.3 km) and were on the trail for about 3.5 hours.

We also had a visitor to the camp…just before dinner.  Out on the compost pile a fox came by to check the scraps and see what was being served.  It seems that he is a regular visitor.

We had three separate cabins along the back side of the camp and Chuck had already delivered our bags to one of them, so it was easy to split up our gear and settle into our cabins…before getting together for cocktail hour. Saturday dinner was a full turkey dinner with all the fixin’s! The turkey was moist, the homemade sage stuffing and mashed potatoes outstanding, and there was plenty of gravy and cranberry sauce to go around…more carbo-loading…but what a way to load.

After dinner we met up in Jim and Lisa’s cabin to play some cards (not John’s favorite pastime, so he barely played along…but he was a good sport)…and then we had reserved the wood-fired sauna for 9 pm. So although it was single digits cold outside we put on our bathing suits and sweated out our aches in 150 degree dry air (65 C for our friends in Oz)…you could only last about 20 minutes in the heat, but it certainly relaxed the muscles.


We were all then off to our cabins for a good night’s sleep.


The cabins have all been renovated and resealed recently so they were tight. The woodstove, with the damper closed down as far as possible, kept the cabin so warm that we needed to crack open a window at the peak of the cabin and crack open one of the side windows as well. Even then it stayed fairly warm.

We woke up Sunday morning to a couple of inches of fresh snow, so after breakfast we got Suzanne on snow shoes for the first time and we all headed out for a trip around First and Second Pond.

It was snowing lightly while we were out, which made it seem even more quiet and beautiful to be on the trail. The three mile loop had us back to LLPC around lunch time and we brought our pack lunches to the Lodge to eat together.


After lunch there was a little down time—power naps—before five of us (Suzanne enjoyed her first snowshoeing experience of the morning, but that was enough for the day) headed back out for an afternoon jaunt.


We headed out away from the ponds for a 2.5 mile (4 km) loop towards the Gulf Hagas and back along the Upper Valley Road.


When back at LLPC we fell into our routine of dinner, sauna (we signed up for an earlier time this evening), card playing and then off to bed. A great day away from everything including sports on TV…so just like the Patriots…we didn’t show up for the game.

Monday morning was fairly clear and cold (10 degrees F or -12 C) plus some wind that made it feel even colder. After breakfast we packed up our cabins and left our bags for the snowmobile / sled to carry out. John joined Suzanne on the snowmobile for a ride out so at least the car would be warm and mostly packed by the time we got there.

Recycling some of the “empties…”

We snow-shoed out along the Upper Valley Road and then along the KI Road…instead of traveling through the woods. At 6.2 miles (10 km) it was a little shorter than the Hedgehog Gate Trail so we were back at the parking lot by 12:30 pm.


There were a few stops on the trip back, as well as a few naps…but we made it back to Woodstock around 7:30 pm. A great adventure to the Great White North—it seemed to compare favorably to the Cimochowski’s adventures in Mexico—with only some windburn on exposed areas!