Mostly Maine
We made our first trip to Millinocket and Katahdin, today January 18, 2023. The trip up was uneventful, Millinocket airport was plowed but somewhat icy. The mountains had a lot of clouds and some wind, so we didn’t venture too close.
Hope our next trip is clearer.
Now that the plane is fixed, I’m looking for a good time to fly to Millinocket and then around Katahdin. I’d like to get some more images of Katahdin, but now that I know a little more about the geology of the region I’d like to get some shots of Traveler Mountain as well.
So why stop at Millinocket? The GoPro batteries can not tolerate the cold flying from Brunswick to Katahdin. So I’ll land at Millinocket, put the warm batteries in, then fly around the mountain. The GoPro 8 battery will probably fail after 10 minutes but the GP 9 enhanced battery may continue to roll. I’d sure like to find a real camera that is both affordable and can tolerate cold weather.
Stopping at Millinocket will also let me visit the Baxter State Park HQ. It is only a few blocks from the airport.
But the biggest problem is finding a weather window in January that is good for both southern and northern Maine. I need clear skies to the surface and fairly calm winds. Good luck with that.
I ordered two maps and a book on Baxter State Park (BSP) geology the end of last year. Yesterday they arrived, all in good shape, other than the mail carrier trying to stuff a large envelope into our normal sized mailbox. No damage done. I was very pleased with the quick turn around of the maps and books from BSP. Thank you!
Everyday, NASA publishes an image of its various activities. I found this one to be particularly interesting – where everything came from.
The University of Sydney (Australia), has all sorts of interesting animated graphics depicting among other things the movement of tectonic plates. After studying several of their graphics, its become obvious why my question about where Katahdin originated is a bit naive. There has been such a huge shift in the location of these plates since 200 Million Years Ago (Ma) when according to U of Sydney models the earth looked like this. This image sketches out the last giant super continent, Pangea.
Going back 400 Ma, prior to the formation of Pangea, the continents were unrecognizable, at least to my uneducated eyes. But this was the age you find references to Katahdin’s origin, perhaps as a super volcano. At this point, I’ll accept that the origin of Katahdin remains a mystery.
http://portal.gplates.org/cesium/?view=topo_recon
The GPlate app that generated the above graphic.
http://portal.gplates.org/#apps-anchor
GPlates Portal (University of Sydney) All sorts of interesting graphics for those interested in earth sciences including tectonic plate movement.
I hope to explore the mountain by airplane, drone and on foot. Well, I had hoped to use a drone, turns out Baxter State Park does not allow drones to operate from park property. Not a big deal.
More or less, just for fun.
It is good to go at the earliest, 4:00 PM entry time. The setting sun allows you to see the lights from daylight thru twilight and then night.
