Saturday, July 17, 2010
July 9th - The Mahoosucs
I headed up into the rugged and remote Mahoosuc Range with Moonpie and Doozy. We got flooded out of the tent sites at Trident Col, but the rain let up part way through the next day. I hiked this section with my brother in 2003, but it seemed a lot easier this time around. Probably something to do with the 1900 miles of experience...The trail was still wet, rocky, rooty, and technically challenging. Crossed into State #14, MAINE!!!!! on July 10. I'm glad to be in my home state! Woke up on July 11 to SUNSHINE!! When I dropped down into the infamous Mahoosuc Notch I was very impressed to find DRY rocks. Mahoosuc Notch is touted to be the hardest mile of the whole AT, as the trail winds through a boulder-choked chasm. You have to climb over, around, and under boulders as big as trucks. I enjoyed the challenge of making it through on my own (last time my brother scouted routes and helped me though most of it). The dry rocks helped loads. It took me about 1.5 hours to do 1 mile. Slowest mile on the AT, most technically challenging too. Steep climb up Mahoosuc Arm and Old Speck, from which I got lovely views. My parents met me at Grafton Notch with trail magic, and even gave Moonpie and Doozy a ride to town. I'll be light-packing for a couple days, meeting my parents at road crossings each day for food resupply. Psyched to be out of AMC land (Appalachian Mountain Club, or Appalachian Money Club, as they are known to many thru-hikers) and entering MATC territory (Maine Appalachian Trail Club, home of FREE shelters and campsites).
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HA HA, haven't heard that interpretation of the AMC's initials before. I can only hope that as they persist in their usurpation of the wilderness it will become more obvious to more people.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar vein, many timber companies, or folks interested in making money by cutting trees (such as the Green Mountain Club)have figured out how to usurp the system of "conservation easements", where the landowner sells the land to the government (to create state forests, wildlife management areas, etc) but is allowed to continue "traditional" land use practices. They basically get paid for the land's value to the future, and continue to reap short-term profits as well.Once they've rendered the land worthless and scarred, they can literally afford to walk away, leaving us taxpayers holding the bag. Plum Creek (which has been raping the Moosehead Lake region for a while now) just got nailed by the State of Vermont for overcutting a 140 acres of conservation land (they've got 56,000 acres in this state)...harvesting more timber than they had said they would under their "management plan". They had $170,000 of tax breaks revoked. While this is a good example of how we should treat those to brazenly defile the wilderness we all love (AMC take notice!), at just over $1000/acre you'd think they can afford it.