Fieldtrip C15 of the QMIII Project, to Washington County Maine and the North Maine Woods, August 5-18, 2015.

August 5, 2015. I left my home in Tappan New York early – before breakfast – and drove straight north to Maine. I arrived in Orono Maine at 3:45 PM and stopped to pickup gear at Kelly Storage. I continued east to Wesley Maine, arriving at the Log Landing Campsite on Machias River Road at 6:15 PM. A little rain had just fallen from a later afternoon thundershower. I set up camp - the only camper in a beautiful spot along the river with about six camping sites. I cooked myself a dinner of pork and couscous. After cleaning up, I took a short walk along the road, as far north as the bridge. A mist thickly covered the wetland by the road and was backlit to a whitish gold by the setting sun. Two Ruffed Grouse fluttered by as I walked.

August 6, 2015. The night at Log Landing campsite was peaceful. After cooking a breakfast of egg sandwiches on my Coleman stove, I drove north to the Land Trust North seismic station, in a field off of Dobsis Dam Road. Wildflowers, and especially Goldenrod, were blooming along the sides of the road. I spent several hours decommissioning the station and carrying its components a quarter miles or so across the field to the car. I made five trips before the last were stowed away in my car. I dropped by the Pine Tree Store in the hamlet of Grand Lake Stream, hoping to have a pizza, but found that their kitchen was closed for remodeling. I then headed back south, sighting two Ruffed Grouse and a White Tailed Deer as I drove Little River Road.

I stopped by the Camp Vick seismic station and began its decommissioning, shutting down the data recorder and removing the two batteries. The owner, Mr. Ryan Maker, is selling the cabin and it did not appear to have been recently occupied. I brought the four batteries, two from Land Trust North and two from Camp Vic, to the Wesley Forest Service garage. I am donating them to the Forest Service. They are too heavy to drag back to New York; the rangers will make good use of them in their forest monitoring equipment.

Another camper had arrived at Log Landing and had taken residence at the opposite end of the campground. I again had pork and couscous for dinner. I made a bonfire and burned the leftover wood from the seismic stations. A little rain fell and, for a few minutes, a rainbow spanned the sky. I walked again to the bridge.

August 7, 2015. I again cook breakfast sandwiches. After cleaning up, I headed back to Camp Vic and finish decommissioning its seismic station. I make five trips into the woods, bringing back bucketfuls of sand to fill in the hole left by the seismic vault. I then drove back to Orono, to drop off the gear at Kelly Storage, and to Bangor, to pick up packing material at Staples and to use the internet at Starbucks (and drink their coffee!). I returned to Log Landing for the night. I built another campfire and burned more leftover wood. The night was clear and the stars very bright and beautiful.

August 8, 2015. After cooking up breakfast sandwiches, I packed up all my gear and left Log Landing Campsite. I again swung by Starbucks to use the internet and Kelly Storage to pickup gear. I then drove to a Shin Pond Village in Mount Chase Maine. It is a wilderness resort, built adjacent to Lower Shin Pond, and includes the campground, cabins, a store and a restaurant. I set up camp at site T12.

I drove to Forest Service station on Grand Lake Road west of Shin Pond Village and decommissioned the seismometer there. Light rain fell and I was quite soaked before all the components were stowed in the car. The sun reappeared as I was finishing up, so I took a short walk to the adjacent boat launch to view Hay Lake. Back at Shin Pond Village, I washed my clothes in the laundry and had a dinner of a tuna melt sandwich and onion rings in the restaurant.

August 9, 2015. I had a breakfast of egg sandwiches at my campsite in Shin Pond Village. I then drove to Six Mile Checkpoint, west of Ashland Maine, and decommissioned the seismometer there. The seismometer vault was infested with red ants and I received many bites as I took it apart. I stopped to view the Aroostook River at the Marsardis boat launch one the way back. Its banks were covered with beautiful Goldenrod in bloom. I brought the components down to Kelly Storage in Orono and then had an anchovy and green pepper pizza at the Riverside House of Pizza in Old Town Maine. I then drove back to Shin Pond Village, busying myself with some chores. Just before sunset, I took a short walk to Upper Shin Pond. Though the sky was mostly overcast, the opposite shore is brightly lit by the setting sun, shining through a band of clear sky.

August 10, 2015. I packed up my gear and left Shin Pond Village. I arrived in Patten Maine a bit early, and drove to the overlook on Route 11, south of town, to view Mt Katahdin. Kenan Estes, who had driven up from Sidney Maine, met me in Patten at 11 AM. We then drove together north together in my car, stopping to view Portage Lake from a little park along the highway. We then drove through the North Maine Woods to Moose Point Camps to decommission the seismometer there. This camp consists of a group of rustic log cabins and a beautiful hunting lodge set on the eastern shore of Fish River Lake. Mr. John Martin, its proprietor, was not in residence today, but we chatted with one of the staff members before beginning our work. The decommissioning of the Moose Point seismometer was more difficult than the others because the vault was built of concrete blocks, not plywood. I gently teased it apart with a sledgehammer so that we could recycle the blocks. It, too, was infested with red ants and I received yet more bites. Kenan took apart the solar panel array. After finishing, we took a brief swim in Fish River Lake. Its waters were refreshing but cold, even on this sunny day. We gave the batteries and blocks to the Camp staff, but kept most of the studs for firewood.

We drove over to the Fish River Falls campsite. It was empty; we were the only campers in this beautiful spot. We walked down to the falls, which unfortunately were already in shade, for they are very beautiful when brightly lit by the sun. We also walked upstream along the bank of the Fish River to where it originated in Fish River Lake. The opposite bank and the lake shore were lit by the sun and were very picturesque. We passed the remains of a wooden bridge that once spanned the river. We sighted a few Snowshoe Hares and Red Squirrels. We set up camp and cooked a large pile of Hawaiian-style pork ribs, and yellow squash, too, for dinner. Kenan built a campfire and we burned the wood from the decommissioned seismometer. We sat around the campfire for a long while, as the sky darkened and the stars became very bright in the moonless sky. We spotted several satellites, including an unusually bright one I took to be the International Space Station. Several meteors flashed across the sky, including one with a particularly long tail.

August 11, 2015. We waken to an overcast day. I am surprised to find untouched the pork ribs from yesterday’s dinner, which we accidentally left out on the picnic table for the night. Animals here are much shyer than in New York! Kenan and I have a pancake breakfast, pack up and head north to Deboullie Public Reserved Lands. We set up camp on Perch Lake. The day is grey and chilly and rain threatens. We take a long hike, taking the Denny Pond road northward. We stop to examine the lean-to at Denny Pond; it is uninhabited. We take a side trip to Galilee Pond, a small pond with a towering cliff on its western shore. We then follow a trail, blazed in blue, which leads to the spit of land that separates Deboullie Pond from Gardiner Pond. Light rain is beginning to fall. Trevor Neitz and I visited this spot last year, though we arrived via a different route, but saw only the Deboullie Pond side. Today, we walk the portage trail to the shore of Gardiner Pond. The view westward, towards the large cliff that overlooks the pond, is spectacular.

We then began a loop of Gardiner Pond, taking a trail (again blazed in blue) that follows its northern shore. Then trail first wandered through low and mossy cedar woods along the lake shore. It then ascended onto a ridge north of the pond. We were surprised to find a small beaver pond nestled in a hollow high above the level of Gardiner Pond. The intensity of the rain increased and we were now starting to get a little wet. The map indicated an overlook atop the ridge, but we were disappointed to find only occasional glimpses of the lake through the trees. We debated turning about and returning the way we came, but decided to push on. The trail descends again to lake level and follows the top of an old dam or levy, now overgrown with cedars, on the west shore of the lake. I suppose that it was built during the heyday of Nineteenth Century logging to raise the lake level so that logs could be floated to market. The trail then ascends another hill, the one with the cliff, via a long and often slippery upgrade. This hill does have an overlook – one that affords a spectacular view eastward towards Deboullie Pond. The trail has some tricky turns it descends off the mountain. We spent ten minutes at one spot where the trail touched the lakeshore, trying to convince ourselves that it really did ascend up onto the flank of the mountain (which, for a short distance, it did). We crossed a stream on the south side of Gardiner Pond and took a brief side trip to visit a beaver pond a little south of the footbridge. Finally, after another mile of following the trail, we closed the loop and were back on the Denny Pond road. Six hours had elapsed by the time we reached our Perch Pond campsite.

The rain was tapering off. We dried off and changed our clothes. I cooked a dinner of spaghetti and sausage, while Kenan built a campfire. Getting it going proved tricky, for all of the wood was damp, and it needed careful tending once lit so that it wouldn’t go out. But with perseverance, Kenan was able to nurse it into a roaring blaze. We left it going during the night. The flames made the interior walls of our tents glow with a flickering light.

August 12, 2015. Kenan and I ate a breakfast of eggs and bacon, packed up our gear, and headed out. The rain had stopped, though the sky was still overcast. Much of our gear was damp from yesterday’s downpour.

After dropping Kenan off in Patten, I returned to Shin Pond Village and set up camp at site T9. I rented an Old Town Loon 138 recreational kayak and, using a Carlisle Tripper paddle, did a straight perimeter paddle of Lower Shin Pond. The lake did not look especially big to me as I started, but I found that it had many coves and bays, so 97:15 elapsed before I completed the loop. The paddling was fun, even though some rain fell towards the end.

I bought another tuna melt with onion rings in the Shin Pond Village restaurant for dinner.

August 13, 2015. The morning at Shin Pond Village is perfectly clear. I cook a cheese omelet on my Coleman Stove and then drive Grand Lake Road west, towards the North Entrance of Baxter State Park. I make several short stops to admire the scenery, including at the Seboeis River, the East Branch of the Penobscot River and Grand Lake Matagamon. The park official at the entry booth suggested that I try the Trout Brook Mountain Trail and this proved to be very good advice for the views from it proved to be spectacular. I parked at the Freezeout Trailhead at about 9 AM and took a brief walk to the bridge over Trout Brook. The water in the brook is deep and clear. I then head up the Trout Brook Mountain Trail, which makes a loop over that low mountain. It ascends steeply and has many overlooks that look in various directions – some north towards Grand Lake Matagamon, others south towards Billfish Mountain. I spend a long time on the summit, watching the shadows of clouds move slowly across the valley between Trout Brook and Bill Fish Mountains, alternately lighting up and shadowing a series of three or four ponds in the valley between. I then continue the loop and descend the mountain. I take a side trail to Littlefield Pond, one of the small ponds I could see from the summit, and have lunch on a ledge overlooking its waters. I then rejoin the loop trail and take it back to my car. The hike has taken about five hours. Back at Shin Pond Village, I cook a dinner of grits and bacon.

August 14, 2015. I cook a cheese omelet for breakfast at my tent site at Shin Pond Village. I then return to Baxter State Park and park at the South Branch Campground, on the shore of Lower South Branch Pond. It’s a beautiful spot: the narrow lake is completely surrounded by steep, tall and mostly green mountains. A park official advises me to try the North Traveler Trail, more excellent advice, for it proves to have spectacular views. After crossing some puncheon, the trail ascended slowly through the woods for about a mile, and then more steeply over a series of rock ledges with spectacular views of Upper and Lower South Branch Ponds and the mountains surrounding them – including, way in the distance, Mt. Katahdin. The rock is a rhyolitic tuff with occasional columnar jointing. The footing is pretty good – comparable to the Abol Trail on Mt. Katahdin that I have walked previously. After another mile or so, the trail reaches the ridge crest and I can see the mountains to the north, such as Trout Brook Mountain, which I climbed yesterday. The trail crosses one especially beautiful section of ridge that is paved with a more-or-less continuous ledge and is bordered by wildflowers. It also traverses three or four small groves of trees. Most of these groves are Spruce, but one is full of low, gnarled White Birch. I reached the summit cairn in 2:15. The summit is open rock ledge with only low and sparse vegetation. The view on this fine clear day is great in all directions. The land to the north and east is mostly flat lying, with many lakes, and is punctuated by Mt Chase (to the east) and the hills of Deboullie Public Reserved Lands (to the north). The south and west are full of large peaks, Katahdin and many others fading off into the distance, whose names I do not know. I had lunch at the summit, eating salami and oranges and enjoying the sun and invigorating air. A couple from Cape Elizabeth Maine arrived and we chatted together for a while. They said they had once done this hike as a loop, for it continues around to the mountain on the far side of the valley that contains Upper and Lower South Branch Ponds. I then retraced my path down off the mountain. The hike took about four hours.

I changed into my swimsuit and took a brief dip in Lower South Branch Pond. The bottom is very pebbly, so I was glad that I was wearing neoprene boating shoes. I floated in the cool water and admired the tall mountains that surround the pond. Some children were chasing frogs in the outlet stream, nearby.

I drove back to Shin Pond Village and had a dinner of a Haddock sandwich and onion rings in the restaurant. I spent the evening organizing my notes and editing my photos.

August 15, 2015. I ate a breakfast of eggs and sausage. After packing up and paying my bill, I headed south to Kelly Storage. I spent the rest of the day packing up all the seismic gear. This was the first time I had used a strapping tool. Except for letting the spool of steel strapping unwind accidentally, which made quite a tangle, I soon got the hang of it and strapped up five palates without mishap. Superficially, the work did not seem that hard, yet the day was hot and by lunch time I was both sweat through and exhausted. I changed into dry clothes and drove to Old Town Maine, where I had an anchovy and green pepper pizza at the Riverside House of Pizza. Dinner time had come – and I was once again sweat through – by the time the last strap was in place. I checked into the Travel Lodge in Bangor Maine and bought a meatball hero at the Subway concession at the local Irving gas station.

August 16, 2015. The morning is perfectly clear. I decide to see some of the Maine coast and drive to the Schoodic Point section of Acadia National Park. One the way, I make several stops to view scenery: along Route 1A in Ellsworth Maine to view the Union River; along Route 1 near Hancock Maine to view a tidal stream called the Carrying Place; along Route 1 in Waukeag Maine to view the Mount Desert Narrows; and along Scoodic Loop Road to view Mosquito Harbor. I parked at the Frazer Point Picnic Area and took a long walk along the rocky shore, which faces the Mount Desert Narrows and has a great view of Mt Cadillac, across the Narrows on Mt. Desert Island. The land is wooded with evergreens and they approach the shore quite closely, with only a narrow border of low bushes and vines, making a very picturesque scene. The shore is mostly great ledges of pink granite, some flat while others more irregular. The granite is cut by occasional basaltic dikes, some eight to the feet wide. Glacial striae still remain on some of the more protected surface of both. Small beaches of rounded cobbles fill the crannies between the ledges. I walked south along the shore, trying to keep mostly to the rock ledges. I say many gulls, cormorants and ducks, and once, the fluke of some sort of marine mammal – dark grey, roughly triangular and about a foot high – protruding from the water. I watched the surface of the water for several minutes, hoping to see more of the animal, but saw nothing. I walked for well over an hour, hoping that each successive promontory was a definitive “point”, but encountering only the next and the next. Finally, having seen enough, I bushwhacked through the woods to the Schoodic Loop Road, and walked it back to the picnic area.

I made a second, briefer stop at the Schoodic Point parking lot before heading back. I guess this is the authoritative “point”. It consists of a wide granite rock ledge cut through with many basaltic dikes – more impressive examples of the same lithologies that I encountered on my earlier walk. I say many interesting geological features associated with the diking, including en echelon crack tips and contact metamorphism of the granite. One basalt-paved area is either a spectacularly wide dike or a small basaltic pluton.

I made brief stops at several interesting areas on my way back, including a cattail marsh on the Schoodic peninsula, a stream with overhanging apple trees along Route 200 near Eastbrook Maine and the Penobscot River at the boat launch in Greenbush Maine. I also paid a quick visit the Abbott woodlot on Greenfield Road in Greenbush Maine, were we had once operated a seismic station. The access road seems to have seen very little traffic and has become quite overgrown with wildflowers!

I stopped at the Riverside House of Pizza in Old Town for another anchovy and green pepper pizza and then returned to the Travel Lodge for the night.

August 17, 2015. I bought a breakfast sandwich at the Irving gas station near the Travel Lodge and then headed over to Kelly Storage, to await the arrival of the truck that will haul all the seismic gear back to New Mexico.