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Cool crisp mornings have been the name of the game for the past several. Honestly it's been feeling more like early fall than mid-June. I'm not at all complaining, mind you. I just find it interesting after that string of 90+ days and then the storms. Our weather has just been all over the place, but of course the first official day of summer isn't until next Wednesday - June 20th!
Speaking of storms, Down East Maine got really hammered last Tuesday. I visited friends in Winter Harbor last Wednesday - Friday. When I got up there mid day Wednesday I was surprised to see a lot of huge ponding and washout on area roads. Turns out that they had a very intense storm passed through the area overnight, dumping 7" of rain in 3 hours, while here in the Valley it was just a pretty average rain! Go figure... Apparently many of the carriage roads in Acadia Park, just across the bay, got washed out. The Park is looking for emergency funds to help deal with it. It's a real bummer, especially considering this happened right before tourist season!
I didn't do any climbing up there, only bike riding, but it was a very relaxing visit. Here's a few pix from the trip:
Brad has been away on walkabout out west for the last month and I've definitely missed my usual climbing partner, but we got out today. He was interested in doing the new climb on Whitehorse that I did a few weeks ago with Jeff Lea, Creepy Cowboy. Unfortunately when we got there at about 10AM the climbers/hikers lot was full and yet there was basically no one on the cliff! We have seen this before and think it's from the folks working on the hotel that are parking down there. It's really annoying... We didn't want to park up in the hotel lot so we headed over to climb at the Wall Of The Hurley Morning Light at the top of Cathedral. Fortunately there was no one there so we managed to climb everything in a couple of hours. I also did the little crack on the left, using only nuts just for practice, and the corner. Both of these are always fun. RECOMMENDED...
CATERPILLAR UPDATE:
I mentioned last week that we're in a major infestation of tree-eating caterpillars right now. These are the longish, furry ones that you can see on tree leaves and sometimes dangling almost in midair on thin strands. They feed mostly on oak tree leaves and can strip a tree pretty clean. We have trees in my neighborhood that are almost devoid of leaves, looking just like they would in winter! The ground under the trees are covered in leaf fragments and greenish caterpillar poop! If you stand around under these trees or park your car under them, you can get the goop on you and your car. It happened to me today and frankly it's truly disgusting. Unfortunately I don't believe that there is much that can be done ands we're all hoping that the trees will survive. [fingers crossed]
Echo Roof Work:
Last year it was the Thin Air Face, this year it's Echo Roof...
Work includes constructing approx. 20 linear-feet of stone stairs and a 117-foot wide retaining wall to stop erosion of the earthen bench where climbers stage, as well as building belay staging areas, rock steps, tread hardening, re-routes around eroded areas of vegetation, re-vegetation, and other trail infrastructure improvements.
The area will be closed Monday through Friday from 7AM to 5PM for the next 10 weeks. For reference, this closure extends from the route Waiting for Comeau to Future Shock.
I find JHU's Daily COVID-19 Data in Motion report to be very informative. It shares critical data on COVID-19 from the last 24 hours in a short 1 minute animated video format.
PLEASE - GET VACCINATED, WEAR A MASK, WASH YOUR HANDS, BE NICE!
REMEMBER - WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
VALLEY CYCLING:
I got in some fun riding on the Schoodic Peninsula in Winter Harbor last week. It's a lot like Acadia, with a big paved loop road and some nice gravel carriage roads. The gravel ones were closed because of washout from the big storm they had up there on Tuesday night, but the paved ones were mostly OK. It's particularly nice to ride along the coastline for a change. It is really refreshing to smell the salt air as you ride along. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
When I came home on Friday a local friend that I ride mountain bikes with a lot talked me into checking out the Mt Cranmore downhill mountain bike park. This is not something I ever imagined I would get into, but after a couple of runs I was hooked. You ride the chair lift up and fly down on a variety of amazing bermed trails, mostly in the woods. There isn't any real exercise in it so I ride up the service road on the far right side of the mountain to get in my first run. A season pass is only $150 if you are a member of the local NoCo bike club. I've literally ridden every trail in the area multiple times, so I look at this as just something different to do. I figure if I do it probably twice a week for the season I will more than get my money's worth out of it. I believe that you can buy a half day pass to check it out, and apply that to a season pass if you like it.
The local NEMBA chapter has been doing trail maintenance and upgrades this summer. I happened to ride the Electric Loop the other day and low and behold there was a spiffy new bridge on the always muddy spot. and apparently there are 2 other new upgrades as well: one at the "weenie gully" on the Tent Boulder trail and the stream crossing on the Carroll Reed Trail. WOO WOO
Mobile Version Of NEClimbs:
Up on one of the Mount Washington Valley's finest crags and want to know what that climb you're looking at is? Or maybe you're on your way up from Boston and want to check out the Ice Report for your upcoming weekend plans. Or more likely, you're at work just want to daydream about your next adventure. Well if you have a smart phone handy, you can get to NEClimbs from anywhere you have cell service. While it doesn't offer every single feature of the site and it's not an "app", in mobile form, it does do a whole lot and is very useful. Here is the live link to the mobile version of NEClimbs:
Check it out and if you have issues on your specific phone, please feel free to let me know.
NEClimbs & White Mountain Report On Facebook:
Join us and LIKE us on Facebook. I'll try and post interesting pix every Thursday and the latest Ice Report in the season, tho certainly not the whole Report. Here's where you can check it out:
Climbing is a very dangerous sport. You can get hurt or even kill yourself. When you go climbing, you do so of your own free will. Everything on this site is to be taken with a grain of salt. Don't blame us if you get up some totally heinous route, in over your head and fall and hurt yourself.
