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It's a good feeling when you return to where you had a DNF, and you find it on the second try! Since this was the last primary station of the Eastern Oblique Arc in Downeast Maine that was known to still exist that I had not found, it was a great recovery. I just got back from a very productive 5 days in Aroostook and Washington Counties in Maine. It was a very long drive (at least for the East Coast) - I accumulated over 1200 miles of driving in 5 days. I stayed two nights in Calais but I couldn't wait to visit this site - I stopped off just as I was getting into town before going to my Motel. My route to the summit was far superior to the one I took in 2007. This time I used aerial views from Google Maps and found some logging roads which led to within .1 miles of the summit. They were not drivable in my rental car, but they were easily walkable. The final bushwhack to the top was also easy. Somehow the brambles I had passed through in 2007 where off to the side. My strategy was first to search for the witness sign that was supposedly placed here in 1963, but that was nowhere to be found. Then I looked for piles of rocks, but as mentioned in my previous log, they were everywhere, and none particularly stood out. My GPS got me to about a 20 foot circle, so I started methodically checking rock piles (for the purpose of this search, any two rocks close together made a "rock pile") and scanning. This time however I had my metal detector, which although no silver bullet, can help. What I did seem to have that I lacked in 2007, was luck. If you look at the first 2007 photo, you'll see an area in front of a spruce tree with a few rocks, and this is where I started my search this time. Guess what? PAYDIRT! I moved a few rocks out of the way, scanned with the metal detector over the ground and heard the beeping I wanted to hear. I switched to pin-point mode and found a hot spot. So I dug through about 2 inches of dirt, roots, spruce needles and assorted vegetation, and BINGO, there was my copper bolt in a little hollow in the ledge. There were supposed to be 4 holes around the mark, 3 at 18" distant to the north, south and west, and one 6" distant to the east. So I scraped the duff off the ledge to the east and BINGO, there was a drill hole about 6" from the copper bolt. This hole was the clincher, although I would not expect random copper bolts on this out of the way peak.. I never did find the other 3 holes. The ledge tended to disappear after about 18 inches out, and I could not assume either the original distances or directions were highly accurate. It would have been quite an excavation to clear the ledge out to say 24" all around the copper bolt with my little garden trowel, so I let those 3 holes go. Maybe the next person to visit the site will dig a little further out and find them. The pictures tell the rest of the story.
Photos:
 QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
2007 photo showing where I failed to look then.
QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
This shows where I dug in 2007, about 15 feet from the right spot.
QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
The copper bolt first uncovered. Notice the thick mat of dirt, roots, needles and assorted vegetation which covered the ledge.
QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
Here I uncover the east hole, 6" from the station.
QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
Here I uncover more of the ledge looking for the other holes.
QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
Closeup of Copper Bolt.
QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
Area view showing the station. Compare with the 2007 photo.
QF0932 RYE 1867, Baileyville, Maine
I built a small cairn over the station on the ledge. Hopefully this will do better than the 1963 rock pile.
EOA Eastern terminus GMap
This is a static map showing the easternmost section of the Eastern Oblique Arc. Rye was the last station found, and except for Grand Manan, the last one known still to exist.
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My wife and I took a 10 day vacation to Down East Maine and to the Bay of Fundy. With the myriad of stations in that area I had to be selective in what I went to look for (after all this was a vacation, not a benchmarking trip). I decided to go after two sorts of marks: boundary markers of various sorts, and triangulation stations which where part of the survey for the Eastern Oblique Arc, done in this area in the 1850s. A surprising number of these marks have survived in this area. Today was the day we had to leave Saint John, New Brunswick. We decided a drive to the Boston are was much too much, so we headed for Bar Harbor for one last day in the scenic down-east of Maine. After studying the map of the Eastern Oblique Arc, I thought bagging Rye and Cooper would be possible on the way to Bar Harbor. Cooper seemed a pretty easy prospect with a road up to a lookout tower and the mark centered under the tower. Rye was more doubtful. The last log was from 1963 and it was in a pretty out-of-the way area off of Route 9 which depended on occasional timberring for it's economy, with very little else. The USGS aerial photos showed a heavily logged area with a few possible back woods roads. I decided to try to follow the 1963 directions. I found the old road 3.4 miles from the route 1 / route 9 intersection. Unfortunately, the house with the mailbox of M. Brownlee, "WHO OWNS THE LAND WHERE THE MARK AND KNOWS EXACTLY WHERE IT IS LOCATED" was long gone. At this point, route 9 must have been relocated some years back and the old right of way (to the north) rejoined the present highway right where the old road went into the woods. The GPS said .8 miles to the mark. I followed this road for about .2 miles and from there it was a cross country bushwhack following the lead of my GPS. The going was bad. Trashy 3rd growth forest interspersed with clearings that were overrun with near impenetrable blackberry patches with thorns. I slowly and painfully made my way around and through these obstacles till I got about .2 miles from the top. Suddenly I found a road which helped me make a little progress upward but it soon went off in its own direction and I was left to my own navigation skills once again. At long last I reached a clearing near the summit and my GPS beeped and cheerfully said "Arriving at QF0932". I wish it were so! The clearing was overrun with thorns, rocks every which way in piles large and small and no apparent open ledges (need I mention there was no witness sign nailed to a tree). Every pile of rocks was on top of more rocks as far as I could dig. After about 30 minutes of this (did I mentioned this was the one and only hot and buggy day of our vacation) I gave it up. Is this findable? Probably yes. It is highly unlikely that many folks have been here since 1963, so I'm sure the mark is still there somewhere. You would need a less hot day, and lots of time. A GPS and metal detector would be required (although they did not find the mark for me). And lots of time to dig the whole place up. Maybe search all the trees for nails for that elusive witness sign. I had set a waypoint at the car, a good thing since this featureless place would be an easy place to get lost in. I used that old road to save some of the worst bushwhacking going down, but alas it too decided to go off who knows where, so I ended up bushwhacking back most of the way back. A disappointing trek. Tough going both up and down with no reward. Some days are like that.
Photos:
QF0932- RYE 1867, NOT FOUND, Baileyville ME
The clearing near the summit.
QF0932- RYE 1867, NOT FOUND, Baileyville ME
Digging without success in one prospective spot.
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