Maine

That's funny I know Nick and his family!
Small world... They are up in Washington State now!

 

Anther name for it is chick hill, I go up all the time with my buddies. It's a short run but it's always pretty fun. It's a service road for the tower up there, not just a hiking trail. Went up last week and the road it's washed out pretty bad I places, but anyone could do it in a stock truck.

 

Hey guys quick question.. looking to buy a cap for my DCSB where are some good places to go?

 

Auto City over in Auburn sells caps. Never bought one from them, though, so I don't know if their prices are any good or not.
http://autocityofmaine.com/index.htm

 

I'd keep an eye on Craigslist. People who are selling caps let them go for dirt cheap.

 

X2

 

GF and I are taking the Tacoma boonie-ing this weekend. Haven't settled on Saturday or Sunday yet, though. Going to head to Bingham and then jump on the logging roads to go visit some ponds. The Austins, Bald Mountain Pond, Little Moxie Pond, and then maybe skipping over to Ordway Pond if we've got time.
The weather's supposed to be nicer on Saturday, but we might use that day for our weekend house/yard chores so we can do the outside stuff without getting rained on, and then spend the crappy day on the road in the truck, since bad weather doesn't matter much to me for driving.
Either way, should be fun. I'll try to remember to take pictures, but I'm really lousy at remembering to pull my phone out

 

I have been the only problem is im trying to color match and I have pyrite micha hard color to match

 

I resemble that remark. I searched for one when I first got my truck, but the only one I found was $2200 bucks. For that kind of money screw color matching; I'd just buy one and paint it black

 

I haven't been in maine since december, but I'm betting you're lucky the winter was mild. Last two springs I have been the first truck into bald mountain pond and those years you couldn't get in before april 25 or there abouts. That was with shoveling to open sections. The ponds you mentioned are still iced over then usually too. Post up some pictures and let us know how it is.

 

Check out jims cap town on the internet. He has three locations in NH. No sales tax and he has new, new factory seconds and used. Not sure if he has your color or not.

I used them for my new cap and was happy, but I worked right next door to his newport location at the time. No sales tax was pretty nice. Even if I didn't work right there the savings would have more than covered my fuel costs.

 

Yeah, this winter was crap. Ice out on all of the local ponds was 2 weeks ago, for crying out loud. Usually I don't go up into the woods until the middle of April at least.

 

http://nh.craigslist.org/pts/5492598880.html

Probably not what you were looking for, but it would be functional! I will keep my eyes open, i'm on CL and uncle henrys 5 times a day looking for tacoma stuff. Truck works in bangor is an ARE dealer, but then we're talking BIG money.
I got my indigo ink ARE cab height for 75 bucks on CL and it was pretty mint too, I got lucky.

 

Franks Truck Caps in Windham has always been great to me. Joe's a standup & great guy!

 

Well our trip North was fun. Ended up only hitting Austin, Little Austin, and Bald because we had to walk in quite a ways on the Austins due to road conditions. The roads in were solid (mostly) with only one spot needing a surprise 4x4 engagement. Was weird; it looked completely solid and dry but the frost must have just come out of it because the front wheels rolled across without any trouble but the rears dropped in axle-deep. Popped it into 4 lo and just idled out so I didn't chew it up. Everything else that wasn't snow-covered was fine in 2WD.
But, Austin Pond Road was still completely iced over, where the local sled club had been packing it all winter. And Little Austin Road was still covered in snow and ice, about a foot deep. Corn snow, so we were able to plow in for a pretty good distance in 4x4 before we hit a hill I wasn't willing to drive down in case I couldn't drive back up it. From there we had to bust out the snowshoes and go on foot. All three ponds are still iced over (and solid, too; at least a foot left on Austin and Little Austin and probably the same on Bald Mountain Pond.

But, I was surprised at how firm the roads were in general. Bald Mountain Road and Austin Pond Road were solid because they were still frozen, lol, but Town Line Road and Deadwater Road were frost-free and perfectly solid. Just don't get over too far on the shoulder, haha! I stepped off the shoulder at one point to water a tree and sank in almost over my boot.

I'll post some pics up tonight, when I have a chance to get them off my camera (the ones I remembered to take, at least)

 

I was curious. It can be full on late spring down in north anson, solon and bingham, but once you get in up around those ponds it can seem like winter is just barely breaking. If I didn't know how mild a winter it was I'd be surrised town line road was snow and ice free let alone frost free.

 

Yeah, I was surprised that they ponds hadn't iced out yet, though. I mean, everything around my place (two hours south) have been iced out for 3 weeks now. It was a mild shock getting out there and seeing a foot or more of ice still on the water.

 

How much snow is left in the woods besides the snowmobile pack? Doing an overland mission on either the weekend of the 15th of April or the end of April. Starting in Eusitis which is not too far from where you were.

 

Not a ton, 6-10 inches on average, where there was snow. A lot of places were bare, no cover at all, but under tree cover still had quite a bit.
Lots of water, though. All of the streams were pretty swollen, and a couple of spots had them running across the road (which was interesting where it had cut a channel through a foot of packed snow/ice to the road bed. Had to nose into those REALLY carefully). Where Eustis is further into the mountains though I wouldn't be surprised if they had more coverage. Seems like the Rangeley area holds onto its snow longer in the spring.

 

Photos of our trip this weekend.
Took the Town Line Road to the Deadwater Road, where it met up with the Bald Mountain Road. To this point everything was pretty snow-free and solid, no problems with sinking into the roadbed or any need for 4x4.
Although there was quite a bit of standing water under the power lines. Not that the locals seemed to mind:



Turned onto the Bald Mountain Road and immediately started seeing more snow, but the road itself was still solid.



The further up the Bald Mountain Road we went the more the ice crept towards the middle of the road. The ceiling was low that day, and it was rainy/misty/foggy for most of our trip. You can't tell, but there's a mountain in the back of that shot...


By the time it turned into Austin Pond Road we were traveling on a well-packed sheet of ice. Traction control was doing its job though, so we didn't need to lock into 4x4, just take it easy on the gas.


We got to a campsite on the Eastern side of Austin Pond and stopped to get out and look around. Since it's well cleared and exposed to the sun here, the snow had all been melted off of the road and everything had firmed up.




But behind us and ahead of us the road was still just ice.


We kept driving up the road and stopped at another camping site. This one made it clear that the locals have a sense of humor.


And immediately behind that sign...


This site did have some open water, though.

And the GF found a rock that she said she fancied bringing home to put in the front yard


We kept driving up the road until we got to the main camping area. This spot is always surreal for me, because I camped up here with my parents as a kid and there was no cleared area at all; we just pitched tents in the trees, parked the canoe on the shore, and built a fire ring on the beach. Lots of memories of this place that don't match up with how it looks now, lol.



Lots of ice action this year; the ice had pushed the sand well up onto the shore.


And there was still plenty of it to stand on to get a shot of the shoreline:


By the time we turned onto Little Austin Road the conditions had deteriorated enough that I had to put Aggie into 4x4 just to maintain steerage.



Eventually the road got bad enough that I wasn't comfortable going down a long hill in case we weren't able to climb back up it, so we kept going on foot. We walked the rest of the way in to Little Austin and found some more open water at the outlet.



But the rest of the pond was still very solidly frozen.


And wherever there were trees, there was still snow.


Wish I could have gotten at this burl; it'd make a heck of a piece to turn on the lathe.


Beaver control around a culvert. The pile of rocks keeps the beavers from plugging the culvert, I guess.


Right around this time the battery died on my camera died. We kept going to Bald Mountain Pond and found similar conditions, but I couldn't get any photos of them/it. It was only around 35 degrees, so I'm sure the cold weather wasn't helping the charge on the camera.

BUT, on our way out the ceiling finally lifted enough for a distance shot, and the camera cooperated for one last picture at a high spot on the road