HIKE MAINE 2003! (winter trip?)

“Maaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn...........I've ski-packed with my El-Cheapo X-country skis....the kind with no edges.
They have the old 3-pin binding and are waxless.
I run into problems when things start going downhill.
"Oh #&%!$, how do I stop!"
Not much lateral stability or edging on the downhill stuff.

I would love to ski-pack on a pair of backcountry skis with steel edges and extra width.
A pair of heavier boots with the NNN binding would be great too.

Questions for Ms Mainiac:
Can this kind of rig be rented from L.L.Bean?”

“Maaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn...........I've ski-packed with my El-Cheapo X-country skis....the kind with no edges.
They have the old 3-pin binding and are waxless.
I run into problems when things start going downhill.
"Oh #&%!$, how do I stop!"
Not much lateral stability or edging on the downhill stuff.

I would love to ski-pack on a pair of backcountry skis with steel edges and extra width.
A pair of heavier boots with the NNN binding would be great too.

Questions for Ms Mainiac:
Can this kind of rig be rented from L.L.Bean?”

“getting excited about skiing, Tom?”

“Hee-yeah!

While I can still cut the snow-crust I'd love to give it a go.

Those edge-less skis are more work but they's all I got.

Oh hell, I don't have any tights!
And my tutu is in the shop.
Can I still ski?”

“Uummmm ... you aren't going to wear the blue outfit again, are you?”

“I'll keep it under cover.

Geez, I was just ventilating!

Ya gotta stay dry in the winter.”

“I wanna see that tutu! Sounds like I have the same difficulties on skis as you Mr T.

I'm sure LLBean rents skis, I know they do snowshoes. You can call 'em at 1-800-441-5713, 24 hours a day and ask 'em what the deal is. I need to look into it as well.”

“I really wnat to try some of those back country skis with the edges.

Its probably less effort and better floatation with the extra-wides.

And the ability to do a stop-turn or slow down with the edges would be nice.

And could keep me from face-planting while generating mucho body heat.........and come up looking like a powdered donut.”

“There is a good list here, blahchool (what does that mean, anyway?)
BSP winter camping
Lots of good info there.

Pennsy I think you're correct, skiing might not be faster if you haven't done it before. I think I told you guys a little about my last winter trip - it would've been a perfect trip if one of our group hadn't harped the entire weekend about the rest of us not using her chosen mode of snow travel. To each his own level of comfort. :)
We'll all get there one way or the other and we'll have a blast!”

“I'll take a look twigeater. Thanks.

As for the name...One night while I was drunk I went on IRC to do some chatting. I was trying to set my nick to alchohol. Well, in my drunken state (which is very rare, I hardly ever drink) I typed in blahchool. The next day I noticed the nick and decided to keep it since no one else would ever think to use it. I should probably change it at some point, though.”

“If you come on this trip with us we will likely come up with several names for you.
>:D

Although these guys went to northern BSP and used an outfitter, it's a good trip report, with good info. And great pics! South Branch Pond
click on the link on the left, almost at the bottom.”

“We're not doing Katahdin? I'd like to do the mountain if anyone else is interested.”

“I have never used cross country skiis with metal edges, mostly because they are so dog gone expensive. If it is that icy, I will opt for the snow shoes anyways, as most will probably want to do that also. I have skiied on ice with the edgeless ones I have, and I am okay with that, but realize that falling is all a part of it. I bounce back up pretty well. :p”

“sooo..........

you really sleep on snow??????
i have cross country ski'd and downhill ski'd and played in the snow....but never have i slept on it...hmmm......and it's fun?”

“Set up a tent, put down a bed pad, then your bag. Pretty comfy....”

“not on this trip om...this is the bunkhouse with a wood stove trip - c'mon with us!”

“I've counted 13-14 that are interested. I can only reserve for 10 on my permit. However, if anyone is willing to tent or lean-to AND someone is willing to send in for a second permit - we can have more.”

“lee and blahchool - if you'd like more info, please send me e-mail addresses. thanks!”

“How soon do you get permits?

When is this trip actually going to happen?

I suppose a permit is needed for tenting, no?”

“I e-mailed you Mr Terrific, and yeah, tenting requires another permit with 3 people, all the same regs.

I'm thinking that once I get the main permit, and if we have more than ten commit, we may be able to figure something out. I've found that the first hurdle is to get a reservation, then usually you can play with it. Never done it with a winter permit, but I'm a fast learner. :)”

“OK

If cabin space is limited I am up for tenting and I have an REI Geo Dome Mountain-4.”

“Put me down as a maybe. If I do go I'd rather tent. If it gets arctic cold (like 20 below or less) y'all could probably find a little extra space in the bunkhouse, I hope.

wolfman's brother mentioned the need for coordination for cross country skiing - therein lies the rub. I have snowshoed plenty and am a pretty good downhill skier but never really liked cross-country.”

“More empty threats from string-man.

SURE you'll come to Maine. Yup. Can't wait. Mmmm hmmm.

(Seriously though, I'd love for you to come. It would be cool to meet you...)”

“I've been x-country skiing for many years, and the only thing I've truly mastered is the art of the fall. And that's a good thing!

Violin, send me your REAL e-mail address and I'll forward the details. Maybe we can get a second permit going.”

“I prefer to tent for comfort....bunks are usually boards.

C'mon Viola!”

“Yeah, c'mon Violin! What, you scared?”

“Yes.

I would have to reveal that I am really a 74 year old woman with bad feet.”

“.......and good html skills.”

“Yes the bunkhouse is plain boards.
If you're sure you want to tent Tom T, let me know - and it's $10 per night rather than $16.”

“For everyone that is definitely going on this trip, where are you coming from? Anyone around Northern MA or Southern NH? I figure it's easier to try and ride together instead of taking separate cars. I have 3 cars, but none are all that great for long distance winter driving.”

“You will have a number of options because several of us will be coming from further south.”

“Twig --

FOrgive me if the information is above here. What is the time commitment involved here?

1 day of travel to Baxter

XXX days in Baxter


1 day of travel back from Baxter

equals XXX + 2 days


and,

are you still thinking March? Or sooner (this doesn't matter to me, just curious).”

“where do you live? I'm sometimes in southern Mass. on the weekends and like to hike greylock and parts of the AT when I'm up there.”

“Well if you would send me your e-mail address mr anonymouslee, I'd tell ya all about it. :)
Unless you'd rather not, then -

Suggested Itinerary...

Saturday, March 1, arrive Compass Pond cabin ANYTIME! can drive to the cabin
Sunday, March 2, snowshoe/ski 12 miles to Roaring Brook, stay at the bunkhouse (or tent/lean-to)
Monday, March 3, snowshoe/ski to Chimney Pond - 6.6 miles round trip, stay at the Roaring Brook bunkhouse (or tent/lean-to)
Tuesday March 4, snowshoe/ski back to Compass Pond cabin, stay there or not
Wednesday March 5, play a little, head home, meet at Dysart's in Bangor for food and grog!

That's four nights, five days, unless you want to skip the last night at Compass Pond.

There are 9 confirmed on my permit of ten. We could try and get another permit going.”

“I'm in Northern Mass; right on the NH border. Around 45 minutes north of Boston.”

“whoops, I cornfused myself a few posts back...

I can reserve for ten on one permit - TOTAL - tenting, bunkhouse or whatever. More people requires another permit.”

“Blachhhcocoocolll

whereabouts . . .EXACTLY??

I grew up about 35 minutes north of boston . . right near the NH border”

“Twig -

Thanks much. Sorry to be difficult.

I just emailed you by clicking on your user name here . . .is that a good address?


Oh . . .I forgot to sign it "lee" so that is not who it will be from.


But I think you'll figure it out.”

“just giving you a hard time, lee

e-mail coming your way!”

“Our check, for two, is on the way. We have to make a double payment. There's two of us.”

“Twigeater, do you need any more info from us other than what is on the check? I just caught a note about info required. Do we need to download and fill out a form? Mail with the check. In our case, it looks like it might be separately.

Question # two, for this post, anyways, what kind of sled do recommend? A cheapy plastic one from walmart, a toboggin, or make one from two old skiis? What works?”

“UK - when I did AmyG's FYAO hike in the Daks, she had a sled as well as Adventurist. Basically, they were the cheapo plastic sleds that they modified with pvc pipe and ropes. Check this photo album out. I took a few shots of the sleds.

Hey Lee - I grew up 40 minutes NW of Boston. Good ole Lowell. Were you that kid down the street?”

“I'm in Haverhill, Mass. Is that 'exactly' enough for you? Or would you like my actual street address? How about my phone number? Social security too? ;)

Where'd you live in Mass?

-Blah”

“Oh, and I "grew up" in both Swampscott, Mass and Georgetown, Mass.”

“Thanks for the link Artex, I believe I have the new rate schedule. If not, I'll let ya know!
I didn't know about the proposed change in reservation day, that's interesting.

UK, my sled is similar to AmyGs, except I opted not to go with pvc pipe. (I got a bunch of different plans and picked the features I liked from each) I used chimney cleaning poles (too expensive for this, but I have a chimney to clean anyway) instead because I wanted something stiffer for the terrain we were on (packed snowmobile trail, wide as the road, no woods) which worked very well for that purpose. However, the hook up wasn't ideal and it went down some hills next to me (and sometimes before me) which wasn't too good.

I bought a cheap-o Wal-Mart sled, some rope, a grommet kit and some hooks from Home Depot, and got a couple rolls of 1" velcro from the Christmas Tree Shop (cheap). I drilled holes around the top and pounded the grommets in, then threaded the line through and tied it in front.

I cut slits in the sides to thread the velcro through in three places along the lenght of the sled. All that worked well, although for this trip I might want something stronger than the velcro to tie things down with. Also, the velcro came in handy when I discovered that the snowshoes I bought (according to my weight plus pack - they were huge!) that I barely tried out before the trip (big no no, but we had so little snow) were sized for bigfoot and I couldn't adjust them to fit me right. So for our day trips I used the velcro from the sled to strap the things on my feet gladiator style. They were fine that way, and big enough so I could sit back, pull up the fronts with the monster crampon thingys and slide down some of the hills - great fun!

Anyway back to the sled - I'm making a couple of changes this year. One, I got seat belt webbing and a backpack buckle from LLBean and made a hip belt. Last time I hooked the sled to my day pack, so everytime I wanted something from my sled I had to take my day pack off, and my camelbak would fall out of the front of my shirt (where it unthawed nicely). And vice versa getting stuff from my day pack, the sled was attached - pain in the butt. Two, the sled hook-up -I'm considering going with something closer to this: click on "the sled" on the lower left
since we'll only be in the woods for a little way. I don't like that monster wooden piece though, I think it's too tough for the rest of the sled.

One of the others in my group simply bought a sled, tied a rope to it, held the rope at her waist and it was fine. She also had a knotted drag rope that was attached center front, and threw it under the sled on the downhills. Worked just as well as any of them, but I think I had more fun playiing with mine. :) I also brought along lock de-icer for the hooks, and ski wax for the bottom of the sled.

Originally we thought we'd pack our backpacks just in case, but opted for bags because they fit the sled better.
More than you wanted to know, I'm sure. :)”

“Soooooo, everything goes in the sled?

Not bad!

Those shoes would probably fit me.”

“I could see how it might be awkward dragging a sled on skis from the pics. It looks like the back of the skis would hit the front of the sled and might be difficult to balance while skiing. ?”

“I took 'em back - they were pretty beat up too. I love my old wooden ones, never giving them babies up, but they won't do on these kind of trips. :(”

“Blachoaolao and Pennsy --

I grew up in Boxford. Graduated from Masco.”