Sisters on Six Day Winter Adventure

In 2016, I (Ellen Wilcox) solo-hiked the IAT East Branch route in Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and ever since, I’ve wanted to explore the area in winter.  And so, on February 9th, my sister, Karen, and I packed up our sleds and headed out on a six-day winter adventure.  Our goal was to x-country ski and/or snowshoe the IAT route from the North Entrance of Katahdin Woods and Waters to Lunksoos Lean-to, then slackpack to the summits of Lunksoos and Deasey Mountains and return to Bowlin Camps.  As it turned out, Mother Nature had other plans for us.

The afternoon sun near Haskell Gate

Day 1 (North Entrance to Haskell Hut):  After parking my car at Bowlin Camps, we headed out — southbound from the North Entrance of Katahdin Woods and Waters — on x-country skis, pulling our camping gear and snowshoes behind us on sleds.  The sun was low over the mountains and the snow was covered in a veneer of ice that shone in the late-afternoon sun.  It didn’t take long for me to realize my skis weren’t going to work on the icy groomed trail so shortly after Haskell Gate, we switched to snowshoes.  After sun set, we traveled quietly, under a dark sky filled with bright stars and a beautiful half-moon. At Haskell Hut, we were greeted by a couple from Bar Harbor who had the fire blazing and hot water on the stove.  We had an enjoyable evening.

Day 2 (Haskell Hut to Bowlin Camps):Another day of sunshine and blue skies! Shortly after Haskell Hut, the groomed trail came to an end, so we switched to snowshoes for the rest of the trek. We stopped to enjoy the view at Haskell Deadwater, then at Haskell Rock Pitch we took the IAT route along the East Branch of the Penobscot River. It was a long, hard day. We zigzagged back and forth across mud-filled streams trickling down the trail, suddenly sunk in deep sinkholes in the snow, and endlessly pulled our sleds over, under, and around downed trees with the x-country skis (which were strapped to the top of our sleds) catching on every branch and tree in our path.

Grand Pitch Lean-to

At lunch time, we crawled down into Grand Pitch Lean-to which had a 4-foot wall of snow in front of it.

Suspension bridge to Bowlin Camps

Late afternoon, we finally made it to the suspension bridge which would take us to a warm cabin at Bowlin Camps on the other side of the river.However, the snow was to the top of the guardrails which meant our sleds could roll or slide off the side of the bridge and take us with them! Big Sister went first and bravely walked across with her snowshoes on, pulling her sled behind her (I couldn’t watch!).  Then I crawled across on my hands and knees, staring down at the torrential water rushing by below me – twice!  The first time, I dragged my pack and snowshoes across and the second time, I dragged my sled across with Karen’s help.  We enjoyed a relaxing evening at Bowlin Camps – the hosts were fantastic, and our cabin was perfect.  Since my car was parked there, we were able to resupply and get rid of the x-country skis.

On the trail to Big Spring Book Hut

Day 3 (Bowlin Camps to Big Spring Brook Hut):  It was a beautiful day, but there was a snowstorm in the forecast, so we reluctantly abandoned our plans to snowshoe the IAT route to Lunksoos Lean-to.  Instead, we went to Big Spring Brook Hut which was only four or five miles away.  We had to cross the suspension bridge again but this time, I “boldly” crawled across in one trip.  We broke trail via the K Comp Trail, then at the intersection to Big Spring Brook Hut, we got lucky – the trail was packed down and frozen enough to walk the rest of the way in boots and crampons.  Once again, the ice-covered snow gleamed in the sunshine and views of the mountains were magnificent.  At the hut, we lit a fire, shoveled out the latrine, and settled in.  So much for roughing it!

Day 4 (The Lookout):That morning, the sun was shining so we snowshoed up to The Lookout, a 2,000-foot peak overlooking the mountains in the eastern Katahdin foothills.

View from the Lookout

As we ascended, dark clouds rolled in and we could see the snow was moving in.  The 180-degree view from The Lookout was truly spectacular!

Big Spring Brook Hut

Day 5 (Snow day at Big Spring Brook Hut):  We woke up to snow and it snowed all day.  Karen worked on a jigsaw puzzle and I listened to an audiobook.  At one point, I snowshoed up the trail and attempted to toboggan down the hill on my sled, but the snow was too powdery.  Karen shoveled a path to the latrine while I brought wood in from the shed.  The hush of the falling snow and the solitude of the woods were absolute bliss!

BSB Hut latrine

Day 6 (Big Spring Brook Hut to the North Entrance):  We woke up to blue skies, sunshine, and 17 more inches of fresh, powdery snow.

Big snow

Our original plan was to snowshoe back to my car at Bowlin Camps, but the additional snow made the suspension bridge impassable, leaving us no choice but to snowshoe nine miles to Karen’s car at the North Entrance.  We were resigned to breaking trail most of the day and possibly having to camp out overnight.  We’d covered only two miles in three hours when suddenly, a snowmobile came flying over the hill in front of us!  Neither of us heard it coming and the driver didn’t see us, so we quickly dove into the deep snow to get ourselves and our sleds out of the way. Then another snowmobile came flying over the hill!  It was Mark and Susan, the trail groomers.  Thanks to these two amazing trail angels, we were able to snowshoe the rest of the way on groomed trails and didn’t have to camp out overnight.  They even shoveled Karen’s car out for us.  They also told us a group of kids from Camp Chewonki were clearing the IAT route along the river that day.  We didn’t cross paths with them, but we certainly saw the results of their hard work.  Bless them all!

North entrance to KWW

From the North Entrance, we drove to Bowlin Camps and dug my car out.We enjoyed a celebratory supper at Shin Pond Village, then Karen headed home to Augusta, and me to Nova Scotia.I so wanted my sister to see the waterfalls and pitches and had my heart set on summiting Lunksoos and Deasey Mountains in winter, but neither was meant to be.  I guess we’ll just have to come back and try again next winter.

‘Monumental’ – A Journey through Katahdin Woods and Waters

On August 24th in 2016, 87,563-acres of land in the heart of Maine was designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument by President Barack Obama. Although met with controversy on all sides, the area had yet been explored on a large scale. In September 2017, a team of four Maine-born photographers set out on a three-part journey through Katahdin Woods and Waters to investigate. The goal? To refocus attention from the debate back onto why the monument was created in the first place: to protect and encourage public access to Maine’s outdoor resources. The short film Monumental showcases the area’s sweeping beauty and undeniable value to outdoor enthusiasts.

Katahdin Woods and Waters comprises miles of serene forest, winding rivers, and exquisite mountain peaks. The vast land is adjacent to Baxter State Park and was donated by the Quimby Family Foundation in addition to funds that would jumpstart its establishment. The location boasts premier hiking, canoeing, mountain biking, camping, hunting, fishing, kayaking, wildlife viewing, and sightseeing.

Barnard Mountain Hike 2017

On Saturday September 16, 2017 EPI (Elliotsville Plantation, Inc) sponsored a hike along the IAT (International Appalachian Trail) to Barnard Mountain overlook. The group met at Sand Bank Campground and then travelled to the parking area on the IAT where the hike would begin.
 
There were twenty people who had travelled in two busses from the Bangor “Y” thanks to a National Park Foundation Transportation grant they have used for multiple excursions to the Monument over the past year. The older ten were members of a group called “second wind” and were guided by Maureen. The younger student group of ten had their own guides.
 
After a short introduction to the group about the KWWNM (Katahdin Woods and Waters) area, and the IAT that they were about to follow, both groups started for the overlook on Barnard Mountain.
 
The younger group headed directly up the IAT Trail and on to the summit while the older hikers proceed at their own pace, some of them reaching the summit. The students spent time enjoying the view from the summit and the surrounding area. They had another information session about the history of the area and the view they were seeing to the west of Katahdin Lake and Katahdin.
 
On the way back some of the group met two young IAT through hikers who were following the IAT into Canada and on to Gaspe, Quebec. Their trail names were SCALLYWAG & GIGGLES and they had hiked the 2000 plus mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Katahdin after starting in Pensacola, FL in March of this year.
It was a beautiful Maine September afternoon and a successful adventure after which both groups attended the camp fire and star viewing.
 

Bark Camp Meadow

In Ed Werler’s Book, The Call of Katahdin, he mentions a location called Bark Camp Meadow on the East Branch of the Penobscot River.
The year was 1947 and Ed, along with his wife Mary Jane and two dogs, had agreed to spend that fire season as Warden at the Daicey Mountain Fire Lookout. There was a warden’s cabin about halfway up the mountain where they would be living for several months and they needed to get their food and household gear “wangan”* up the East Branch of the Penobscot River from Grindstone, where the East Branch met the road, to the trail at the foot of the mountain leading to the warden’s and the fire cabins. This was a distance of about 16 miles upriver.
They met their riverman “Bink” and loaded their “wangan” and headed up river in a 20 foot Old Town canoe. They spent the first night at Whetstone cabin and the next day arrived at a place that Bink called Bark Camp Meadow. It is a shallow meadow, about 150 acres, on the west side of the East Branch and can be easily accessed from the main river. According to Ed: “Bink told us that years ago this had been the site of a woods camp where Hemlock logs were stripped before the bark was hauled to tanning factories down river, where the bark’s tannin was crucial to the tanning process”.

The East Branch of the river showing the Bark Meadow landing and the tote road.
Here there was a small shack six or eight foot square with a tin sign on the door PREVENT FOREST FIRES – MFS. This would be their storage building. There was a tote road along the river at this landing leading to the trail to the warden’s camp a short distance South.

This photo is on the meadow side of the tote road at the former location of the storage building. There is no evidence of the storage building today. Note the logging cable that has grown into the tree.

The Monument Line sign on the tote road just south of Bark Camp Meadow
Why the name, Bark Camp Meadow?
Tanning was a very large industry all over the Northeast, wherever there was a plentiful supply of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Between 1840 and 1880, it was one of the leading industries in the State of Maine and by 1880 it was the number two industry in Maine, with hides being sent to Maine from all over the world even from such distant places as China and Australia.
At one time, the largest tannery in the United States was in Winn, Maine and the most northerly was in Bridgewater, Maine. This probably was because of the scarcity of Hemlock north of this area.
Extensive areas of Hemlock were cut, the bark stripped and the logs were left to rot in the woods.
There were huge mounds of bark left in the woods that did not rot. Unlike in the South, where slash left from logging rots in a very short time, our cold climate in the Northeast preserves the bark. There were still piles of bark covered with moss in the woods in the early 1950’s.
The process of peeling, yarding and hauling the bark to the factories is described in Appendix I of A History of Tanning in the State of Maine by Archibald Riley. This report was for a Masters Degree in Economics, but the Appendix is entirely about woods work and how the men lived in temporary shelters during the peeling season from the full moon in May to the full moon in August. All work was done in warm weather using temporary rough board camps or tents. This operation did not require the permanent buildings needed for logging in the winter in Maine.
The May to August time period is very important, because it is when the trees are growing very rapidly, creating new wood which is soft and slippery under the bark. Later in the season the layer has dried and tightened, making it much more difficult to peel the bark.
The cook was the most important person in the crew. He prepared four meals per day, breakfast and supper at the camp and two lunches in the woods. The cook did all the cooking and baked bread and pies for breakfast for the men. His “cookies” assistants did all the other chores, providing wood and water, cleaning up and delivering the lunches to the men who were working in the woods.**
The crews worked 11 hours a day beginning at five AM and ending at 6 PM with a one hour lunch break in the morning and afternoon.
A crew consisted of four men: a chopper, a knotter, a ring and splitter and a spudder.
With an axe, a ring was cut round the base of the tree and another ring four feet up. Then the bark was split down one side with an axe from ring to ring. A spudder inserted his spud into the split and forced the bark from the tree. A spud is a tool like a very large carpenter’s chisel, curved at the end to fit the shape of the log, with a handle some two to five feet in length. After the bark was forced from the tree, the chopper then felled the tree and the knotter trimmed the branches. The crew then continued ringing and splitting in four foot lengths and the spudder followed. The bark was put up in small piles near the felled tree and collected into larger piles along roads for loading on sleds drawn by teams of horses, for hauling to the tannery. Bark hauling began as soon as there was snow enough to make good sledding. Two cords of bark was about the average load with two horses in fair sledding. A bark hauler, that is, a man and team of two horses, ordinarily received from thirty five to forty dollars a month and board. In 1935, when the Riley report was written, wages for the men averaged about $20 dollars per month and board.
The felling and barking of Hemlock trees was rendered obsolete by the development of chemical processes for tanning hides. The tanning industry, once so prevalent in Maine, has largely disappeared from the state. Bark Camp Meadow still remains!
*wangan is a broad term by used by woodsmen and is taken from the Abenaki. In this case food, household gear, tools and necessities.
**The last project that was done in Maine where the workers lived and worked in the woods for months at a time with a cook and cookie was undertaken by the James W. Sewall Company of Old Town on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway 50 years ago. Felix Cote was the cook and he had worked for the Sewall Company part time for many years. His son in law Joe Sapiel was his cookie. They started with a survey crew at Telos Lake in June. The survey was completed in October at the town of Allagash more than eighty miles from Telos.
Earl Raymond is a Board Member of The International Appalachian Trail and a VIP for KWWNM.

Earl’s Alidade

After two years of planning, construction, and cajoling, Earl Raymond, Maine IAT’s official surveyor and trail router extraordinaire, was joined by a group of Maine IAT board members and friends on Deasey Mountain to install a replica of the original alidade used by wardens to pinpoint the locations of forest fires in Maine’s north woods.

When installing an alidade, alignment is key!

An alidade consists of a circular map, oriented to align with true north, and a center mounted horizontal bar with two vertical sighting vanes.

Close look at the circular map. Note the mountain profiles and compass points around the outer edge.

The bar is rotated while the fire warden sights through the vanes on a distant object (a wisp of smoke, for example). The warden can then note the bearing of the object on the map. When a second warden on a different mountain sights on the same wisp, the two bearings can be be used to triangulate the location of a fire.

How many people can you fit into an 8×8′ cabin? (l to r) Nate Norris, Dan Swallow, Chunzeng Wang, Dave Rand, Kirk St. Peter, Earl Raymond, Nancy Hathaway, Ford Stevenson and Susan Adams.

After installing the device, Earl gave his group of helpers (all of whom managed to squeeze into the small 8 x 8-foot lookout cabin) a quick lesson on alidade use which you can see on this YouTube video.