Oncoman
Active member
12 pks summited in 3 days.
Could never have done this without the excellent directions published on VFTT, especially ones of Papa Bear & Bob/Geri, as well as the invaluable help of all those previous hikers who tramped out good herd paths for all 4 pks of day 1.
Day 1 (4 pks) : East Kennebago/White Cap/NKD/Cupsuptic Snow
Day 2 (7 pks) : Oquossoc Bald/Grand tour of Tumbledown ridge(West Pk, North Pk, Little Jackson, Big Jackson, South-East Pk & East Pk)
Day 3 (1 pk) : Revisit of West Caribou
Comments :
East Kennebago :
If you continue on after cairn & yellow blazed trees of boundary line for approx. ¼ m., you come to a fork in trail. Right branch brings you in about 200 yards to log cabin partially finished . Left branch fades out within another ¼ m.
BTW about 500 yrds beyond boundary line a good herd path on left marked by cairn goes up an old slide now almost fully regrown in & brings you straight to canister due west. Easy moderately steep climb under fairly open woods.
White Cap & NKD :
Very enjoyable hike with Poison Ivy’s group. Good herd paths now exist for those 2 pks with minimal bushwhacking.
Cupsuptic Snow :
Wiggle Brook Rd is now easily driveable up to log rd on left marked by sign with number 22 on it. Park there & walk up ½ m. or so to grassy field intersection mentioned in Papa Bear’s site with cairn straight across intersection. But resist taking ESE bearing straight in line with summit. Instead continue on straight ahead beyond cairn towards old grassy wide rd. You will soon pick up good herd path bringing you right to canister in 45 min. Made summit, signed register & was back to my car in slightly less than 2 hrs.
Grand Tour of Tumbledown Ridge :
WOW! Highly recommended as previously said by Papa Bear & Jared Gange in his book of the 100 classic hikes of the Northeast. I also recommend for the thrill to go up loop trail & go up final rock ledge via Lemon Squeezer (LS). Also check out Fat Man’s Misery (FMM), a fissure cave-like tunnel with 2 right-angle turns, quite narrow thus its name. It’s about 100’ below LS towards the right. If you manage to squeeze through & climb 12’ chimney you come to rock ledge with 15’ depth, 20° slant, 6’ vertical wall up to next ledge & 60’ vertical drop down. Impossible to go further without proper equipment & skills. So retreat for me. Actually the only reason I climbed chimney of FMM was that I initially thought this was LS. Afterwards when I found the true LS with its metal bars…a piece of cake compared to FMM.
From col go towards west to do West Pk(3068’), but don’t forget first to refill water bootle at spring just before entering LS. If you go 100 yrds beyond summit of WP, you will find a nice camping spot. A yellow rock blazed seldomly used trail continues along west ridge likely looping back with trail used to go up ridge. I turned back after 500 yrds & then headed for North Pk(3080’) following the numerous cairns zigzagging over the ridge with red & orange blazes on rocks. The constant zigzags maximize your pleasure but also maximize the effort on your knees, so that you may want to take a more direct course up NP. From there I continued on to Little Jackson(3470’) & then up Big Jackson(3568’) via newly established trail(actually a moss trail seeing little traffic). I signed the jar register to the right of trail just before reaching the helicopter pad on the summit. Then down towards Link trail to Tumbledown Pond. Just before reaching pond climbed South-East Pk(2872’), passed a family swimming in T. pond & then climbed East Pk(3020’) just after pond, descended col & exit via LS and back to car 8 hrs after leaving it. It had been a long hot & buggy day. I must confess that I was tired.
Revisit of West Caribou :
EUREKA! Found jar register this time(sorry dms-couldn’t wait any longer before going back). But DAMN! Would you believe that I forgot the pencil,even though Nate had worned me to bring one along. For a moment I considered signing the log book with the blood of my battle scratches with the thick scrub, but then …I guess I’ll just have to come back a 3rd time…Jogged all the way back to my car. To & from summit in 2h05 under a light refreshing rain.
Happy & safe hiking everyone,
Pierre
Could never have done this without the excellent directions published on VFTT, especially ones of Papa Bear & Bob/Geri, as well as the invaluable help of all those previous hikers who tramped out good herd paths for all 4 pks of day 1.
Day 1 (4 pks) : East Kennebago/White Cap/NKD/Cupsuptic Snow
Day 2 (7 pks) : Oquossoc Bald/Grand tour of Tumbledown ridge(West Pk, North Pk, Little Jackson, Big Jackson, South-East Pk & East Pk)
Day 3 (1 pk) : Revisit of West Caribou
Comments :
East Kennebago :
If you continue on after cairn & yellow blazed trees of boundary line for approx. ¼ m., you come to a fork in trail. Right branch brings you in about 200 yards to log cabin partially finished . Left branch fades out within another ¼ m.
BTW about 500 yrds beyond boundary line a good herd path on left marked by cairn goes up an old slide now almost fully regrown in & brings you straight to canister due west. Easy moderately steep climb under fairly open woods.
White Cap & NKD :
Very enjoyable hike with Poison Ivy’s group. Good herd paths now exist for those 2 pks with minimal bushwhacking.
Cupsuptic Snow :
Wiggle Brook Rd is now easily driveable up to log rd on left marked by sign with number 22 on it. Park there & walk up ½ m. or so to grassy field intersection mentioned in Papa Bear’s site with cairn straight across intersection. But resist taking ESE bearing straight in line with summit. Instead continue on straight ahead beyond cairn towards old grassy wide rd. You will soon pick up good herd path bringing you right to canister in 45 min. Made summit, signed register & was back to my car in slightly less than 2 hrs.
Grand Tour of Tumbledown Ridge :
WOW! Highly recommended as previously said by Papa Bear & Jared Gange in his book of the 100 classic hikes of the Northeast. I also recommend for the thrill to go up loop trail & go up final rock ledge via Lemon Squeezer (LS). Also check out Fat Man’s Misery (FMM), a fissure cave-like tunnel with 2 right-angle turns, quite narrow thus its name. It’s about 100’ below LS towards the right. If you manage to squeeze through & climb 12’ chimney you come to rock ledge with 15’ depth, 20° slant, 6’ vertical wall up to next ledge & 60’ vertical drop down. Impossible to go further without proper equipment & skills. So retreat for me. Actually the only reason I climbed chimney of FMM was that I initially thought this was LS. Afterwards when I found the true LS with its metal bars…a piece of cake compared to FMM.
From col go towards west to do West Pk(3068’), but don’t forget first to refill water bootle at spring just before entering LS. If you go 100 yrds beyond summit of WP, you will find a nice camping spot. A yellow rock blazed seldomly used trail continues along west ridge likely looping back with trail used to go up ridge. I turned back after 500 yrds & then headed for North Pk(3080’) following the numerous cairns zigzagging over the ridge with red & orange blazes on rocks. The constant zigzags maximize your pleasure but also maximize the effort on your knees, so that you may want to take a more direct course up NP. From there I continued on to Little Jackson(3470’) & then up Big Jackson(3568’) via newly established trail(actually a moss trail seeing little traffic). I signed the jar register to the right of trail just before reaching the helicopter pad on the summit. Then down towards Link trail to Tumbledown Pond. Just before reaching pond climbed South-East Pk(2872’), passed a family swimming in T. pond & then climbed East Pk(3020’) just after pond, descended col & exit via LS and back to car 8 hrs after leaving it. It had been a long hot & buggy day. I must confess that I was tired.
Revisit of West Caribou :
EUREKA! Found jar register this time(sorry dms-couldn’t wait any longer before going back). But DAMN! Would you believe that I forgot the pencil,even though Nate had worned me to bring one along. For a moment I considered signing the log book with the blood of my battle scratches with the thick scrub, but then …I guess I’ll just have to come back a 3rd time…Jogged all the way back to my car. To & from summit in 2h05 under a light refreshing rain.
Happy & safe hiking everyone,
Pierre
When heading out there, how was Beaudry Road? Has it been improved at all since I was there? Finally, when you were in the Tumbledown vicinity, I'm little surprised you didn't also visit North Jackson, but I suppose that will give you a reason to return to that lovely area.
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