May 21, 2009
For the past five years, I've been biking a 28.5 miles loop from my house, around Norway Lake, up to West Paris, down Route 26, and then home. This loop brings me around Noyes Mountain. I've looked up at the rocky ledge many, many times and told myself I needed to climb it. Well, there is now a geocache that has been placed up there. Now I had another reason to get up there. So today, I made the 10 mile bike ride to the mountain. Here's a view of the mountain from the south end of Norway Lake.
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I had downloaded the waypoint for the geocache but had forgotten to read a little more and find out the best place to start. With my GPS in hand, I decided to just go for it. I found an old ATV road and began heading up. I came to a fork and headed left. It soon became clear that I should have headed the other way. I began bushwhacking to the right until I came across another old road. This brought me up to the cache. The cache has been placed at the old Harvard Quarry near the top of the mountain. The mountain is named after George Noyes who built and operated Harvard Quarry for its mineral stones. A got within a few feet of the cache and began searching. A couple minutes later I found it. Now it was time to climb up to where I could get a view although some minor scrambling would be required.
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The old quarry.
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From the viewpoint, there is a cable running across for safety.
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Here's the awesome view.
For a video clip click here
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I wasn't at the top yet so I decided to follow this old road.
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The road dead ended into another road. I could go left or right but neither direction seemed as if it would take me to the top, so I bushwhacked the remaining tenth of a mile until I reached the 1503' wooded summit. This little mountain had a descent amount of elevation gain considering its' size (nearly 700 feet of gain).
After exploring the summit a little, I headed back down to the view at the quarry. I had an easier time going down. The road I found brought me most of the way down the mountain but then started to bring me away from where I left my bike. I was close to the road and in retrospect I should have just bushwhacked from here. I took another road which began to take me back up the mountain slightly. I finally decided to just bushwhack and head straight for where I left my bike. A few minutes and a few scratches later I was done. Here's my track although I don't recommend either my route up or route down.
I then made the 10 mile bike ride home. I checked the website for the geocache, from Greenwood Road I should have followed Richardson Hollow Road for a half a mile. Apparently there is a small parking lot there and I could have climbed to the quarry without any bushwhacking. If you want to find out more about this geocache click here.
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