Ahhhhh, Pittsburg. A paradise for outdoors-persons of all types. We wanted to get up there again before snow finished that for the season, we had some new info. on a key gate being open, so Brian, Joe, Greg and I headed northward. And more northward. And yet more northward. Joe was confused why his GPS didn't say 44 degrees N.
With GPS in hand, we went off Rt. 3, easily navigating the roads that would bring us up to the col between the Stubs. Well, we bottomed out a couple times in Brian's CRV, which was easily fixed by him throwing us out on the return trip. He must have been in a good mood, as he didn't take off on us. At our parking spot, we were greeted to a frigid temps, a low overcast, a biting wind and snow on the ground. Full blown winter. Two seasons here. Winter and 5 months of dang poor sledding.
We skirted east of N. Stub Hill for a time and finally had to push our way through spruce, but this wasn't too bad save for the first snow of the year going down my back. Argh. A short time later brought us to the blown-down summit and some views, although the skies made them pretty obscured.
Back to the car, a quick warmup for my fingers (a nice perk as I left them exposed a little too long) and off to Stub Hill. Logging cuts made for an easy ascent almost the entire way, and the views started to get better, including this one of the always interesting mass of Rump Mountain in Maine.
I'm afraid of this mountain. I'm afraid it might start me into the ME3k's (shudder). I really don't want to go there, driving to Pittsburg is about my limit. The clouds started to part on the way down, warming things up nicely. We then went all the way back to Rt. 3, and then several miles up East Inlet Road and then to a spur road to bring us near Kent. We parked at an area with a great open view north, the best views of the day. Fortunately, those little labels appeared again, making things easy to ID.
Joe liked the looks of the Twin Peaks in Maine very much. Being in Maine, it too scares me. I now dub all Maine mountains Eek Mountain.
Again logging cuts made for an easy ascent, with plenty of views on the way up and down. On the summit, we saw this strange moose-like creature. Unfortunately, no hunters were around to shoot it.
A quick trip down, and calling it a day. The drive back was a little quieter, and we were happy for Brian's plan of Scorpio's for dinner in Lancaster, breaking the drive back neatly in half. Good food there and quick service (Sierra Nevada on tap was a hit with me, not so much the others due to the two pee stops needed por moi). The drive back was a lot quieter, a combination of tiredness and perhaps our smart-assed remark meters had run into the red. We only hiked about a ¼ of the time I was away from home, but it was a great day, with great friends, in great country. If you do nothing more than drive the back roads of Pittsburg sometime, you may be richly rewarded just for that. Oh, moose count was zero. We speculated whose fault that was.
All photos: http://saltynh.smugmug.com/Hiking/Stubs-Kent-23-OCT-2010