sdways01
New member
Parking: 44°45.505'N, 70°46.587'W
Miles: 3.33
Total Elevation: 1,195 feet
Total Time: 2:55
Elephant Mtn Rd doesn't have a sign at the end of it, but it is the first dirt road after Clearwater Brook when driving west on South Arm Rd. The brooks along the road are signed, so that helps. The road is a bit rough in a few places with some larger rocks and a couple culverts that have made good humps in the road. I was driving my wife's Rav4 and had no issues or concerns.
I started heading up the older logging road at the first cairn (which is where I parked). The better road continues right, but you don't want that. I headed up until I got to an old landing with another cairn on the left leading to the herd path. This path was easy to follow for a while. There is some brush down low to push through and it's a bit narrow in places, but easy to follow for the most part.
After a little while I came to a spot where the path appeared to split. To the right it looked like it went under/around a fallen tree. There were no boot prints in the mud here, so I wasn't sure about this route (I had seen recent prints earlier). I went to the left instead. This route stayed open for a bit and then closed in coming to just a wall of small trees with no path leading into it. I looked around and found no definitive path around either. I went back to the split, knowing that I had just passed a small cairn before it. I decided to try to the right. There was a path this way that lead to a small brook, but it seemed to end here. Being fairly open here, I figured maybe people spread out more so no path was defined. I headed up and eventually found what looked like a faint path. I even saw the remains of a single piece of flagging. This path seemed to lead away from the peak in one direction though, and downhill in the other direction. Neither option seemed correct.
At this point I decided that since the overall distance and elevation to the summit wasn't "too far" that I would just bushwhack to the summit and pick up the path on the way back down. The bushwhack went well to start, but soon it got thick. I pushed through some and tried to find routes into more open areas without losing my heading too much. This helped for a while, and then it got really thick. I eventually took the "brute force bull and jam" method and forced my way through and over anything in my way. This was very slow going. I then came to more open woods and was pretty close to the summit. As I got closer I started to pick up a path and saw lots of moose sign. In hindsight though, it might have just been a path made by the moose. Soon I could see an orange hat in a tree, some flagging, and a piece of wood that said Elephant on it (once I got close). I couldn't find a canister, but this looked like the high spot and my GPS agreed.
I'm pretty sure a moose spent a few weeks here at the summit recently. The area was literally a field of moose poop on the ground. I also found what I believe to be the possible remains of after birth/placenta. This makes more sense when you think about how long a moose was up here. I can see a cow staying put in this small open-ish area for a while with a new born calf.
To head down, I followed the well defined herd path leading from the summit (not the route I took up). Unfortunately, I lost this path before very long and ended up crossing back over the route I took up. I ended up just bushwhacking down from here. I picked a better but still not ideal route down past the thickest stuff I encountered coming up. I then cut across the mountain some maintaining my elevation to get back to the area where I crossed the brook. I knew if I could get here I could easily hike back to the car. This worked pretty well and I came right to where I wanted. I quickly hiked down and got to my car about as the rain started. Perfect timing. I put on clean/dry clothes and headed home. Already deciding I need to find a better route if/when I come back.
Miles: 3.33
Total Elevation: 1,195 feet
Total Time: 2:55
Elephant Mtn Rd doesn't have a sign at the end of it, but it is the first dirt road after Clearwater Brook when driving west on South Arm Rd. The brooks along the road are signed, so that helps. The road is a bit rough in a few places with some larger rocks and a couple culverts that have made good humps in the road. I was driving my wife's Rav4 and had no issues or concerns.
I started heading up the older logging road at the first cairn (which is where I parked). The better road continues right, but you don't want that. I headed up until I got to an old landing with another cairn on the left leading to the herd path. This path was easy to follow for a while. There is some brush down low to push through and it's a bit narrow in places, but easy to follow for the most part.
After a little while I came to a spot where the path appeared to split. To the right it looked like it went under/around a fallen tree. There were no boot prints in the mud here, so I wasn't sure about this route (I had seen recent prints earlier). I went to the left instead. This route stayed open for a bit and then closed in coming to just a wall of small trees with no path leading into it. I looked around and found no definitive path around either. I went back to the split, knowing that I had just passed a small cairn before it. I decided to try to the right. There was a path this way that lead to a small brook, but it seemed to end here. Being fairly open here, I figured maybe people spread out more so no path was defined. I headed up and eventually found what looked like a faint path. I even saw the remains of a single piece of flagging. This path seemed to lead away from the peak in one direction though, and downhill in the other direction. Neither option seemed correct.
At this point I decided that since the overall distance and elevation to the summit wasn't "too far" that I would just bushwhack to the summit and pick up the path on the way back down. The bushwhack went well to start, but soon it got thick. I pushed through some and tried to find routes into more open areas without losing my heading too much. This helped for a while, and then it got really thick. I eventually took the "brute force bull and jam" method and forced my way through and over anything in my way. This was very slow going. I then came to more open woods and was pretty close to the summit. As I got closer I started to pick up a path and saw lots of moose sign. In hindsight though, it might have just been a path made by the moose. Soon I could see an orange hat in a tree, some flagging, and a piece of wood that said Elephant on it (once I got close). I couldn't find a canister, but this looked like the high spot and my GPS agreed.
I'm pretty sure a moose spent a few weeks here at the summit recently. The area was literally a field of moose poop on the ground. I also found what I believe to be the possible remains of after birth/placenta. This makes more sense when you think about how long a moose was up here. I can see a cow staying put in this small open-ish area for a while with a new born calf.
To head down, I followed the well defined herd path leading from the summit (not the route I took up). Unfortunately, I lost this path before very long and ended up crossing back over the route I took up. I ended up just bushwhacking down from here. I picked a better but still not ideal route down past the thickest stuff I encountered coming up. I then cut across the mountain some maintaining my elevation to get back to the area where I crossed the brook. I knew if I could get here I could easily hike back to the car. This worked pretty well and I came right to where I wanted. I quickly hiked down and got to my car about as the rain started. Perfect timing. I put on clean/dry clothes and headed home. Already deciding I need to find a better route if/when I come back.
I will see if I can figure out how to just pull the Elephant data for you.
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