Re[4]: [at-l] Kennebec river crossing

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"...I recall a good number of them (fords)all along the AT on my throughhike,
back in the days before every bit of moisture from Georgia to Maine was deemed a
worthy bridge project on which to spend club dollars and volunteer hours..."

 "(T)o Maine" is accurate. Maine keeps talking about bridges, but has yet to
 build very many. We have the "conference bridge," built on the slopes of
 Bigelow to honor the 1977 AT Conference at Sugarloaf by our most diligent AT
 advocate, Dick Brown, now sadly no longer with us. There are still an
 occasional abandoned logging road bridge.

 But our bridges otherwise are pretty scarce. We keep talking about a bridge
 over the branch of the Carrabasset River at the foot of Sugarloaf. But so far
 we haven't succeeded. Well, we built one once, (at Dick's urging) but luckily
 (un) it washed away the next spring.

 Until we succeed again, the Carrabasset (I forget which branch, like Maine
 mountains, we have so many we've run out of names other then south, north,
 west, etc.)will have to be forded -- along with a lot of other streams. It's no
 problem during most of the hiking season. But in May and June, and after heavy
 storms, things can be hairy at times.

 Once, while working on the trail south of Monson, a southbounder came by
 walking barefoot. She had lost her pack and her shoes, crossing the Piscataquis
 river. She asked where her pack might have fetched up. I had no useful answer.
 "Somewhere in the 150 miles between here and the ocean."

 Wise hikers will recognize the real problems of high water. Luckily, the steep
 streams of Maine drain rapidly. A few hours, or overnight, can change
 conditions dramatically.

 Weary