Remote Areas in Maine...cut-regrowth, bridge

[bigbog]

A few shots at areas in W-NW Maine..once cut, with some regrowth...some slash-&-cut just doesn't grow back(in our lifetimes)...not pretty!..imo, but who's developed alternatives to natural paper and bathroom tissue..?
1) A 60s-thru-80s cutting road.
2) End of the old road.
3) Was a turnoff to a road in 60s.
4) Another old turnoff.
5) An early Sunday evening shot on a bridge..over a pretty stream.. A "bridge to nowhere"??, ...no..but it IS out there.
Places where the only noises are that of animals, wind, & flowing water are cool. You sometimes look up and see a jet aircraft or two...but still no sound....that I like;-)

 

[MAD777]

Nice pictorial essay, Bigdog!

 

[MichaelJ]

Nice pics!

I just drove a lot of these kinds of roads up in Maine, while getting the NE100 list peaks that are up in the Andover-Rangeley area. I have to admit, being up on the peaks and seeing the clearcuts is definitely not pretty, but I find it utterly fascinating to find and follow these old roads, and especially the old skid roads deep in the woods or on the mountainsides. And of course in the early stages of growing back, tons of berry bushes, which the animal life must love. And they *do* grow back, trust me, I've pushed through the young spruce coming up. They come back THICK.

In this image from a recent hike, you can see the plethora of explorable old roads up there, and in the foreground the really neat "strip" logging that went on.

 

[billski]

The ones that blow my mind are not the stuff created by machinery, but the remnants from old farms from the early 1800s, most of which were abandoned in the mid 1800s. I've hiked five to ten miles in from the nearest passable present-day road. Mostly it's old stone fences, stone foundations and yes, the occasional tombstone. To think most of it was developed by muscle, braun and very long work days. Looking closely enough, you can find old cart-path, usually obstructed by 80+ year old trees.

What is amazing is how nature "heals itself", obfuscating so many man made objects and intrusions of the 19th century. How the industrial age and machinery changed all that.

 

[MichaelJ]

Oh, definitely! I've come across stone walls in incredibly remote places, and it's just remarkable to think about how they got there.