1SlowHiker
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I did Elephant the same day as Peppersass and her group (Maine trail reports: http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthre...er)-via-Elephant-Mtn-Rd-and-Bushwhack-10-4-14 ) but much earlier in the day after having done the Maine six pack peaks over the last few days (Sept 31-Aug -2) . I met them as I was coming down. It was raining a bit when I started but I got drenched more fighting the spruce. The wind earlier was also very strong.
Unlike them, I was able to find the route of greatest resistance – I’ll blame the lack of vision through my wet and fogged up glasses. I was however rewarded with two interesting sights. One was an area of trees rooted in deep moss over boulders. The high wind was swaying the trees back and forth lifting their roots up and down so that the moss covered ground seemed to be alive undulating and lifting up and down as much as 2-3 feet. It was an eerie site. I took a quick picture and a short video. My camera batteries were low and I didn’t want to take the time to change them - afraid that one of the trees would fall on me. I only got about 5 seconds of video. The second thing of interest was a moose skeleton. Coming off the peak, I was following a fairly well defined herd path that was leading me too far to the east. It first led me to a large logged out marshy area. I lost the path there then picked it back up but I was now a good 200 yards east of any of the GPS tracks I had and it looked like this path may lead me away from where I had parked at top of elephant Mt. Rd. To be on the safe side I decided to bushwhack directly SW until I was back in the general area that I had come up. I then came across the full skeleton of a moose. skull, jaw bones, leg bones and vertebrae were picked clean and scattered over an area about 20x20 ft . I have inserted the photos of the living moss and the skeleton below. I wasn’t able to insert the video – but imagine the trees in the still shot rocking back and forth by 15-20 degrees in each direction. Sorry for the blurry pics, my camera lens was wet. I’ll post a full trip report and pictures of the seven Maine peaks I just did on this 4 day trip to my blog later. I’ve fallen behind on keeping the blog up to date.
Unlike them, I was able to find the route of greatest resistance – I’ll blame the lack of vision through my wet and fogged up glasses. I was however rewarded with two interesting sights. One was an area of trees rooted in deep moss over boulders. The high wind was swaying the trees back and forth lifting their roots up and down so that the moss covered ground seemed to be alive undulating and lifting up and down as much as 2-3 feet. It was an eerie site. I took a quick picture and a short video. My camera batteries were low and I didn’t want to take the time to change them - afraid that one of the trees would fall on me. I only got about 5 seconds of video. The second thing of interest was a moose skeleton. Coming off the peak, I was following a fairly well defined herd path that was leading me too far to the east. It first led me to a large logged out marshy area. I lost the path there then picked it back up but I was now a good 200 yards east of any of the GPS tracks I had and it looked like this path may lead me away from where I had parked at top of elephant Mt. Rd. To be on the safe side I decided to bushwhack directly SW until I was back in the general area that I had come up. I then came across the full skeleton of a moose. skull, jaw bones, leg bones and vertebrae were picked clean and scattered over an area about 20x20 ft . I have inserted the photos of the living moss and the skeleton below. I wasn’t able to insert the video – but imagine the trees in the still shot rocking back and forth by 15-20 degrees in each direction. Sorry for the blurry pics, my camera lens was wet. I’ll post a full trip report and pictures of the seven Maine peaks I just did on this 4 day trip to my blog later. I’ve fallen behind on keeping the blog up to date.
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