poison ivy
Well-known member
Shaggy had one of his rare weekends off from work and really wanted to head up to Cathedral Pines in Maine. Conveniently, that was right in the middle of two of the New England Hundred Highest peaks I have left… and Shaggy said he would be up for a short hike or two, lucky me! 
East Kennebago:
So, Saturday morning we headed up Route 16 with the intention of hiking East Kennebago, which would be Sherpa Shaggy’s first bushwhack, armed with directions from Papa Bear’s & BobandGeri’s Web sites. It took us a while to figure out the right way to go… when directions say “follow the main road,” I apparently have a different judgment as to what is a main road. We parked the car in front of a blowdown along a ridge. Although Shaggy said he could probably drive around it, I was worried that we would have to back down the ridge and avoiding the tree while driving backwards didn’t seem like a good idea.
It was close to 90 degrees as we headed up the logging road at 11:30 a.m. and I told Shaggy that if we didn’t hit at yellow boundary marker within an hour, we were in the wrong spot. It was about 20 minutes walking along the bunchberry and poison ivy filled logging road before the yellow post of the boundary line popped into view. A small cairn marked our entry into the woods and we followed the boundary markers underneath a tunnel of trees to the height of land.
I pulled out the compass and followed the bearing the up hill along a route that occasionally had us pushing through stubby tree branches, which shredded both of our legs. The mosquitoes were out and humming in our ears but we kept moving along at a pretty good pace and they didn’t bite us much. We pushed through the trees and past several blowdowns when I found evidence of a herd path, though I quickly lost it after circling around a big blowdown, so I started following my bearing again.
It was just off the summit that I found the herd path that led us straight to the 3,791-foot summit of East Kennebago, my 92nd peak on the NEHH list. I signed in at the canister and asked Shaggy what he thought of his first bushwhack -- he said, “Bushwhacking is for people with rocks in their heads.” (He now denies saying this.)
Our route down wasn’t the greatest -- it was a lot thicker than the way up and had a lot more blowdowns. After what seemed like forever, I was starting to get worried that we hadn’t hit the boundary line yet, so we stopped for a lunch break and checked the map and bearing once again. We decided I was angling too far east and wasn’t losing enough ground. Within 10 minutes, we popped out at the logging road about 10 feet before the boundary line… okay so I was angling WAY too far east… We walked back down the logging road to the car, finishing our hike at 2:15 and headed to Cathedral Pines for a day of lounging and swimming.
Pictures for East Kennebago are here.
Boundary Peak:
We woke up earlier than we expected on Sunday thanks to the whir of a red squirrel alarm clock -- he was hanging in the tree over our tent and whirring away. Nevertheless, we decided to get up early and head to Canada.
Now, Shaggy & I drove to Canada in May hoping to climb Boundary Peak. At that time, we arrived at the gated logging road only to find that they were not allowing cars down the road because it was too icy.
I was really nervous that we might be turned back at the gate once again, so this time I was armed with alternative directions to Boundary. They weren’t needed, however, as the man at the gatehouse collected our $5 and had us fill out a form before allowing us to drive down the road. We had an interesting exchange, however, as the gate attendant said, “You Americans, always wanting to climb Boundary Peak. Boundary has no views! Why hike Boundary?”
Shaggy said something about it being on the New England Hundred Highest list and the gate guy says, “No list,” while tapping his fingers on the map at Mt. Gosford. “You hike here -- this has views.” Shaggy said, “I think my wife has her heart set on Boundary,” before we bounced down the road having a good laugh at the disapproving look we received.
It was about 9:30 a.m. when we parked at the gravel pit. It was already sticky and hot so we loaded up on water and made our way across a small stream. This is where the well-driven and steep ATV trail heads uphill toward the peak. However, I was probably gabbing and completely missed the ATV trail, instead following another, overgrown ATV trail along the river and up through the woods. The path soon became more like a walking trail, but we followed it until it petered out in a boggy spot.
I asked Shaggy whether he wanted to turn around or just bushwhack up to the boundary swath between Canada and the United States. He wasn’t relishing the idea of turning back and said he would prefer to bushwhack. The woods were fairly open and it wasn’t particularly difficult -- I even found flagging tape in two or three trees along the way, which I plucked off the trees. We managed to cut off a little of the elevation gain, popping out on the boundary swath quite a ways from the ATV trail.
There are lots of hunting blinds on the Canada side of the trail and plenty of salt licks. Shaggy was feeling a “Canadian vibe” today so he walked on the Canada side of the boundary line. The black flies were pretty fierce in the cut so we both sprayed ourselves with DEET and the sun was blazing down on us.
We descended down the hill to Monument 446, one of several along the border that reads Canada on one side and United States on the other. After taking the requisite “foot on each side of the boundary” picture, we started up the steep hill -- stopping to watch the eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies flit through fields of bunchberry and bluebead lilies. We were both so hot we felt like we were melting and Shaggy said that if this next knoll wasn’t the top, he was going to sit in the shade and wait for me to come back.
However, I convinced him to keep walking, saying that I really thought the next bump was the top -- and fortunately it was. We climbed up to find a giant cairn on the Maine side of the boundary line and we celebrated reaching the 3,855-foot summit with large swallows of Gatorade. I searched around the cairn for the summit canister, but was unable to find it. I later spied the lid buried beneath some spruce branches and a few chips of the main body. I couldn’t find the rest or any sign of a register in the brush or within the cairn. Nevertheless, I was happy to reach my 93rd peak on the New England Hundred Highest list.
We turned around and headed back down the boundary swath, at least this time we had a nice breeze blowing in our faces and we were going down hill at first. I was surprised how much of the distance we cut off by bushwhacking as we passed the last familiar hunter blind and headed uphill toward the ATV trail. It was a very obvious trail -- wide enough for a jeep and very clear. I knew that we were never on it in the first place after seeing how well used it was.
As we descended down the ATV trail, we marveled at how steep it was -- I certainly wouldn’t want to drive anything down it. After a few minutes, we heard some crashing around in the woods to our right -- unfortunately the trees were really thick so we couldn’t see the moose we suspected was wandering around in there. We made it down the ATV trail and back out to the stream, where we marveled at how the heck we missed seeing this wide open trail heading up the hill in the first place. We both pretty much rolled around in the stream to cool off before making back to the car at 11:45 a.m.
We had considered hiking Gosford but it was so hot that visions of ice cream danced in our heads so we headed back to Maine instead.
Pictures from Boundary Peak are here.
- Ivy
East Kennebago:
So, Saturday morning we headed up Route 16 with the intention of hiking East Kennebago, which would be Sherpa Shaggy’s first bushwhack, armed with directions from Papa Bear’s & BobandGeri’s Web sites. It took us a while to figure out the right way to go… when directions say “follow the main road,” I apparently have a different judgment as to what is a main road. We parked the car in front of a blowdown along a ridge. Although Shaggy said he could probably drive around it, I was worried that we would have to back down the ridge and avoiding the tree while driving backwards didn’t seem like a good idea.
It was close to 90 degrees as we headed up the logging road at 11:30 a.m. and I told Shaggy that if we didn’t hit at yellow boundary marker within an hour, we were in the wrong spot. It was about 20 minutes walking along the bunchberry and poison ivy filled logging road before the yellow post of the boundary line popped into view. A small cairn marked our entry into the woods and we followed the boundary markers underneath a tunnel of trees to the height of land.
I pulled out the compass and followed the bearing the up hill along a route that occasionally had us pushing through stubby tree branches, which shredded both of our legs. The mosquitoes were out and humming in our ears but we kept moving along at a pretty good pace and they didn’t bite us much. We pushed through the trees and past several blowdowns when I found evidence of a herd path, though I quickly lost it after circling around a big blowdown, so I started following my bearing again.
It was just off the summit that I found the herd path that led us straight to the 3,791-foot summit of East Kennebago, my 92nd peak on the NEHH list. I signed in at the canister and asked Shaggy what he thought of his first bushwhack -- he said, “Bushwhacking is for people with rocks in their heads.” (He now denies saying this.)
Our route down wasn’t the greatest -- it was a lot thicker than the way up and had a lot more blowdowns. After what seemed like forever, I was starting to get worried that we hadn’t hit the boundary line yet, so we stopped for a lunch break and checked the map and bearing once again. We decided I was angling too far east and wasn’t losing enough ground. Within 10 minutes, we popped out at the logging road about 10 feet before the boundary line… okay so I was angling WAY too far east… We walked back down the logging road to the car, finishing our hike at 2:15 and headed to Cathedral Pines for a day of lounging and swimming.
Pictures for East Kennebago are here.
Boundary Peak:
We woke up earlier than we expected on Sunday thanks to the whir of a red squirrel alarm clock -- he was hanging in the tree over our tent and whirring away. Nevertheless, we decided to get up early and head to Canada.
Now, Shaggy & I drove to Canada in May hoping to climb Boundary Peak. At that time, we arrived at the gated logging road only to find that they were not allowing cars down the road because it was too icy.
I was really nervous that we might be turned back at the gate once again, so this time I was armed with alternative directions to Boundary. They weren’t needed, however, as the man at the gatehouse collected our $5 and had us fill out a form before allowing us to drive down the road. We had an interesting exchange, however, as the gate attendant said, “You Americans, always wanting to climb Boundary Peak. Boundary has no views! Why hike Boundary?”
Shaggy said something about it being on the New England Hundred Highest list and the gate guy says, “No list,” while tapping his fingers on the map at Mt. Gosford. “You hike here -- this has views.” Shaggy said, “I think my wife has her heart set on Boundary,” before we bounced down the road having a good laugh at the disapproving look we received.
It was about 9:30 a.m. when we parked at the gravel pit. It was already sticky and hot so we loaded up on water and made our way across a small stream. This is where the well-driven and steep ATV trail heads uphill toward the peak. However, I was probably gabbing and completely missed the ATV trail, instead following another, overgrown ATV trail along the river and up through the woods. The path soon became more like a walking trail, but we followed it until it petered out in a boggy spot.
I asked Shaggy whether he wanted to turn around or just bushwhack up to the boundary swath between Canada and the United States. He wasn’t relishing the idea of turning back and said he would prefer to bushwhack. The woods were fairly open and it wasn’t particularly difficult -- I even found flagging tape in two or three trees along the way, which I plucked off the trees. We managed to cut off a little of the elevation gain, popping out on the boundary swath quite a ways from the ATV trail.
There are lots of hunting blinds on the Canada side of the trail and plenty of salt licks. Shaggy was feeling a “Canadian vibe” today so he walked on the Canada side of the boundary line. The black flies were pretty fierce in the cut so we both sprayed ourselves with DEET and the sun was blazing down on us.
We descended down the hill to Monument 446, one of several along the border that reads Canada on one side and United States on the other. After taking the requisite “foot on each side of the boundary” picture, we started up the steep hill -- stopping to watch the eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies flit through fields of bunchberry and bluebead lilies. We were both so hot we felt like we were melting and Shaggy said that if this next knoll wasn’t the top, he was going to sit in the shade and wait for me to come back.
However, I convinced him to keep walking, saying that I really thought the next bump was the top -- and fortunately it was. We climbed up to find a giant cairn on the Maine side of the boundary line and we celebrated reaching the 3,855-foot summit with large swallows of Gatorade. I searched around the cairn for the summit canister, but was unable to find it. I later spied the lid buried beneath some spruce branches and a few chips of the main body. I couldn’t find the rest or any sign of a register in the brush or within the cairn. Nevertheless, I was happy to reach my 93rd peak on the New England Hundred Highest list.
We turned around and headed back down the boundary swath, at least this time we had a nice breeze blowing in our faces and we were going down hill at first. I was surprised how much of the distance we cut off by bushwhacking as we passed the last familiar hunter blind and headed uphill toward the ATV trail. It was a very obvious trail -- wide enough for a jeep and very clear. I knew that we were never on it in the first place after seeing how well used it was.
As we descended down the ATV trail, we marveled at how steep it was -- I certainly wouldn’t want to drive anything down it. After a few minutes, we heard some crashing around in the woods to our right -- unfortunately the trees were really thick so we couldn’t see the moose we suspected was wandering around in there. We made it down the ATV trail and back out to the stream, where we marveled at how the heck we missed seeing this wide open trail heading up the hill in the first place. We both pretty much rolled around in the stream to cool off before making back to the car at 11:45 a.m.
We had considered hiking Gosford but it was so hot that visions of ice cream danced in our heads so we headed back to Maine instead.
Pictures from Boundary Peak are here.
- Ivy
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