Last week I attended the Baxter Bash. My main hiking goal for the trip was North Brother, since I needed it for my project of redoing the NE111 in my sixties, and last year at the bash I had done the Katahdins but not NB.
So on Thursday I set out to do the Coe - Brothers Loop, with Fort as an option. I was solo, and only saw two other people the whole hike.
I did the loop counterclockwise, first going up Coe. I really like Coe Mtn. Trail. It starts out following a drainage with some minislides, and then goes quickly up the Coe Slide. I had heard warnings about the difficulty of the Coe Slide, but I didn't find it hard at all, although I did climb it while it was dry. Soon after that the trail gets to Coe summit, where I had limited views.
After that it drops sharply down for a little ways and then is a very pleasant forest walk until the South Brother spur, which I took into the Alpine zone up to South Brother. South Brother was completely in a cloud when I was there.
Then it was back and north until I got on Marston Trail and headed up North Brother. It was on that trail where I met a couple going down. They had been on Fort, and told me the herd path wasn't too difficult to follow. On the summit of NB it started clearing up, and I could see Fort. I decided to go.
The herd path to Fort was mostly easy to follow, until it wasn't. I got to a point where a very well defined path split into two less defined ones. I followed one for a little while and it just stopped. So I backtracked and followed the other for a little while and it just stopped. I spent a lot of time searching for where the path really went, until I figured I would just start bushwhacking. I was more than half way and I had a compass bearing. The whacking kept changing back and forth from very easy to pretty hard. And then I came across the herd path, which I followed the rest of the way up to Fort. By this time it had cleared up considerably and there were great views all around.
On the way back from Fort I never lost the herd path. I also never came across the point where I'd lost it going over, so I think I was already off the path at that point.
Then I went down Marston Trail to the trailhead.
North Brother was number 45 (out of 115) for my project of redoing the NE111 in my sixties.
I guess I'm officially doing the NEHH now. I've been keeping track of it, but telling people I'm not really doing it. That's why I went to Fort, though. Coe, South Brother, and Fort were numbers 82-84 (out of 100) for that list.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 45/115 (35/67, 10/46, 0/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 39/48; NEHH 84/100
LT NB 2009
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
So on Thursday I set out to do the Coe - Brothers Loop, with Fort as an option. I was solo, and only saw two other people the whole hike.
I did the loop counterclockwise, first going up Coe. I really like Coe Mtn. Trail. It starts out following a drainage with some minislides, and then goes quickly up the Coe Slide. I had heard warnings about the difficulty of the Coe Slide, but I didn't find it hard at all, although I did climb it while it was dry. Soon after that the trail gets to Coe summit, where I had limited views.
After that it drops sharply down for a little ways and then is a very pleasant forest walk until the South Brother spur, which I took into the Alpine zone up to South Brother. South Brother was completely in a cloud when I was there.
Then it was back and north until I got on Marston Trail and headed up North Brother. It was on that trail where I met a couple going down. They had been on Fort, and told me the herd path wasn't too difficult to follow. On the summit of NB it started clearing up, and I could see Fort. I decided to go.
The herd path to Fort was mostly easy to follow, until it wasn't. I got to a point where a very well defined path split into two less defined ones. I followed one for a little while and it just stopped. So I backtracked and followed the other for a little while and it just stopped. I spent a lot of time searching for where the path really went, until I figured I would just start bushwhacking. I was more than half way and I had a compass bearing. The whacking kept changing back and forth from very easy to pretty hard. And then I came across the herd path, which I followed the rest of the way up to Fort. By this time it had cleared up considerably and there were great views all around.
On the way back from Fort I never lost the herd path. I also never came across the point where I'd lost it going over, so I think I was already off the path at that point.
Then I went down Marston Trail to the trailhead.
North Brother was number 45 (out of 115) for my project of redoing the NE111 in my sixties.
I guess I'm officially doing the NEHH now. I've been keeping track of it, but telling people I'm not really doing it. That's why I went to Fort, though. Coe, South Brother, and Fort were numbers 82-84 (out of 100) for that list.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 45/115 (35/67, 10/46, 0/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 39/48; NEHH 84/100
LT NB 2009
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
