Maine Snowball 2005 - TR

“02/18-21/2005 Nesowadnehunk bunkhouse
monkeyboy, skeetahbait, twigeater

Monkeyboy and Skeetahbait arrived my house Friday night. Chuck and KarenT had come over to help me drink some vodka cherry bounce I’d made, plus Chuck brought over the lasagna he made for us. I had forgotten to mention using a disposable pan, and since I was still packing I just didn’t have time (i.e., was too lazy) to put it in a different pan.

Saturday, February 19
We jumped out of bed, showered, packed up, and were on our way a little after 8am. We stopped at Dysart’s for a yummy breakfast, and then headed on to the parking area at the William’s Pond Road.

After unloading the truck and loading the sleds up, we decided to snowshoe in. It was around 1pm, temps were 5-10 above, no real wind, blue skies. The going was okay, then my sled starting to feel like it weighed 400 pounds, and I had a hard time keeping up with the others. After some time (like a mile or so) I bent over to look between my legs at my sled. Skeetahbait asked if I was gonna make it, as I probably looked like I was dying, LOL…I told her I was just looking at the sled, then I swore a blue streak as I realized the drag rope had fallen under the sled! I had carefully coiled it up and put it under some things when we left, so I was surprised. I cursed it soundly and dubbed it the “devil rope.” We decided to have a ritual burning for it at camp, since now that I have stiff traces I don’t need a brake.

We plugged along, not stopping much, ‘til we came to a fork in the road at about the halfway point. Unfortunately, we had to take the road less traveled, so off we went, breaking trail for the next 2.5 miles. Here again my sled started misbehaving, pretending it was a snowplow. I moved my daypack to the back which helped bring the front up out of the snow some. Skeetahbait (aka “the machine”) was cruising along breaking trail like there was no tomorrow.

My Gatorade had frozen even though I’d kept it down my shirt, so I was low on hydration. Turns out everyone’s water had frozen, even in the insulated camelbaks. I wondered why we didn’t have any “official” fueling stops, but tried to munch along the way. Finally we arrived at the BSP boundary, and that’s where I learned that Skeetahbait had worn her Cresta hiking boots and her toes were freezing – that’s why she cruised along as she did.

The extra snow had weighed the trees down and totally obscured the trail. By that time I just wanted to get to the bunkhouse, and did not want to waste 45 minutes doing the cross country ski trail that I hate, plus it was getting dark. I don’t mind the moguls of the trail ahead so I forged on through the trees, with Skeetahbait occasionally asking if I was SURE this was the right way. I said yes. Actually I was following the little fox’s path…hehe….though I didn’t tell her that. A couple of times we had to go into the woods because the brush over the trail was so thick there was no way through it. Then we finally came to the deep ditch just before the campground. There’s no longer a bridge across it since the west gate closed, so we did as we did the last trip – Skeetahbait stayed up with the three sleds, I straddled the ditch, and Monkeyboy crossed. Skeetahbait lowered each sled down; I caught them, and then passed the traces over to Monkeyboy who pulled them up. It was during this time that I realized why Skeetahbait could cruise along so…her sled weighed next to nothing! I gotta learn to do that! After that we were home free. Except that Skeetahbait and I were COLD, with Skeetahbait’s toes being seriously cold.

While Skeetahbait and I visited the outhouse – the cover was frozen to the seat and I thought sure I’d lose some butt skin - Monkeyboy went to work starting the fire, brought in his sled, and got some hot food going. Skeetahbait and I huddled around the woodstove, peeling wet things off, thawing cold and frozen body parts, and unthawing my frozen hair. I couldn’t turn my headlamp on – it was frozen as well.

Hot chocolate and teriyaki noodles never tasted so good! We were very thankful that we did not have to pitch a tent. Probably the toughest five miles I’ve done with a sled. Some felt that wrestling thru the brush was invigorating at the end of the hike, but some didn’t care for it.

As soon as we were warm enough to function, we set the lasagna on the stove, and then we bundled back up and went out for water. I had been having some muscle cramping around my knee on the way in, so I knew I was dehydrated. We all drank lots of the cold clear spring water that night.

Later we feasted on yumminy lasagna, had some wine, chatted, and then hit the hay. As usual, Monkeyboy retired first, and as Skeetahbait and I sat finishing our wine, we discussed the bucket on the porch…and the best plan of the weekend hatched, as we decided not only to use it as a pee bucket, but we brought it right inside, so no frozen butt skin, no having to wake up and get dressed to go out in the freezing cold. When Monkeyboy got up in the night and saw what we did, he agreed it was a great idea.

to be continued...
last edited: 2/23/05 10:10:34 AM”

“Sunday, February 20
We got up around 7ish I think. It was a windy, cold day, 10-15 below. After a breakfast of bagels, assorted cream cheeses, bacon, sausage and spiced potato chunks, we bundled up to get water. We hoped to wait out the wind and go out and play later in the day. In the mean time, Skeetahbait cleaned up and started her tortellini soup. I decided to do something with the deer chops I’d brought. Monkeyboy sat in his chair and directed our activities. LOL.

I threw a bunch of stuff in a pot to marinated the chops, and then put it all on to cook. The place smelled yummy with all the cooking going on. Monkeyboy threw a cake mix at me and asked what I could do with it. We were missing eggs, oil and apples, but finally, just because of the challenge I guess, I mixed up a little batter with water, powdered milk and butter buds. I threw in some stuff from various trail mixes – nuts, raisins, chocolate chips… I threw it in the coals to bake for 10 minutes. That method got us a hockey puck. Next one I put on top of the stove and flipped it – much better. So I mixed up the rest, put it on top of the stove, and we cooked up a pretty good tasting cake. Cream cheese for frosting if anyone wanted.

Here we’d eaten all this food (the soup and deer chops were soooo good) and had lots more good eating ahead of us, so we bundled up, put the skis on, and took off to play. The temp was up around 10ish by this time (1:30) We’d heard a few snowmobiles, but didn’t see a one. These last two trips I’ve noticed how much the Nesowadnehunk campground has changed. I wonder if it’s to make the area more attractive to take the pressure off the southern part of the park.

We started down the perimeter road, and as we came up by the service area, we went off into the woods to play. The snow was perfect for skiing! The first gravel pit we came to was too steep to ski down. The next one was just right, we walked up and skied down some of the smaller hills, then walked the big one. We made three trails, a green, a blue, and a black. I had fun skiing the green, but fell on the blue. After some more exploring and a coupla more falls, we started back to the cabin. Monkeyboy had blisters and wanted to save his skin for the hike out. We skied the fields back. Once there, we switched skis for snowshoes and went out for water again. Along with drinking lots of water to stay hydrated, it also helped wake us up in the night….whenever anyone got up to pee they were supposed to stoke the stove.

That night we feasted on tortellini soup and lasagna. Skeetahbait and I worked on her nalgene of schnapps for a while, then she went to bed. Monkeyboy and I chatted by the fire for a bit, then he went off to bed. I sat up until midnight doing crossword puzzles and trying to reduce my wine pack weight.

Sometime in the night I heard Monkeyboy say it was 30 degrees below zero!

more to follow...”

“Monday, February 21
Got up around 8ish, to Monkeyboy claiming it was 110 degrees over by the woodstove, 85 degrees by the door, and nalgenes that were left by the bottom of the door and on the window sill had ice in them. We had noticed the day before that the bunks had frost under them.

We had the same breakfast as the day before, though at one point we mixed the remaining potato, bacon and sausage altogether.

So began the washing up and packing…all the stuff that goes along with leaving…boo-hoo…Monkeyboy quite gallantly brought over two huge sled fulls of wood to stock the woodpile on the porch. I stirred the ashes and shut down the woodstove. It was about 5 above about that time.

Rather than burn the devil rope, I had decided to keep it for emergency uses, but to tie it off somewhere. Then it occurred to me that if I tied the devil rope to my hip belt, it would work to pull the front of my sled up, ending that snowplow effect that dragged me down. So I did that. Most of my food and wine was gone (including the 400lb lasagna, though the pan still weighed in at 7lbs anyway!) plus I packed my sled a little differently, but was still surprised when I started off that my sled felt so light…I had to look back and make sure my gear was still on – definitely a trick to remember.

We had decided to ski out, but since Skeetahbait wanted to do the ski trail, she and I opted for snowshoes for that portion. Monkeyboy “there ain’t much I can’t ski” decided to start right out skiing. They went on ahead. By the time I caught up with them (I had to take my jacket off and secured a couple of hanging straps) Monkeyboy was rolling around in the snow. I don’t know what happened, but my guess is he started up that damn hill I hate and slid off the trail, falling. While we were stopped, I put some heaters in my boots as my toes were getting cold. Skeetahbait had used heaters the day before, and was using them again today along with her ski boots rather than the crestas. She found that combination to work well for her.

At this point, Monkeyboy took his skis off and bare booted it to the top of the hill, then put his skis back on for the downhill portion. Once we were back at the “road” Skeetahbait and I put our skis on. After a bit I had to take the heaters out of my boots, as every time I stopped it felt like my feet were gonna burn up.

We stopped along the way to eat and drink, and made pretty good time skiing. We started out around 11 and were at the truck by 2:30 – but we also didn’t have to break trail like we did on the way in. After loading up, and me changing, we cranked the heat and drove to Millinocket for a pizza. It was so yummy and we raved about it so much, that you’d think we starved in them woods.

It snowed all the way home, at times there were white out conditions. We saw a few vehicles off the road here and there. I didn’t really notice any slick places until we got closer to home. We unloaded at my house around 7pm, Skeetahbait and Monkeyboy changed, then headed home. It would be 10:15pm before they arrived home.

THE END!”

“Nice trip report and sounds like a good time. Conditions seem pretty harsh with single numbers by day and 30 below at night. Good thing you had a cabin to stay in since that would be a little too cold to sleep outside in a tent.

Reading your story about dragging the sled in, I could just picture myself getting soaked and frozen doing that at 5 degrees. It's a challenge to keep feet warm at those temps also.”

“Great TR Twig!!!!

Am headed up to your state later today.


I've got 25 tax returns due to hit my desk any minute .. . as soon as I can review them I am headed home.


We are headed to Lovell (Kezar Lake) through Sunday.


Hope to get up into Evans notch for some low key snowshoeing.


Again. I love your Baxter reports . . .one o fhtese days .. .”

“Great TR so far (I've only gotten through part 1). I'll have to finish the read later.”

“Sounds like you guys had fun. How much weight did you all gain after eating all the food? lol”

“".....unthawing my frozen hair."

This appears to be a contradiction in terms.”

“RichB, we were all glad we had a cabin! It's such a cute little place - I'll almost be sorry when the new bunkhouse is finished.

Enjoy your Maine trip lee! I hope you do join us sometime!

I can only speak for myself zac, but I'm pretty sure I used every morsel I ate keeping warm, LOL...”

“You had only three people??

One of these days.........

Henry went on the FYAO V....>8^P~~~”

“Thanks for the TR.”

“".....unthawing my frozen hair."

This appears to be a contradiction in terms.”
MarkO
12:48:50 PM
2/23/05

was I grammatically incorrect or something? LOL...
One of these days what, Mr Blue Long Johns? I see Henry went on FYAO - you have great kids. :)
And a great wifey, don't let me forget Hurricane Janet!

Though the "bunkhouse" (which is actually the summer crew camp) sleeps 6, BSP only allowed reservations for 4 (inside) this winter.
I'm not big on the cluster#&%!$ groups anyway.
last edited: 2/23/05 12:37:02 PM”

“I believe what you meant was, "thawing my frozen hair".

To "unthaw" would be to re-freeze.

No matter.......

One of these days I'm gonna hafta join y'all.......one mo' time!!”

“oh!
haha...we always "unthaw" supper round these parts, LOL...
but heck, I grew up thinking "brung" was a real word...you likely wouldn't understand me at all if I lapsed into the maineiacese I grew up with.

You better join us again!
I'll be putting HIKE MAINE IV on the trip page soon - it'll be a regular 4 night Katahdin trip.”

“There still ain't much I can't ski!!!!!!Gimme another shot at that thar hill!!

What a hoot! I was very surprised at the end of the weekend. I weighed as much at the end as I did at the beginning. (Not that that is a good thing anyways...)

With all that cold weather and what have you, I was happily surprised to find myself never cold up there. (I do work outdoors and try to toughen up every winter for those conditions). My hands were pretty cold when I tried to flick my frozen bic to start the fire at the cabin. After about ten minutes, we had it up to a balmy 15 degrees, and in an hour, it was a tropical 50 degrees in the cabin!

Twigeater and her eats!!! You never go wanting for good food on her trips. That lasagna was huge and good! You should have seen her when I handed her a box of spice cake or something from our cabinets. I never read the instructions or anything. I just expect her to do a good job when it comes to food. I've had plenty of her cooking! Anyways, she asks me if I brought any eggs or oil. I said no...... It was an awesome snack cake she cooked on the woodstove, adding raisins and stuff.

What a day we had skiing. It was cold, windy and blue skies. I took a bunch of pictures for all of us. I'll try to post them soon.
last edited: 2/23/05 4:41:02 PM”

“Great trip guys! Sorry I missed it, but FYAO was alot of fun. Next winter we should plan them for different times and you mainiacs could come down and enjoy the cold with us and then we could come up there.”

“Okay, where do I start....well always in the beginning. After arriving at Twigeater's place about 10:00pm or thereabouts on Friday night, MB and I talked a bit w/Twigeater and her company and tried out her concoction(sp) of vodka cherry bounce which was pretty interesting I must say. She sure can come up with some interesting drinks ;) I thought we'd never get to her house when we ran into traffic on the way up 295 between Saco and Scarborough(only about 5 miles)that took us nearly an hour to get through because of traffic.

Well Sat morning started our usual stop at Dy(farts), I mean Dysarts for the usual breakfast for some :), and some not so usual.....we were getting pretty anxious to arrive at Baxter for the annual winter hike. I love the part going through Millinocket with Katadin looming over the town with such beauty, it just makes it so awe inspiring to see such a sight. We arrived at the trail MB, Twigeater, and I tried a few years ago that we ended up turning around on because of the uncertainy about it, well and conditions at that time.

Well we finailly got our revenge trip! Going down the same roads that we had done in the past with all of the intersections and decisions making all the while hoping we were making the right ones kept us on our toes, but MB had his handy compass and map that assured us that we were heading the right way. When we got to the part where Twigeater said we could take the short-cut through the briar patch or the long way through the ski trail, we all opted for the short cut....later I find Twigeater telling me she was following the "bunny trail" :) That was some short-cut(bushwhacking actually). I kept thinking, man I hope this was the right way, cause right about then I needed to warm my toes up. Silly me....didn't wear the correct boots for this. We were pretty glad to see that cabin :), well I know I was.

The next day, Sun, we all took our time getting up just hanging around enjoying the warmth of the cabin, just sooo happy we were inside and not out, cause of the cold. Now I don't mind the cold mind you, but there is a limit. I don't think I could take staying in a tent in those conditions, so I don't think I'll be tenting in the winter anytime soon, if at all. Sorry guys, but you can have it. Guess I'm too much of a "city girl", as I've been dubbed already here where I live(that's another story for another time) So after a nice breakfast and brunch, about sometime afternoon we finially thought well we ought to be doing some kind of exercise to work off this great food we brought. We had some fun, exploring the area with all of our new x-country skis. MB's "I can ski anything" attitude, made it challenging for Twigeater and I. I must say Twigeater is more brave than I am when it comes to x-country skiing. We had a ball messing around in the gravel pit though with our skis. I have to say, I don't mind x-country skiing, but I'm a better down hiller, then x-countrying.... Well after much fun outside we went back to keep warm and have some snapps, well Twigeater and I did. I ended up actually going to bed before MB that night. At one point in the middle of the night, I had to get up for a bathroom run, looked at the temp and declared that I officially was very glad to be in a nice warm cabin, then in a tent in 30 below zero temps. Sorry LT, I don't think I will be doing any tenting in the middle of winter, that just doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. I'm sure right about now some of you are thinking wow, our trip compared to yours sounds pretty boring, but you know what, I'll take boring any day, rather than freezing my you know what off. It was a very relaxing weekend, which every now and then some of us really need.

I can't beleive the time out, compared to the time it took for us to get into the cabin. Sometime about half way back to the truck we stopped and MB declared that we were gonna blow our time away using the x-country skis.....we all agreed and were happy for it. We did stop a little more leaving, thinking the weekend still went by too fast and were sorry to have to leave this beautiful place. But "we'll be back"....but not soon enough. Oh, BTW, yeah, looked like MB had it made for the weekend with a cook and a maid for him...what a lucky guy, eh? Well he did get the stove going and kept it going, guess we'll have to give him that.... ;)”

“Sounds like you guys had a great time. Great trip reports, ladies. Sorry I couldn't join you all for this one. 30 below...now that's cold!”

“I took a bunch of pictures for all of us. I'll try to post them soon.
monkeyboy
5:35:37 PM
2/23/05

NO crotch shots please, tootsie!

next winter trip the drink of the day will be caribou chaud! I'm making some this weekend, yum...”

“PS - MB&SB - Chuckie said the trip didn't sound like fun at all, LOL...”

“oh way cool trip reports! and dang, lots of yummy sounding food.
dysarts...that's were we ate in august, right?”

“I've heard the food is really good at Dysarts.”

“lol @ lumber!”

“LOL!”

“How much weight did you all gain after eating all the food? lol”
lumberzac
12:40:12 PM
2/23/05

Ha!
I lost a few pounds....now if only I could have about 300 more weekends like this one!

=D”

“Pics are up and loading:

http://community.webshots.com/album/281448111qmIjFn”

“great report, Twigstah! :-)”

“thanks, Lizs!

Now monkeyboy, you know that's my emergency signal mirror, LOL...

cool pics!”

“LOL!!!”

“Great photos. I can't wait to go to Baxter again.”

“Nice pictures. That cabin is the way to go in -30 temps. It looks nice and warm in there. The cross country ski trails look great too.”