Coburn Mt and East Peak of Coburn

[mhrsebago]

The Maine Mountain Guide description of this hike is fairly accurate, but I would add a few clarifications...On the approach road there is a well-maintained logging road (wrong way) at 0.2 mi from rt 201 that turns L (south). I was able to drive straight in for 0.5 mi to the first washout. The remainder of the road wasn't in bad shape and appeared that it could be safely travelled by anyone with a high clearance vehicle. The start of the trail is as descibed but is overgrown, unmarked, and steep (ascending the fall line of the old ski area). I'm concerned that someone without previous off-trail experience might be uncomforable on this route.

To approach the East peak, I followed the R turn logging road to the NE from the intersection at the base of Coburn. It passes "underneath" the East peak but shortly thereafter climbs up to the ridge. Leaving the road at the height-of-land, heading back SW and staying on the south side of the ridge, there were very open herd paths leading easily to the flatish summit covered with blowdown. The register is near the far SW edge of the summit plateau [last to sign in was Eric Schlimmer(sp?), who's climbed 700+ 3000 ft-ers, while I'm still in the mid 100's]. To descend I headed SE, more directly back to the logging road. This route was also surprisingly open, and with care taken on the ledges would be faster round trip than my approach along the ridge from the east.

 

[Papa Bear]

The Maine Mountain Guide description of this hike is fairly accurate, but I would add a few clarifications...On the approach road there is a well-maintained logging road (wrong way) at 0.2 mi from rt 201 that turns L (south). I was able to drive straight in for 0.5 mi to the first washout. The remainder of the road wasn't in bad shape and appeared that it could be safely travelled by anyone with a high clearance vehicle. The start of the trail is as descibed but is overgrown, unmarked, and steep (ascending the fall line of the old ski area). I'm concerned that someone without previous off-trail experience might be uncomforable on this route.

Good going mhrsebago. Coburn is a great mountain with fabulaous views. It should be worth anyone's while. I want to go back to hit the east peak sometime.

We found that if you continue on past the 4 way intersection about .1 or .2 past some old decrepit structures on the right, you will hit another spot to park with a steep logging/ATV road up to the left with a sign. This goes straight up to the top of the old ski slope (where you see a small communications building) where you join the final path to the top. This should be easier than going up the old ski slope.

Christopher Keene has directions in his North Woods Walks which I would say are more clear than the MMG for this particular peak.

Also Bigmoose posted excellent directions Here last fall on this forum.

 

[onestep]

Thanks for posting.
This is what makes VFTT such a great site!

Onestep

 

[Nate]

Mhrsebago, thank you for the trip report. I visited Coburn over Memorial Day Weekend, and I found that the old ski slopes were so overgrown that there was no obvious route up from the ruins at the base. I ended up following Papa Bear's route to the summit, via the ATV trail/old maintenance road. Once past the gate and the ditch, thankfully there was a cairn, because it's the narrower trail that continues on to the summit, while the wider trail goes left.

While in the neighborhood, I wanted to bag the east peak as well, but once at the Coburn tower the trees looked really dense going that way. Hence, I followed Mhrsebago's directions and started my bushwhack from the ATV trail. Actually, what I found was that the shortest route to East Coburn's high point is to start bushwhacking up from where the ATV trail departs the old logging road. However, not knowing that initially, for my ascent I followed the ATV trail up to where it leveled off. Actually, by the time it truly levels off it has noticeably overshot the peak, and since the trail is bordered by pine trees at that point, I backtracked to the last patch of decidious trees before heading in.

The going isn't too bad, as initially I reached a height of land covered by decidious trees. Even when I reached the pines, most of the trees were mature enough that I didn't have to fight through any dense spruce. This is a steep enough peak that you pretty much do all the climbing at once. I was wearing sneakers at the time, which I guess don't have quite enough support for a walk in the woods like that, since I was doing so much pushing up with my feet that halfway up I think I managed to strain a tendon in my foot.

Nevertheless, I kept going and gained the summit ridge. Thanks to the trip report above, I knew the true high point was at the southwest end of the ridge, so I didn't waste too much time at the first knob I encountered. Even though the vegetation wasn't too thick, there were a bunch of blowdowns along the summit ridge, so it really was easier to travel along just south of the ridgetop. Going along, I came to one largish summit bump that I thought was the true high peak. It had a ton of blowdowns and there was no real obvious high point. I spent about 10-15 minutes poking around for the canister, but to no avail. Frustration was starting to set in. Then, just for giggles, I decided to venture a little further along the ridge, just to see what I could see. Very shortly the land started to rise again, and a bump or two later I was at the true high point. It's actually a small enough area and the true top is defined enough that it only took a minute or two to locate the canister, hanging from a dead tree. There was a ton of black flies around, so it was an agony to sit still long enough to make an entry in the register (oh, how I longed for pants!). As it turned out, I was the first person to sign in since Mhrsebago.

Once I had left my mark, I bombed back down the mountain. Having tracked the summit on the GPS on (logging) road walk in, I had taken a waypoint where the road comes the closest to the peak. Thus, I headed for that rather than where I had begun my 'whack. Despite some minor drop-offs and moss traps I made good time in my descent, so in short order I popped out of the woods where the ATV trail departs the logging road.

Overall it wasn't a bad bushwhack, and thanks again to Mhrsebago for the trip report.

 

[dms]

Nate, I think you made the right choice bypassing the ridge to go to the East peak. I had heard that the ridge was a very nasty bushwack. When I did it, we were able to drive the road to about 2360, just by a small pond to the east of the road, we parked exactly below the summit and just went straight up, right to the register. It was very steep, but short and direct.