Fort --9/6

[buckyball1]

The last time I was on N Brother, I said "nah, I'll never wander over to Fort", but you know how it goes........
I headed up to Baxter early this morning from Orrington (ME), saw several large bull moose on road just outside the Park. Arrived a bit after 6 (south gate opens at 6 starting today)to find only 5 cars in line. All were headed to Roaring Brook. The gate person said that while they were pretty full for Labor Day weekend, that day use has been down this summer, especially recently.
I got to Marston Traihead about 645 and after talking to a guy in the parking area, found out it was Onestep--he was headed up the Coe Slide to S Brother and then to N Brother and finally Fort. Fort will be NEHH #99 for him and he should finish on Hamlin tomorrow--early congrats; nice guy.
It was a great day for "up", cool, low wind, pretty clear. The Marston Trail was as usual, but getting wetter as we head toward fall. The Coe Trail from the junction headed up N Brother is beginning to really deteriorate, 2 1/2' deep erosion gullies here and there and lots of water.
On N Brother, I sat to eat a bit and gather my thoughts. I haven't done much "bushwacking" since the early 80s when i was doing the HH in NYS. Made a choice to do it in shorts and sort sleeve T . I took a compass bearing and headed off to Fort. The common wisdom on this Board of "keep looking at your feet" is good advice. I followed a few cairns down to the left and headed into the scrub following the wear pattern on the trail/rocks. There were a few "iffy" spots at blowdowns on the herd path as I went down into the col, but looking down at the trail and a brief search in a few spots were all that was needed. As you get deeper into the col, there are a few stretches that actually look like a real trail. Headed up Fort following same method and reached summit with few problems (<45 minutes over from N Brother). As reported, there are some red paint blazes in the reverse direction and red arrows on the rocks near the top of Fort. Route finding would be a bit easier with 2 people, but I see no reason not to do it solo. Pretty much an overgrown herd path rather than a bushwack.
I wandered around both "summits" on Fort and looked over at N Brother to see a person on top. When I sat to eat, I realized my poles, stowed in my pack when i started toward Fort, were gone. Of course they had become hooked by the brush (pretty thick in spots) and flipped put of the pack w/o me realizing it. Pretty stupid on my part, but when i used to do serious bushwacks, I wasn't a "pole person", so this possibility never dawned on me today. For some reason, I had a bit more trouble with the path on my return, but nothing serious. About 2/3 of the way back up Fort, I ran into Onestep and we talked for awhile--he sounds pretty serious re some real bushwacks in Baxter like Barren, Mullen, SB, tuff stuff. I think I covered 97+% of the same route headed back and never saw the poles again--luckily old/beat and needed replaced. After I talked to Onestep, I somehow got off the herd path and instead of backtracking a bit, pressed toward the top of N Brother--mistake--got into thick cripplebrush and dense balsam spears for about 10 minutes. I was lead into this by 2 cairns that in retrospect i'm sure were not in the line of cairns leading off N Brother and seem to be the "cairns to nowhere" described by a few others(one is almost overgrown by brush). They lead you too far to the Mullen side of N Brother and into a mess--follow the wear marks!. While I had gotten a few scrapes on both arms and legs on the herd path, there was now some serious bloodletting. Found the herd path again, resummited Fort and trundled down with no other problems.
Just a nice, hard day for me. Onestep was the only other person i saw on the trail all day-enjoyed our brief time together.
I've also recently done Lead in Penobscot County and Peaked In Washington County, both off Rt 9-small, nothing of note, no views, only to be done if you "need" to. The trailhead and trail directions in the MMG have serious errors for both peaks. If you want any current info, please e-mail/PM me.
buckyball/jim

 

[docross]

BW to Fort

3 of us did this same hike 2 days earlier. On the way up North Brother I was startled when a hiker headed down addressed me as "docross" Turns out he was Dr Wu, Senior Member of this forum! He, Spencer, and a young lady were doing the Fort/Brothers/Coe traverse that day.

The bushwhack is as Buckyball1 describes. The route to the peak is pretty straightforward; on the peak someone really got carried away with the red paint. Coming down, it's easy to get misled by various herd paths; here's where a GPS comes in handy.

BTW, according to our 2 GPS units, both cairns were within a foot or two of the same elevation. The old radio is at the cairn to the right, as viewed from North Brother.

We had a spectacular 3 days in BSP; I climbed six peaks, which brought me up to #90 in the NE HH list.

 

[spencer]

Hi Doc!

Yup, we had a splendid day up there. Although we didn't bother with Fort as neither Wu nor Joanna care about lists and I've been over there a couple of times.

did you say the "radio" was on the right (i.e. more easterly summit)? It used to be on the more westerly one. and paint on the rocks? what the hell is happening to this place.

boy, if i found some clown putting paint on the rocks in Baxter...

It was nice to meet you, Doc, albeit briefly.

Also, several of us participated in a litter carry on Friday night. We were just beginning to grill the shrimp kabobs at Abol CG when the ranger told us about a woman who had broken her leg on the Marston trail. We all motored over there and hiked up (<1.5 miles) to help out. There were over 30 people there to help on the litter! We got back down to the trailhead around 10 I think. The patient was in very good spirits and I assume she just went to the hospital and got patched up.

spencer

 

[docross]

Injury on Marston trail

"Also, several of us participated in a litter carry on Friday night. We were just beginning to grill the shrimp kabobs at Abol CG when the ranger told us about a woman who had broken her leg on the Marston trail. We all motored over there and hiked up (<1.5 miles) to help out"

Some people camping in the Nesowednehunk campground with us told us about the injury, after the fact. I wonder why the ranger didn't ask for help from those of us at "Sowdehunk"?

 

[darren]

Actually we got her back to the trailhead at 11:00.

At 10:00 we were still on the trail lining up to pass the litter over a tough section. I remember that because there was a park ranger directly across from us and Carmel said "hey, I want my money back. I've been in this park for 6 hours and I haven't seen a single moose yet." That was pretty funny and we all got a good laugh out of it.

One of the rangers who was on team 3 with us is a site lurker and he had some nice things to say about the site. Always nice to hear stuff like that when you are carrying a litter in the dead of night.

- darren

 

[spencer]

Darren,

which ranger? name?

spencer

 

[darren]

Darren,

which ranger? name?

spencer

I said he is a lurker. If he wanted us to know his name, he would tell us.

Ha!!

Actually, as you know it was dark and I think I remember reading his name tag, but I can't remember it.

He reads the forums sometimes, but doesn't post. He said that he does post in the trails conditions once in a while though.

He was a nice guy and I enjoyed talking to him.

- darren