4 of the Maine 6 Pack

[bobandgeri]

4 of the Maine 6 Pack

Sat, Sun, and Mon

Geri and I were joined by Julie (Aka Cantdog) for a trip to the Rangely area to hike 4 of the Maine 6 pack peaks. We headed up Friday night under clear start filled skies with a full moon. We were headed for the Black Brook Cove campground on Rte 16, about 20 minutes west of Rangely. On the way we saw a couple of deer and not many cars.

Saturday morning we headed out to hike Cusuptic Snow. We were armed with postings and emails from several VFTT regulars. The normal route to the hikes we hope to do were not usable due to the Wiggle Brook bridge having been removed. Two posting mentioned approaching from the west, so armed with a laptop and gps with map software we headed out on the logging roads.

First suprise was finding a memorial site 7 miles into the woods along side the logging road. The logging road and most of the side roads were accurate on the Maptech map we had, so finding the start of the hike was easy. The hike itself was nice, especially since we came across a grouse that let us take many pics, and a rabbit that was as curious about us as we were of it.

After Saturdays hike we explored the logging roads for a few hours finding the route to the Wiggle Brook bridge site from the west. We chatted with a couple of bird hunters who gave us a quick histroy lesson of the area. Nice guys!

Sunday we woke to rain so decided to get moving slowly and modify our plans and hike East Kennebago today instead of Monday. The hike was quick - only an hour to the summit via the boundry blazes and a herd path.

Monday we tackled Whitecap and Kennebago Divide - the hardest hikes due to the weather. We started in a drizzle but soon had a light snow following on us. The hike to Whitecap was set, but not hard. Wish we could say the same for the trip over to Kennebago Divide. We finally found a herd path when we were half way there, but on the return we lost it for a short while, bun found another one that was very well traveled. Only problem it took us around towards the north west side of the mountain - away from our car :< We retraced our steps and then bushwacked back to the logging road and returned to our car.

Although a wet weekend we summitted 4 peaks on the NEHH list bringing our total to 91. Julie is holding at 97 waiting for a window of good weather to grab her remaining 3 peaks in Baxter STate Park.

Pics, maps, and details can be viewed on our web page:

http://rbhayes.net/latesthike.html

 

[Raymond]

Good stuff, Bob. Thank you. I'm scrapbooking the pages before the stuck-up sticky-beaks of the bushwhacking elite get out their torches and burn down your Web site because you've shared information.

I noticed that East Kennebago has something in common with New Hampshire's Owl's Head Mountain—the summit marker isn't at the summit. When Susan and I were on East Kennebago in September we went too far west on the township boundary line before turning for the ridge, and we ended up having to follow the full length of the ridgetop herd path to find the canister. It seemed at the time that we'd passed the crest and started to go down a bit before we found the canister, and your map proves it.

We'll be making our stab at these other mountains next August or September, so I appreciate the information and maps you've provided.

 

[alpinista]

Awesome pix and description of these bushwacks -- but will Geri give up her salmon recipe???

 

[bobandgeri]

You will just have to join us hiking one weekend and learn it first hand!

 

[amstony]

Nice description and pics. I'll be using those trip reports when I start working on the Maine peaks.

Tony

 

[Raymond]

Actually,cantdog, there was a recent thread about Owl's Head and a tracing on a map showed that the X summit mark was beyond the blue line traced by the hiker's GPS unit (Or whatever. I don't understand how it works, but I accept it.). So the highest point on Owl's Head must be north of the summit sign and cairn.

I haven't returned to check it out, bit I did actually go in the proper direction when I was there on Owl's Head in 2000, hoping to find a view.