d&d
Member
Elephant Mountain, Maine, hiked on 5 14 16
A beautiful day for a hike out of Andover maine. Mid day temps at 70 degrees and sunny after showers overnight. To get to trailhead, from the intersection of rt 5 and rt 120 in Andover, follow rt 120 for about .6 and take left on south arm rd. follow south arm for about 9.7 miles, will cross a bridge and you will take a right on a gravel logging road. There is a grassy road just prior to the gravel road and not so established. That is not the turn. Zero out trip meter. Follow the gravel road for .4 miles and bear left. Follow to 1.1miles and bear right. Drive to 3.0 miles and park at landing area.
We left the vehicle and continued straight up the logging road. As the road ended in a rectangular clearing, we found a small herd path in the back left corner. Following this was fairly easy for the first 300 yards until we hit a small wet grassy area. We went a few yards to the left and continued up hill coming across pieces of herd path here and there. We eventually hit some young growth thick balsam fir, and with no trail in sight, continued through it eventually breaking into some more navigable woods. At about about 3500 feet, the fir got thicker again but we started picking up the herd path which was swinging around to the left and heading towards summit. Some minimal ice for the last 300 vertical feet. Just had to watch your footing.
For all you bird lovers, were treated with the annual flocking in great numbers of the Maine state bird, aka “black fly”. They were extremely sociable and a had a hankering to be with us. So many at the summit that we just had a quick snack, signed the log, photo op, and off we went.
When we left summit, we may have headed down hill too quick instead of following the saddle for a hundred yards or so. Our decent being off just 40 yards from our uphill track delivered us into not 1 fir thicket, but and additional 2 more thickets. We picked up the herd path again just after the wet grassy area and back to the parking area in quick time. I had to use one word to describe the adventure going downhill, I would label it as “scrappy”
5 of us hiked today. Denise, Jeremy, Chris and d&d. a great day out with some real nice people who all have a love for the outdoors and a yearning to get those peaks, trail or no trail. Thanks for sharing your pics chris.
d&d 96/100
for pics https://goo.gl/photos/pYG2wM9r8duSDkoMA
A beautiful day for a hike out of Andover maine. Mid day temps at 70 degrees and sunny after showers overnight. To get to trailhead, from the intersection of rt 5 and rt 120 in Andover, follow rt 120 for about .6 and take left on south arm rd. follow south arm for about 9.7 miles, will cross a bridge and you will take a right on a gravel logging road. There is a grassy road just prior to the gravel road and not so established. That is not the turn. Zero out trip meter. Follow the gravel road for .4 miles and bear left. Follow to 1.1miles and bear right. Drive to 3.0 miles and park at landing area.
We left the vehicle and continued straight up the logging road. As the road ended in a rectangular clearing, we found a small herd path in the back left corner. Following this was fairly easy for the first 300 yards until we hit a small wet grassy area. We went a few yards to the left and continued up hill coming across pieces of herd path here and there. We eventually hit some young growth thick balsam fir, and with no trail in sight, continued through it eventually breaking into some more navigable woods. At about about 3500 feet, the fir got thicker again but we started picking up the herd path which was swinging around to the left and heading towards summit. Some minimal ice for the last 300 vertical feet. Just had to watch your footing.
For all you bird lovers, were treated with the annual flocking in great numbers of the Maine state bird, aka “black fly”. They were extremely sociable and a had a hankering to be with us. So many at the summit that we just had a quick snack, signed the log, photo op, and off we went.
When we left summit, we may have headed down hill too quick instead of following the saddle for a hundred yards or so. Our decent being off just 40 yards from our uphill track delivered us into not 1 fir thicket, but and additional 2 more thickets. We picked up the herd path again just after the wet grassy area and back to the parking area in quick time. I had to use one word to describe the adventure going downhill, I would label it as “scrappy”
5 of us hiked today. Denise, Jeremy, Chris and d&d. a great day out with some real nice people who all have a love for the outdoors and a yearning to get those peaks, trail or no trail. Thanks for sharing your pics chris.
d&d 96/100
for pics https://goo.gl/photos/pYG2wM9r8duSDkoMA
