New England B.S. Thread

That's just it, depends on so many things. Age being a big one of course and total debt is up there. If one has a lot of other debt that's probably better to pay that off faster of course. Age is a driver in my house big time right now.

UGH..idiots. Dashcam time..this type of shit is why I bought mine.

 

Big thing with the electric fence is the up front training. If you're willing to put in the time, they can be great and shouldn't really end up getting zapped. They get trained to turn around at the flags and the beep. The shock is sort of the last resort, or at least it should be. If the doggo gets good, you can then use the flags at places like a camp site to keep a dog contained or, if you want the dog to stay off the couch, put a flag on it. It's effective, but does take a lot of training.

Physically being rated for carrying the weight, the answer is likely yes, they're fine. Lots of those vans are 2500 or 3500 platforms meaning they can have a very high payload capacity (upwards of 3k lbs). That said, having that much weight that high, while it may not be illegal, it has to make for a sketchy ride unless he's loaded right down and has enough ballast down low to compensate.

 

I've been to the crash site but not the trains:

 

Trip thread started: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/north-maine-woods-july-22-29.757477/

 

I have a 45 lb catahoula who chased a herd of 3-4 adult deer.

That's all for the spot!

In theory you can chuck about 250-300 lbs up there

https://www.etrailer.com/roof-2018_Chevrolet_Express+Van.htm

Ladders are light. KD wood is relatively light. That definitely looks overloaded but probably less so than you'd think. "flying" at 75 though that checks out I am slow though, I hit cruise at 70 if I'm holding up traffic, otherwise 67. Fortunately, the diff hum happens at 66-68

Get a dash cam.

Also pandemic seems to have made drivers 10x worse. Providence and RI in general was already a cess pit of horrible road decisions, from vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, etc. and pandemic has made it, somehow, even worse. I didn't know that was possible. But it is.

I'll be there labor day weekend. You hitting the Caribou side or just the Millinocket side?

I can recommend to not go that time of the year. You'll want to go earlier IE April, early May, or later, September-November. Early to Mid September is nice, the roads are a lot cleaner of snowmobile spikes, there's still good leaf coverage, etc.

Mid summer you will need one of them bug hats, for sure.

GO. Whether it's with @BadDNA or someone else, GO.

Bring extra gas. Don't go alone. But get out there and check it out.

 

Honestly, I'm still figuring it out, but I'm kind of thinking that starting from here in northern VT, I'll head east, through the Rangely area, hit the bombers, then the trains, and from there who knows, maybe all the way up to Fort Kent and then back by way of Bangor. I know heat and bugs will be nuts that time of year, but that's nothing new to me.

I'm just starting to plan a route, but here's a rough idea: Google Maps

 

Weather can be hit or miss. During the day it will likely be warm and muggy but at night it can dip nice and comfortable. We went up Labor Day weekend last year 2021, and it was down below freezing overnight already.

Depending what you want to do: Skip Caribou. It's fine, but, meh. The drive out to Houlton, Caribou, and then St. Agatha (5 bucks if you pronounce that one right), is just more highway roads, not woods.



Take that blue line and head toward Ashland, you can get into the woods a lot faster that way.



Look in Gaia too, but also be careful following Gaia. There are roads that were roads but have since COMPLETELY overgrown, no chance. That second map is I THINK the route we took, not necessarily in Google. And then from the trains we planned to go west from there.

Here's my high level Gaia routes, I can share these if you want but a lot of these are unexplored and could lead you to dead ends and bushwhacking to get through.

 

Yeah, that's just a quick and dirty 'plan' I put together on Google maps, this is literally coming together right now, I had the idea over lunch to do this trip so we're still in the conceptual/planning stages. I've got a GaiaGPS subscription and will download enough offline maps that I should be able to figure a way out of just about any impassable spots. I've also got a fairly recent DeLorme Maine Atlas, but might look to see if there's a newer edition available prior to the trip. I'd gladly take any other route suggestions or gps tracks you want to share.

 

Cool.

They also hand you a map at the gate with the campsites highlighted and all that jazz too. Might be able to ask them to get one ahead of time, not sure how often it's updated but I think it's done fairly regularly.

 

I do remember that from my last trip up. Should be a fun time I hope.

 

@GarlicFarts, I have a dash cam installed. Since there was no accident, all it would show is the green traffic light and me accelerating and turning quickly. The green ight being in view would have been a big help if there had been an accident.

I can only guess he or she was looking at their phone and didn't see the red light.

 

OH YOU'VE BEEN. That makes way more sense than you never having been

Yeah bring gas, bring a puncture repair kit, you're good. We had 5 trucks, was a good fit. I'd say keep it 3-5, depending how many have trailers, makes finding camp sites a lot easier.

Ah I have front and rear setup, I probably would have gotten them, depending on the angles and lighting MAYBE their plate number.

Yeah driving since pandemic is just shambles now. I don't know what happened but the idiocy got turned up to 11.

 

@Fitzwilly

Regarding invisible fence, Pugga makes some excellent points. One thing I do respectively disagree with is an actual zap. We did most of the training ourselves. At the end, the installer came by and intentionally attempted to lure our golden across. Zap. The purpose was to show the actual consequence to the dog, without it being caused by us.

He did cross once to play with kids and got zapped. Naturally, even though I'd removed his collar he was hesitant to cross back into our yard. As I'm trying to get him back in I didn't pay attention and the prongs were against my palm. Zap. I'll tell ya what, it'd keep me in the yard. Don't tell my wife.

 

Oh yeah, my last trip was fun, I went in with my wife for a day trip to the trains, got a puncture flat on the way in and plugged it, then got a nice gash in the same tire on the way out and swapped it for the spare. It was a holiday weekend so none of the logging trucks were flying around but we did pass a grader that was out dressing some of the roads (it was on this freshly graded road that I got the big gash in the tire ).

 

A rear camera might have caught the plate or at least allowed me to get a description.

 

I'd say use it or lose it but it's coming up on 2 years at this point and it's still pretty damn bad...

 

Im in Rangeley once or twice a year for fly fishing; how far are the bombers and trains from there? I haven’t looked yet but it’s on the list.

 

My house in Eustis is about 2.5 to 3 hours away if I remember right

 

Nice. I was the one who told my group like a dozen times to bring puncture stuff etc because of the spikes. Got a rock puncture. I was the only one. Fortunately I was ready for it and it was quick. I had my spare under the truck and two spares in the bed (already got my next set of wheels and tires on craigslist so they're in my garage). And then we plugged it at camp which worked enough to get home and then a tire shop did a patch on the inside for 20 bucks or so. I'm on stock kevlar wheels and tires though.

Anyway, cool! Add the ironworks in, there's not much "sightseeing" east and north of the trains. It's a lot of woods. There's the dam though - I can't remember the name of it. I think that's near the Kokadjo gate.

Maybe it was this one

Ripogenus Dam
https://goo.gl/maps/GKkGCTUYGRGHwFpo7

I want to hit these this year
Ice Caves Trail parking area
(207) 729-5181
https://goo.gl/maps/qSuM66fbBvfhcjqw8

Rangely to the Kokadjo gate is about 3 hours on the goog. There might be a more direct route that google isn't showing me. Trains about 5.5 hours total. You can actually get there faster from rangely going through Canada.

I think it's like 20$ for a day trip to the trains from a gate. I'd recommend getting in at Kokadjo though. Look it up more because some of the gates are not staffed and they're an absolute dick to enter at, instead of just pass through. The staffed gates are great.

Bring a few bucks get a patch too.

 

I ordered oil last night at $3.799/gal and thought it was awfully high but didn't want to wait longer because every day prices seem to go up.

Today I looked and it's up to $4.199. Guess I did it at the right time!