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Winter 2020 New England Banter and General Obs


CapturedNature
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10 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yes that is the lowest record high of any date for BOS. 

I had a feeling. Just seeing that number on the TV struck me as being super low. Crazy to think that it's never been warmer then 55 degrees on this single date. This would then make it Boston's coldest record high temp of the year.

Is ORH the same?

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11 minutes ago, BombsAway1288 said:

I had a feeling. Just seeing that number on the TV struck me as being super low. Crazy to think that it's never been warmer then 55 degrees on this single date. This would then make it Boston's coldest record high temp of the year.

Is ORH the same?

ORH is 53° on 2/6.

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2 hours ago, MaineJayhawk said:

Knife Edge is badass.  Nothing else this side of the country is even close

I was just going to ask that. I’m not an experienced hiker but I can’t think of anything I’ve seen like that in this part of the country. Mansfield, Mt. Washington, the Presidentials you can see from the car or anything in VA or NC that I’ve driven through, are nothing like that. Anything in the Adirondacks?

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6 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I was just going to ask that. I’m not an experienced hiker but I can’t think of anything I’ve seen like that in this part of the country. Mansfield, Mt. Washington, the Presidentials you can see from the car or anything in VA or NC that I’ve driven through, are nothing like that. Anything in the Adirondacks?

I don't know anything about this trail but I think (and could be very wrong) that Go Pro cams are wide angle so it might make this trail look a bit narrower than it is.  Again I could be totally wrong.

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6 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I was just going to ask that. I’m not an experienced hiker but I can’t think of anything I’ve seen like that in this part of the country. Mansfield, Mt. Washington, the Presidentials you can see from the car or anything in VA or NC that I’ve driven through, are nothing like that. Anything in the Adirondacks?

Huntington Ravine at MWN is a distant second as far as maintained trails go.  I've never been to the 'Dacks but from what I've seen from fellow hikers there's nothing comparable

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11 hours ago, Whineminster said:

I've done it twice and was scared to do it, but it's not as bad as it looks. A few sketchy areas, but the stuff on Oahu I've done was way worse

The rocks on Katahdin tend to be solid though the frost can loosen some.  When I was on Oahu (lower elevations only) in 2016 the volcanic rocks looked rather crumbly, which would certainly up the degree of difficulty.  Amazingly, I've not heard of fatalities or major injuries from falls off the Knife Edge, though a winter climber died (1978?) when the group was hit by a sudden though forecast drop into the -30s with Cat 1 winds, and 2 died in October 1963 when the first tried coming down Chimney Ravine, got stuck so a park ranger climbed up to help, and they both perished as the tail of a tropical storm brought cold, wind and snow.  It was May before the bodies were recovered.

And I have to admit that Knife Edge looks scarier now than it did in 1973 when I was trotting on the easier sections between Baxter and South Peak.  The real challenge was at Chimney Peak, where a group was halted while climbing the (easier) west side due to a panicky hiker.  I went around them but when I reached Pamola and looked back the clouds were rolling in so I needed to get back to dad and head down ASAP.  Unfortunately, that group was descending the east face of Chimney and the scared hiker was spread immobile across the trail like a starfish.  Being young and stupid (I'm no longer young :o) I did the go-around once more, a move which included hanging over a 100'+ drop without protection.  The double traverse took me 1:50 for the 2 miles, and we hit rain just after we passed Thoreau Spring on the way down.  Dad had hiked his scout troop over all the AT in NNJ and SNY so climbing the trail's northerly 5 miles was a lifetime goal.

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On 2/1/2020 at 10:21 PM, ORH_wxman said:

The Moosehead and Baxter state park areas of Maine make the white mountain national forest feel like Manhattan. 

I haven’t been yet, but even deeper into the Allagash backcountry up there north and west of BSP and you’re starting to get into one of the most isolated places in the CONUS...only the least populated areas of the west could challenge.

I’m sure tamarack has been deep into those woods more than many. Some of the resident snow mobilers like dryslot too maybe. 

Been all over those areas over the years, The one issue is fuel in the remote areas so you have to carry in if your going to ride the extreme NW area towards Dickey, Stayed on Moosehead in the summer too, Great fishing on the lake and a great area to ride, The whole region is amazing really.

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6 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Been all over those areas over the years, The one issue is fuel in the remote areas so you have to carry in if your going to ride the extreme NW area towards Dickey, Stayed on Moosehead in the summer too, Great fishing on the lake and a great area to ride, The whole region is amazing really.

It really is a beautiful area.  I read Thoreau's Maine Woods when I was young and really loved it.  For any number of reason's I never did that exploring it made me dream of.  This trip really rekindled my interest in that area.

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Just now, mreaves said:

It really is a beautiful area.  I read Thoreau's Maine Woods when I was young and really loved it.  For any number of reason's I never did that exploring it made me dream of.  This trip really rekindled my interest in that area.

Glad you got to ride up here, There is just miles and miles of trails and areas you would never be able to see in a vehicle.

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Like many things, going across Knife Edge by yourself is fine if you don't have a fear of heights. You just step carefully and there is typically a  3-4' of crown most of the way, you definitely use your hands for scrambling; however, when I took my then 14 year old across - it freaked me out. Kept grabbing him or telling him to be careful - which started us arguing with each  other half way across! Probably not best time for that sort of thing. We summitted Kings Peak (Utah's highest peak) when he was 11 - a huge physical effort - and he kept approaching and trying to look over what was essentially a sheer several thousand foot drop - that was horrifying as a parent!

That whole part of Maine is magnificent and remote. I find the whole lumber ecosystem - maine timber going to Canadian mills to be fascinating. I've heard that they import Quebec crews to harvest the lumber b/c the Mainers no longer want to spend time out in the logging camps - not sure if this is true.

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1 hour ago, Angus said:

Like many things, going across Knife Edge by yourself is fine if you don't have a fear of heights. You just step carefully and there is typically a  3-4' of crown most of the way, you definitely use your hands for scrambling; however, when I took my then 14 year old across - it freaked me out. Kept grabbing him or telling him to be careful - which started us arguing with each  other half way across! Probably not best time for that sort of thing. We summitted Kings Peak (Utah's highest peak) when he was 11 - a huge physical effort - and he kept approaching and trying to look over what was essentially a sheer several thousand foot drop - that was horrifying as a parent!

That whole part of Maine is magnificent and remote. I find the whole lumber ecosystem - maine timber going to Canadian mills to be fascinating. I've heard that they import Quebec crews to harvest the lumber b/c the Mainers no longer want to spend time out in the logging camps - not sure if this is true.

There are way fewer logging camps now as both American and Canadian crews prefer going home each night and access has improved to make that practical.  Those border mills in Quebec began sawing American trees a century ago or more, at least a generation before Pinkham and Levesque built mills in the Ashland, Maine area, giving those PQ mills an advantage in marketing and sawmill efficiency.  Also, much of the forest lies considerably closer to those mills than to the ones in Maine.  For example, wood west of the Allagash on the Round Pond public lot is 25-30 miles from the St.-Pamphile mills and 70-75 (against most loaded log truck traffic) from the Maine mills so spruce-fir and cedar go west while hardwoods come east.

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