BSP Maine winter trip II

“MB - the links are on the trip page under the trip description.

truth serum = sambucca

you really need to start paying attention. ;o)”

“Twiggy I'll bring the peppermint schnapps, maybe you can lick it off the cabin table.”

“Pennsy, wasn't I sleeping whilst others imbibed of the truth serum? Man, if I can't stay awake once in a while, I'm a gonna earn a new trail name....

I'll check those links on the trip page and load them into my favorites folder. In the mean time, I found this tidbit:




7. Late Alpine and off-road party join-ups or substitutions are not permitted unless all of the following conditions are met.

All applications have been submitted, received and approved at the Millinocket Headquarters (7) days in advance of the first scheduled day of the trip.
Party size is 4 or more persons.
Two or more members of the party must meet and accompany a join-up or late arrival at the Park boundary or trailhead.

Sooooo..... which two will come back and meet up with us???? Do we really need to do this? Can't we just catch up? .....”

“Hummm....sambucca, peppermint snapps.....decisions, decisions....don't want to overdue it or anything. BTW, this is SB, do you really think MB would be saying this? LOL, JK ;)”

“crampons are just a suggestion. The reason I'm thinking we may need them for Howe Brook is that the trail sometimes is precariously on the edge, plus with the winter we've had and the water levels (flooding in December)
Plus, a Gulf Hagas incident from a year of two ago keeps runninig through my mind...
but ya never know, it's probably just wishful thinking on my part. I haven't used my crampons since New Years! :(((((
And hiking this weekend I saw lots of trail flooded with ice - course ours may be buried under snow still, but maybe not.

truth serum! now see I was being NICE to Bruce Almighty! and not bringing that stuff...but come to think of it, there are NEW things I need to know, LOL!!!
"nearby" is relative, LOL. There is a store at the campground, don't know if they sell liquor or not. If not, next is Shin Pond, then Scotty's Flying Service...if they don't have liquor, the next stop is town of Patten. All sell beer and wine, it's just the hard stuff we may have to go to town to get. The campground store also makes sandwiches and I think pizza - we can stop on our way through and check it out.

Lthiker, don't be silly, you know I like to lick my alcohol off the floor. ;)

monkeyboy, are you flattering me to get information? for shame! (but it worked, LOL) I can't find exactly what you were looking at, but then, I can't find what I was looking at when I verified the info with BSP. Anyway, we are not "alpine" or "off road," we are "roadside" and our party minimum is 3. When I called to see if it was ok, I was basically reading from something on the website and just verifying it with them.
Anyway, if we all meet up at Trout Brook, it's good!

We just need to let you know where we are gonna leave Pennsy's radio, and set a time to meet at Trout Brook, if that's the plan we want to go with.

If you read the web, it also says Trout Brook holds four but I'm now told it holds 6. Same with Nesowadnehunk bunkhouse. I don't mind the close quarters on this trip though, as I'll be sharing one room with 4 handsome men! woohoo!

o(=D”

“We just need to let you know where we are gonna leave Pennsy's radio

Woops.”

“PS Artex, that trail mix sounds great already! Can't wait to try it!

Hey Pennsy, should I make peanut butter surprise?”

“Whewwww... found the radios.

Mmmmmmm... peanut butter surpise.”

“Twiggy is that those brown lumps that you hauled around Baxter this fall?”

“Ok, I am trying to plan my food.
Thursday we will need a Lunch(road food from patten), Dinner
Friday, Saturday, Breakfast Lunch and Dinner
Sunday breakfast lunch dinner(will we be back near the cars at dinner time?)
Monday breakfast?

Is this right?”

“YES, Mr Lt, the man who wouldn't eat my food!

right on the meals, we should have supper at the cabin Sunday night, and breakfast at the cabin Monday morning, or at the Patten diner”

“Hmmm.... I only have one set of those "stabilicers", from way back. I'm not sure I have used them..... Maybe, we can find a pair for SB.

As far as Trout Brook goes. Don't hold up the parade for us, but we'll come as soon as we can. If it gets too late in the morning, leave us a note.

I will bring in my special mix of low test. Let's see now, a capful of vodka, and enough orange juice concentrate to mix water in to fill a 32 oz. nalgene. That should be plenty strong enough!”

“MB don't mix it to strong.”

“Oh and Twig the problem was that if I had eaten your food I would still have had food left and that would mean that my pack wasn't getting any lighter.”

“yeah, so I lugged 10lbs of peanut butter for 4 days, LOL...
(my own fault)

MB if you don't mind, I'd feel more comfortable setting a time to meet at Trout Brook. That way no one is sitting around waiting for anyone else, wondering whether they should stay or go...
can hike if ya want...

OR the Trout Brook group can just take off to South Branch when we're ready and you and SB can meet us there...

We need to decide though...what does the rest of the group want to do???”

“Can we have lunch at Troutbrook? Is there a short day hike around trout brook, that we could do in the morning? Or are there better places to go hiking around South Branch?

MB what time do you think you can get there?”

“thoughts about hiking...
"I was thinking about what monkeyboy said about meeting us at Trout Brook...

My thoughts originally were to go right to South Branch, then do some hiking from there that day - though that would be limited to three hour tours - and we can do that anytime, LOL...
(think south branch falls)

However, we could do this...those of us who stayed at Trout Brook could hike from there. We could do all or part of Trout Brook mountain. Views of Matagamon Lake can be had in a fairly easy .7 miles, and 360 views further on at the peak at 1.3 miles. I know the book says it's a "pleasant and leisurely hike" with 1,000' of elevation gain, but of course in winter it's not quite so leisurely. And after that we still have to haul sleds 7 miles.
There is always the Freezout trail or maybe a hike to a pond if we just want a flat hike through the woods.

Anyway, these are just thoughts...I can call and see if anyone has the TBF bunkhouse after us...if not, we can leave our gear there, MB&SB can take their time coming in and have a warm cabin to have lunch or relax in...we could set a time to meet at the cabin (like noon) then continue on to SBP together.

My plan for South Branch Pond day is Howe Brook - it's a 6 mile round trip, probably need crampons (I hope, wahoo!). If that isn't far enough, I'd continue on to Upper South Branch Pond lean-to to see it and the cliffs of the pond in winter. I enjoy seeing stuff I see all the time in summer in winter as well. Those who want something more ambitious can do North Traveler or Black Cat.

I also have this thought of hiking Horse Mountain on the way in to TBF...

Just thinking about all that winter hiking makes me tired! I'll likely flop at the end of each day - if I don't make it to my bunk, just cover me with a tarp and throw some soup my way, LOL...

o(=D"
twigeater
04:53:06 PM
03/14/04”

“Did Twig say something?”

“boo! :p”

“huh?”

“I have some brown lumps to put in Lt's pack - don't tell him!”

“Trow some soup in your face?”

“I saw that!”

“hey MarkO, are ya slummin' or what?
LOL...

I need to e-mail you about July and about the Long Trail in August - I just got the guidebook yesterday.”

“oh, so I caught ya peekin' Lt!”

“Yup,
Marko is just here living vicariously on our trip thread.

Is it time to go yet?”

“twigeater, don't give out my e-mail address........its a secret!”

“I wish it was! except I'm not ready... :-D

ok MarkO, mums the word - and I won't tell anyone to look in your profile either, LOL”

“PS - Lt mentioned this before, but anybody have seafood alergies? (specifically to shrimp and/or scallops)

PS - I don't use real dishes, prolly don't even have any.

(I have food on the brain, cause St Pats day makes me hungry)”

“So should we bring our own dishes?”

“What do you do? Use imaginary dishes? ;-)”

“LOL...even the huts in NH provide dishes...hehe
Anyone allergic to paper plates and plastic cups, LOL?

There probably are dishes in my house, but they look real nice up there in the cupboard where no one has to wash them...

imaginary dishes, hmmmmm...maybe that's the next step!”

“You know if you seal those cabinets with saran wrap the dishes won't even get dusty.”

“dust???

hmmmmm....”

“Remember thou art dust and unto dust thou mutts return!”

“I wish August would hurry up.
I can't go on this one, but will lurk on your threads about it.”

“Twigeater, did you get lots of snow last night? Expecting more soon? I called the Mrs. at work this morning and they said she wasn't in yet...she had to clear the driveway with the snow thrower. Talked to her later and she said about 8" with more expected either tonight or tomorrow. Supposed to be 83 degrees here today. Can't wait for BSP and some wilderness. Too many people in Las Vegas. I'm meeting getagrip for a hiking presentation and dinner tonight.”

“Twigeater, did you get lots of snow last night? Expecting more soon? I called the Mrs. at work this morning and they said she wasn't in yet...she had to clear the driveway with the snow thrower. Talked to her later and she said about 8" with more expected either tonight or tomorrow. Supposed to be 83 degrees here today. Can't wait for BSP and some wilderness. Too many people in Las Vegas. I'm meeting getagrip for a hiking presentation and dinner tonight.”

“It snowed, but we didn't get much - I didn't need to shovel. The storm mostly hit southern Maine and the mountains I think. More snow this weekend. It's 25 degrees here, 21 in Patten.

hiking presentation? cool, what's that all about?

83 degress! too darn hot for me!
o(=D”

“Well..............................................................................?


(sniff.....no e-mail)”

“I'm sorry. :(
they been makin' me work!

meanies...

and now I'm off to run up and down the stairs, LOL”

“You are so flighty!”

“Getting back to meeting up with MB and SB... since they are not sure when they will be arriving at Trout Brook, I say we just head to South Branch in the morning and meet up with them when they get there.”

“How about this, we hike directly to South Branch. We don't pass go, we do not divert to Trout Brook, save some small amount of mileage, so that we can do a little something when we get to South Branch.

Seems to me that the last winter hike in BSP, we caught our breath at the cabin, then were chomping at the bit to get out there and do something. Seems I skiied a three mile trip afterwards, before dinner. The three tour was another fondly remembered adventure.

This hike in is, what, 11 miles and an elevation gain of up 500 feet and down a couple hundred?Last years hike was 13.8 (?) miles and 1000 elevation gain? Just trying to compare last years' trek to this years trek. Seems this hike will not "as tough". Is this correct? Of course, this all depends on weather and trail conditions.

In any case, we can get up early and try to meet up with you guys, but we don't want to hold back the festivities. You guys could be up and at em and on your way and we missed the alarm clock....

With any luck, we'll leave Biddefrog at 4-ish, grab chow on the way up and get there at 9 or 10 and have to make up a quick bed, get a fire going, all this while it is way past my bed time.....

Then we'll get up and break camp and get going... And you guys have a 4-5 mile headstart!!!! I think we'll probably hold you guys up. Let's meet at South Branch.”

“monkeyboy, I wasn't suggesting that you and skeetah do any additonal hiking along the way - 11 miles sounds far enough.
(besides, wasn't it your idea to meet us at Trout Brook?)
But it sounded like fun for us 7 mile slackers to pack in some hiking along the way, and that was a good excuse.

Thing is, if you look at the map and guidebook, the only short trails from SBP are the Ledges trail with a 1.2 mile loop, and the Falls trail with a 3 mile loop.
Beyond that are the mountain trails and Howe Brook.

(and what's this about getting a fire going? don't you have gas heat? and mattresses and pillows? and a stove? huh?)

I'm fine with whatever we do, I just don't want to run out of hiking and >gasp!< have to hike the same thing twice! LOL...

and I saw the northern lights tonight. :D”

“Northern Lights, I'm officially jealous.

I forgot about the gas heat. Really, whatever works as far as hiking will be fine.

Sometimes... I ramble.....

I think the big thing is for us to meet up at South Branch. And if we meet up on the way in, great. Just mulling the reality of that happening... doesn't look too realistic.

However, save a little something we can do, unshackled from our sleds, for when we get there!!!”

“MB if you get up and leave the cabin by about 2am you should be able to catch us eating breakfast.”

“twigeater, I thought you were off that medication.”

“Lt, if they leave at 2 am they'll arrive in plenty of time so we can all watch the sun rise together!

meds? which one was I supposed to stop taking MarkO? the blue ones? (oops) :)

soooo....back to the original plan...monkeyboy, we'll meet you guys at SBF sometime Friday.”

“Good morning, sunshine!

YOu really saw the northern lights?

I saw a helicopter with search lights!”