Went to Cooper Falls lean-to this weekend for a nice easy over night hike. This is an awesome lean-to to spend the night at. Well I made it back alive. Went with pcm25, Tink and my step son Chris. I had fun. I can not speak for everyone else, but I think we all had a good time. It was an easy 4 mile hike in. The weather was very nice to us both days. The falls in front of the lean-to were running great. The winter run off is still coming down off the mountains. We saw Katahdin on the way in and it still has snow on it. Built a small fire in the fire pit in front of the lean-to and had time to site around under it under the full moon. Nothing couldn’t have gone better at the lean-to except we could have done without the skeeters. Yes the skeeters are out. They were not in full force but they were out.



Now I said everything went well. Well almost everything. The trip home after getting back to the cars was a problem. I hit a pot hole on the way out and broke the strut on my car. We managed to baby it to Brownsville and pcm25 gave me a lift back home. 109 miles. Now I am calling around looking for a car dolly so I can drive 109 miles back up there tonight and tow my car back. But I am having no luck in doing so. Looks like I might have to wait till next weekend to go up and get it. Man this stinks.

Sorry about the car. Really a stinky way to end a good trip.

Now I said everything went well. Well almost everything. The trip home after getting back to the cars was a problem. I hit a pot hole on the way out and broke the strut on my car. We managed to baby it to Brownsville and pcm25 gave me a lift back home. 109 miles. Now I am calling around looking for a car dolly so I can drive 109 miles back up there tonight and tow my car back. But I am having no luck in doing so. Looks like I might have to wait till next weekend to go up and get it. Man this stinks.

Some of my most vivid memories of that area involve car mishaps. Like the time I was coming home from the dedication of the Hermitage and my rented VW hit a rock on the approach to High Bridge and lost it's oil. A forester, who was disgusted with the waste of all those nice white pines, towed me to Brownville. The guy in the Texaco Station pulled the pan, welded the drainage plug back in place, smeared it with grease and sent me on my way.

Another time we rescued a guy who tried to ford the West Branch of the Pleasant River in an ancient jeep. He ignored our shouts that he was missing the sand bar, hit a deep hole and the Jeep slowly sunk out of sight. We pulled him ashore, drained 10 quarts of water and oil from his crank case, skimmed off the oil and sent him on his way with just two cylinders working.

After a day of hiking and fishing, our truck conked out in the middle of Hay Brook. We walked out to the KIW in a misty rain on a chilly May night, at 5 a.m. awoke the hermit who lived in one of the buildings, and called the guy we had rescued the day before.

"It's time for you to return the favor," we told him. And he did.

Weary

morning

Cannot begin to express how great it was to get away with Attroll, Tink, and her son. I am just getting going in this lifestyle and am so appreciative of the invitation to go. Have done a lot of reading and finally put faces on the different pieces of gear and stuff. We couldn't have asked for better weather (I wanted to light a campfire in the backyard when I got home but it looked like rain and more importantly, the wind came up, oh well) and yes there were skeeters. I won't call attroll a wimp :bse though. Absolutely no problem getting you guys home. It was the least I could do. Sorry to hear you are having troubles getting back up there for your car. Did you find the other key for your truck?

Thanks again guys. How bout doing the same thing but going on to the Crawford (?) pond shelter instead of the falls? Add what, three miles each way?

Can't wait.

pcm25

This is an awesome lean-to to spend the night at.

With a Porky-proof privy too. Was the gatehouse open yet? What were the woods like, ATT? Pretty dry? See any critters or turkey hunters? That's an interesting stretch of trail to wander about on, lots of left over iron from the logging trains, cool plants under the bog bridges, and still lots of big old trees. Shame about the car troubles - been there, broke that. ;)

The gate house was not open yet. It was still all boarded up. I think they open around Labor Day weekend but I am not sure. Yes it was an interesting stretch of trail. There were lots of left over iron pieces from the past. It was interesting. We stopped and looked through some of the iron pieces. Speaking of the privy. I is not full to the top but it is getting there. I would say by next year if not this year it will need to be moved. The woods were dry and the walking was nice. There are about 10 or so blow downs that we had to go around or over. We saw a moose on the drive in on the logging road. But nothing during our hike.

We saw not Turkey hunters. Turkey season open today in Maine. Saturday was just for junior hunters.

The woods were dry and the walking was nice.

I'm heading up to Abol Bridge in a little bit, sure hope I'll be able to report the same about the AT up there when I get back!

Looks like I will be headin up there to get my car Saturday. If it is fixed buy then. Then we are thinking about going back to J0-Mary road and heading north to Antlers Campsite this time. If all works out well.

... we are thinking about going back to J0-Mary road and heading north to Antlers Campsite this time.

Looks like the Jo-Mary and Henderson checkpoints will be staffed and open by today. The gate house man was working yesterday, putting up his antenna, painting, etc. Road's still a mess; soft spots, holes, and ruts. I made it out with my muffler still attached, but just barely. Good luck with the vehicle, ATT!

I just called and my car is all fixed and ready to pick up. I just need to find a way to get back up there Saturday to get it. We were thinking if we get up there early enough we might bring our packs with us and head to Antlers for the night.


TJ

How were the skeeters while you were up there? Did you get out into the woods?

How were the skeeters while you were up there? Did you get out into the woods?

They were hiding, it was only in the 50s. Didn't hike off the Jo-Mary road, just shot the breeze with the gate keeper and took photos of the Katahdin range to the north. You get a great view of the 'Katahdinough' from the highground just a few miles in. Hope the work you did on the site didn't keep you from your hike, ATT! Looks like a great weekend to get outside.

I get to spend an enjoyable weekend with Real Estate goofballs :rolleyes:

It has not kept me from my hike yet. I just got up. Waiting for the wife to get off work today at noon. I am going to pack in a minute and have things ready to go. We have to head back up this weekend anyway to pick up the car that we left up there broke last weekend. It is fixed now. Just need to find a way up there to get it. We are hoping to find someone to go with us so we can use there car or at least get a ride up there. If not we will have to take my truck and that scares me driving it that far. It is not in the best of shape.

Morning Rick

Wish I could help and get you back up there but the list is long this weekend. Not to mention I have to work tonight (covering auto racing) and Mother's Day is tomorrow. Don't think I could have gotten away with it anyway. :D Hope you get a ride up alright.

Thanks for your work here. It was a little bit of withdrawal the last day or two but its all for the best.

I filed a column with the paper Thursday night about last weekend. Not sure what they will do with it. When I know I will email you or post the link here.

Hope you get to Antlers today.

Peter

Talking about roads in the 100 mile wilderness and the conditons for driving.
I just returned from my trip into Rainbow Lake area to cut blowdowns. The roads were in pretty good shape considering the time of year. A few places had humps in the road but there was no chance of getting my vehicle mired.
There were also a few drop outs where the culverts are. The bugs for me really were just a few mosquitoes. I did see five moose in the deadwaters below the lake. They are already wading in there for pond weeds.
It snowed pretty hard Tuesday morning.
I stopped at Northern Pride campground on my way back to camp and met Mrs Plummer who is involved with LL bean and their trail Maintenance crews from Cooper Brook to Potaywadjo Lean-to. They are going to have crews in there all week soon and the trails will get the needed maintenance.

Walkin Wally

My hats off to them for their work on the trail. From J0-Mary to the Cooper Falls leanto, the work is impressing. The bog walks, the rock placements, etc. thanks for all the hard work.

pcm

Talking about roads in the 100 mile wilderness and the conditons for driving.
I just returned from my trip into Rainbow Lake area to cut blowdowns. The roads were in pretty good shape considering the time of year. A few places had humps in the road but there was no chance of getting my vehicle mired.
There were also a few drop outs where the culverts are.

Hi Wally,
You're a brave fellow to drive in past the boat ramp road this early in the year! How was the trail? Lots of blowdowns? You drove in via Kokadjo and that road was OK? I heard from Baxter the perimeter road will be open from above Kidney Pond Camps all the way around to Sandy Stream by this weekend. Sounds like you folks had a short mud season this year!

Thanks to the lack of many spring rains, roads in Maine dried up earlier than usual this year. I've planted peas for the first time in a decade because the clay soil of my garden plot dried up early. (Peas don't do well in hot weather, so planting has to be early or not at all).

But there's still snow up high. The best estimate I've been able to get suggests it will be another two weeks before deep snow disappears on the section of the AT I maintain on White Cap.

That will pose a problem for early southbounders -- and for me. I had hoped to get up to my section early because I have a busy schedule towards the end of May and early June.

I'm a Dean delegate to the Maine Democratic Convention the weekend of the May 22; I need to participate in a Phippsburg Land Trust hike on the 29th. and on June 5 I'm committed to attending the high school graduation of one of my several grandsons. He attends the "target" school in science and math at Limestone in Northern Maine.

I'm not much into high school graduations, but this grandson has hiked several hundred miles of the AT with me -- and the last I heard he was in a three way tie to be validictorian.

It looks like the early southbounders will just have to put up with some White Cap blowdowns.

Weary

Hi Teej,

The most blowdowns I had were north of the Rainbow Spring Tentsite. Just about all of my blowdowns were standing dead timber that came down sometime in the winter. Fairly easy to deal with. ( I hate those spring poles though)
The roads were fine for me. I have a full size pickup and I was watching for damp areas in the road and tire ruts. Sometimes the roads are what I call pie crust and I have gone down onto the truck frame and had the tailpipe blowing bubbles on my way to find a shortcut to Slugundy Gorge some years back but that is another story. :datz
I go into Rainbow by way of Kokadjo then 2nd Roach road and Penobscot pond then the Nahmakanta unit at Musquash Brook and other than one large dropout the roads were fine. Maybe because we did not have much snow this year but plenty of rain and things dried out earlier. Like Weary says I have to get to my area when I can. I also had a lot of other things to do up there besides the blowdowns so I was up there three days more or less. Saw no hikers just moose. The nice folks at Northern Pride Lodge were very accomodating with their public shower which was great after three days "up north". :)