North Maine Woods - July 25-31

The Debsconeag Ice Caves look fantastic!!
I am down with that for sure.
I have a decent amount of experience exploring ice caves, lava caves and lava tubes out in the PNW.

 

The alagash wilderness cuts through the NMW and is a canoe trip so a lot of sites are paddle in not drive in.

During the high season a lot of state parks will only do reservations for Friday and Saturday nights, instead of a la carte like that.

 

Okay folks, the full itinerary is up. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/north-maine-woods-july-25-31.757477/#post-27029433

 

Newport folk fest is that weekend before. First off not sure if I have the pto to even make this happen. Second off if I did then I'd have folk fest straight into a week of driving to get home Sunday night.

It's a maybe. I think I'm still at a 20% level or so, unfortunately. Sounds like it'll be a great trip.

Bring kayaks if you can, and find some lake front spots. Bikes aren't allowed but kayaks and canoes are.

 

Thanks so much for all your hard work putting together the itinerary Eammon.
It looks fantastic!!
Appreciate you posting the Gaia maps as well.
Really cool to see the route that we are planning on taking.
This is going to be an awesome trip.

 

As we get closer, I'll share the actual maps & routes with you folks. I'm still tweaking the exact driving route, but the campsites and attractions will be pretty static.

 

How are you routing? I used satellites to put some routes down and by the time we got there it was bushwhacking to get through so we had to reroute. Satellites are old and some roads are disused for a few years.

 

Right now just with GaiaGPS. I haven't looked at any of the NMW route on a satellite layer yet, wasn't really planning to use that as a routing tool though.

 

Okay. It sounds like you're sticking to major routes and it should be okay. We did Ashland to the trains and that was a bunch of routes we had to find a way around. We sent up a drone a few times to check ahead to see if a crossing or something would be worth it.

 

Yeah, I know up in the NMW 'major routes' has a whole different meaning relative to more populated areas, but I'm not necessarily looking to make this an off-road adventure, just some sightseeing and dirt road cruising (with maybe a little mud here and there).

 

Some more stuff I’ve learned about/to bring up as I plan a trip as well!

• The weather is VERY similar to northern VT, this trip will be in the few weeks a year it can be hot overnight. Also, bring winter (enough) clothes. Sweatshirt, long pants, beanie should be enough. We went labor day weekend and woke up to mid 30 degrees one morning
• MURS Radio - If you have a baofeng, it can TECHNICALLY RX and TX on MURS frequencies, but it’s not allowed to legally. Truckers use CB and MURS, neither of which need a license. MURS channels are posted up there as well.
• It’s also worth mentioning the MURS uses the 2m band, GMRS uses the 70cm band (ROUGHLY), the 2m band propegates further. But, GMRS radios can’t use them. So, we use GMRS for our primaries when we’re up there.
• Highly highly HIGHLY recommend Gaia or an alternative (I believe there are free/open source alternates). Have your route plan, and also put routes for all the major roads (golden, 490, etc). This way, if you get turned around, they’re easy to find on Gaia.
• Mark the gates - there are checkpoints and automated gates
• Fill out your check in forms ahead of time. NMW posts the check in forms on their website, you can fill them out ahead. Print 3 copies. 1 for the check in, 1 for the check out, and a third as a copy for you. If you wait until a manned gate, it just adds a few minutes, but can still be done. If you have 3-4 ish trucks, not a big deal. My trip is hoping to have 10-15+ so, we’re going to fill them out ahead
• Gates are cash or check only. I recommend bringing a checkbook, if plans go topsy turvey, you can write another check for an extra day. I’ve never run into “Oh, we’re leaving 2 days early, can we get a refund?” so, no idea if that’s a thing. You’re on your own.
• The outhouses - they REEK. Dig a hole, trust me.
• Not sure if I already posted this, chase lights. HAVE THEM. Gets dusty.

This looks like it’ll be a fun trip, I’m still like a 5% maybe, but it’s unlikely at best. If someone else wants in, and I’m holding up a spot, drop me and don’t even confirm

 

You think it reeks now? Wait until people start shitting in the woods ten feet from camp.

They are there for a reason. And a lot of them are newer over the past few years anyhow, so it really shouldn't be a big issue

 

I have PTSD from them last year.

The ones by the Churchill Dam I swear still haunt me

I figure this group is better than digging 10 ft from camp.

 

I'm out. Sorry didn't realize I was still on your maybe list.

 

Bummer

 

@BadDNA This trip looks awesome, something I want to do every year but always struggle with the time off. Great work on the planning Eammon!

 

Hey guys, with the cost of gas where it's been, and still rising, I'm thinking about postponing the trip at this time. It's a lot of unnecessary driving that's going to be pretty expensive when it's all said and done, even before the gas prices were this high.

I haven't reached a final decision yet, I wanted to get some feedback from the people who had committed, so here's your chance to weigh in. @.Q. @deanosaurus

 

I do have campground reservations for the first couple of nights still, what would you guys think of doing an abreviated trip, just the first couple of days, without all of the NMW exploration, as a compromise between the full pull and not going at all?

 

Hi there Eammon. Yes, gas prices have certainly gone through the roof lately. I can definitely appreciate your concern. For me personally, despite the high gas prices, I am still interested and on board with doing the entire trip as originally planned. The North Maine Woods sound awesome and I have been excited and looking forward to the trip. Who knows what the future brings. Looking back in a few years from now taking the trip with gas prices at "only" $5 a gallon might seem like a bargain haha. With that said, I am totally flexible and can adjust accordingly to any type of trip that we decide to take. My wish list would be in this order... 1- Full trip, 2- Abbreviated trip, 3- No trip (boooo).

 

Does anyone in here know a decent place to camp in the lakes and mountains region to camp for a night? I'm going to be going up to NMW the weekend of the 4th and have to leave after work so I need a place to stop.