BSP Maine winter trip II

“Nope...no pics yet...it's not quite finished. I have to take it apart and paint the wooden front part that holds the traces to keep it from getting waterlogged. I also have to get some bungee cords to hold the gear in place. The hip belt thing worked out great. I used an old Dana Designs hip belt. Thanks for the tip on using swivel clips. It worked out great. I left my traces at 6' long. I may decide to shorten them a bit, but it's easier to shorten them than to lengthen them.”

“Twiggy sounds like a great truck! Does this mean that we are going to drive 90+ on the way to Baxter this trip?
I know what you mean about the truck frame. Car frame SUV's are just for wannabe's.”

“I have cruise control!

new truck

LOL!”

“Nice color!”

“Congrads on that new pretty white truck. ;-)
I've had to get a little film of ice off my truck TWICE this year.

It's Springtime here now. The pine trees started dropping pollen this past weekend. (My nose hates pine pollen)”

“springtime! don't get MarkO going about spring! ;)”

“It's a two tone paint job.”

“I received my Clark guidebook and map on Saturday. That’s what I’d call service!”

“cool skiracer! only four and a half weeks til the trip!

o(=D

truck without the snow”

“Veryyy nice lookin truck....is it big enough for all your campin' gear??? :) This ought to be interesting on those back roads now eh?”

“I posted this on another thread, but it's also useful information for here. Note, the snowfall depth info may be inaccurate to some degree. For instance, I just measured the snow depths on our property and it's anywhere from 18"-26". The snowfall depth map indicates there should only be around 5"-10".

target=_new>Northeast Snow Information from NOAA includes some great map information like snowfall, season snowfall to date, snow depth, and storm totals. Maps include all of the New England states and New York state.”

“wow, I haven't checked the link yet, but what a difference!

usually when I post the snow depth, it's using a yard stick in my front yard.

I'll be sending e-mail to you all within the next few day - it's time to make a commitment!

o(=D”

“Northeast Snow Information

The first link wasn't correct for the description, but at least it worked.”

“Somebody put a muzzle on this sick puppy.”

“

You can't keep a crack puppy down.”

“LMAO!”

“Hey! I discovered that my new buggy is invisible!
or it seemed that way last night on I95 as I nearly got creamed four times by vehicles drifting over into the left lane as I was passing them. Good thing I figured out where the horn is! :)

Okay - back to the trip...

LtHiker - did you get my e-mail?
I know you didn't get one before, so I figured I'd post here since I haven't heard back from you yet.”

“Yeah, those new vehicles have a cloak of invisibilty that wears off after it has depreciated to the point that you don't care if it gets hit....”

“Her car seems invisible because the other drivers only see a blur. Ummmm Ms Twiggy, I know Maine is very close to Canada so you might be confused with the metric system. When your speedometer says 100, you're going 100 miles per hour, not kilometers.”

“I was hoping it looked dirty enuff already for that new car cloak to be gone. Guess the 14 day plates are giving me away...

Oooooh, Mr Pennsylvania Hiker, I can't wait for my first trip to BSP where I really get to let her rip - no speed limit above Bangor remember! ;)”

“SB

Is Twigeater gonna show these guys what's really meant by being "dusted" :)”

“Yes i got your mail Twiggy sorry I haven't replied yet been super busy at work.

I can't wait for this trip!!!!!”

“Looks like we are 7:

twigeater
skiracer
Pennsy
Artex
LtHiker
monkeyboy
skeetah bait

Who is planning on meeting at my house Wednesday night?”

“If everyone was arriving Wednesday, I could see about changing Thursday night from Matagamon to Trout Brook. (puts us four miles in on Thursday)

If not, we'll stick with the plan! :)”

“Twigeater, I plan on meeting at your house on Wednesday night. I figured I'd ski for 1/2 day at Sunday River and then head your way.”

“Pennsy and I talked about this briefly last night. I'm taking care of "the thing" during the day on Wednesdsay, but will be done by 5pm. If Pennsy and I were to arrive on Wednesday, it'd be that evening. It's basically up to him though, not sure what he's got going on.”

“you all have e-mail...”

“We can not make it before Thursday evening. We have to work.....

We'll make it up to y'all with a big 'ol pot of chili!!!!”

“Mmmmmmmmmm, chili.....”

“Artex and chili together? I better make a note to bring my tent.

But hey, Wednesday night at the Twigstah's sounds great to me. It also gives me an excuse to take another day off from work.”

“You guys get way too many days off from work!!! Can you share some of them with us????”

“You'll really like this. I carried over vacation days from last year because I didn't use them all, despite all trips I took.

Let's see, I've been to New Hampshire, Florida, and the Dacks this year and I won't start burning 2004 vacation days until this trip.

Can you say
Moohaahaa”

“Holly cow, man....must be nice Mr. Pennsy. Well at least I started my new job w/2 weeks paid vacation and a week sick time, which I got paid for at the beginning of this year, since I didn't use that time up. Our company pays out unused sick time at the end of the year...being a newbie...didn't really expect it, but hey I'll take it. :)”

“I carried over a bunch of days fom last year, too. I expected to use a lot of them during ski season this year, but because of projects that were due and the lack of significant powder days, I have several left. I won't be into 2004 vacation days until a couple of vacation days after this trip. Woooo Hooo!”

“I carried a few days over as well, I usually bring forward 2 or 3 days...
plus, I should earn a day or two of comp time this week, wahoo! Since we weren't allowed to make plans for the weekend anyway, I wouldn't mind working it for comp time later on.”

“Too bad the 3 of us couldn't pitch in a few hours so the honeymooners could come up on Wednesday.”

“I do bring forward time, but it takes serious budgeting and creative sick days to do it, so I ain't giving any away! :p
(if you saw my organizer, you'd know what I mean :)
Plus since I used up 5 weeks of sick time last year, that leaves me with only 2 weeks of sick time to play with.

But MB and SB, if they weren't so precious, I'd give some to ya! Too bad I couldn't gather up all the vacation time people in my office LOSE at the end of each year...(can you imagine losing vacation time???)”

“Losing vacation time????????????”

“We can only carry so much vacation and sick time...I don't even know what the limit is cause I'll never ever reach it...
Above that number, the excess is taken away on January first. So we have "use it or lose it" time.”

“max vacation is 400 hours, max sick time is 960...”

“What is a Vacation Day? My boss doesn't give me any. Oh wait I am the boss. Ok I hearby give myself 6 weeks vacation!

Ah that feels better.

I will be there on Wensday night and be ready to go!”

“Artex, do you have a snow chant?
:(”

“We still have snow on the ground where I live in NH, but we're losing it fast. Rain expected today, Thursday and Friday with temps in the mid 40's. I expect most of it to be gone by the end of this weekend. Looks like pretty much the same snow depth coverage in Maine.

Come on, Artex...we need some more snow so I can try out my new sled.”

“We are too... :(

This may be the BSP MUDball...”

“Mud wrestling anyone?”

“It's supposed to snow this weekend...”

“Snow wrestling, then?”

“Ok here's the new deal...

I'm sending in for five at Trout Brook Farm for the night of the 25th. If that reservation is confirmed (should know by tomorrow or the next day) Monkeyboy and Skeetahbait will join us Friday at South Branch Pond.

wahoo!

o(=D”

“Now, let's just hope there is enough snow to use the sleds. Nothing like 11 miles on muddy trails with a full load of winter gear on your back. Oonga Boonga...snow, snow snow! Oonga Boonga...cold, cold, cold.”