Jockey Cap and Pleasant Mountain, Maine 2/15/12

[Jimmy Legs and Little D]

Donna and I did a couple of short hikes in Maine near Fryeburg while we were still on the Jackson side of town. Jockey Cap proved interesting in that at the top stood a structure which looks like the knight piece of a chess set. Looking closer it was actually a device which would allow someone to identify a mountain by lining up the silhouette to the mountain in the distance.

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Another interesting bit of history about this area is the story of Molly Ockett an indian medicine woman who occasionally lived in the cave below the summit.

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After visiting the Jockey Cap General Store, where we bought a delicious hot lunch, we drove the short distance to the trail head of Pleasant Mountain off of Denmark road. We didn't have a map of the trails so I took a picture of the map posted at the trail head and used the picture as our means to find the summit.

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The trail, although not challenging in steepness, varied in the amounts of snow, ice and bare ground along the way. We started off in microspikes and in a short while we took them off because of the absence of snow. We even saw the appearance of the "monorail".

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After crossing over the Southeast summit we continued on until we reached the summit of Pleasant Mountain, where there is a fire tower.

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We enjoyed the view while sipping hot chocolate and eating crumb cake and bagels which we bought at Big Dave's Bagels in Conway.

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After forty five minutes at the summit we started the 3 mile hike back to the car.
It was a very enjoyable day with all the different things we did; especially visiting Maine again.

Here's the link to our SmugMug slide show:

http://jimmylegs.smugmug.com/Nature/Hiking/Jockey-Cap-Pleasant-Mountain/21606957_XqgqWG

Mike and Donna

 

[KPMMBM]

a fun little "double" I've done a few times. thanks for supporting the local economy!

 

[kltilton]

Jockey Cap is a great little hidden treasure. D's Pizza across the street has great pizza and subs!

 

[mtruman]

OK, one more that I hadn't heard of before to add to the "someday" list. Love the "peak finder" at the top. Should be one of those on every summit

 

[Amicus]

That interesting "peakfinder" diorama on Jockey Cap is a tribute from the late 1930's to Admiral Peary, of the North Pole. It is a three-dimensional realization of a view survey he drew in 1878-79, when, fresh from Bowdoin College, he spent a year living in Fryeburg with his mother and worked as (unpaid) Town Surveyor - a harbinger of much greater things. The survey and diorama indicate a 360-degree vista then, but now the east side is grown in. Here is another photo, which I took last summer:

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

Glad to see you made it up Pleasant Mt., but sorry to hear you were in my back yard and I missed you. Pleasant was Lauky's first peak bag and he's been up it at least 50 times since then. Duffy was up there well over twice that many times. As you can tell it's one of my favorite places. There is even a whack I do now from the summit to some "secret" ledges that probably no one else but an occasional stray hunter has ever seen. Duffy and I found it one time on one of our whacks up the side of the mountain. I call the place "Duffy's Meadow".

The late great DUFFY

 

[Barkingcat]

Next time you're at Pleasant Mountain, head up to the summit via the Ledges Trail (from Mountain Road) -- very nice views from there. You can do a nice loop using the Bald Peak Trail and then a short road walk (1.2 miles) back to the Ledges Trail trailhead. The entire distance, including road walk, is just 5.4 miles. You can get some great views of the Presidential Range along the way.

(Oh -- they have plenty of free maps [the same one that you photographed] at the kiosks for both of these trailheads. The same map/brochure is available online here.)

 

[grouseking]

Looks like a neat trip! Thanks for posting it

 

[Jimmy Legs and Little D]

Thanks for taking the time to reply:

KEITH: It was a delightful hike to both places. We agree that we all need to support the "locals" more as we do here in Maryland.

kTILTON: We will certainly keep D's Pizza in mind but the JC General Store was a real surprise as to all the fine looking food they had prepared for lunchtime.

MARK: Our list is ever growing of mountains to hike. It would be nice to know what you are looking at on the summits. Looking at a map doesn't always do the trick.

AMICUS: Thanks for the info. Great photo too.

ED: Also sorry that we didn't remember that you live in Bridgton. Next time. Great photos of Duffy!

CLAY: We plan to go up the backside of Pleasant Mountain one day. Maybe you can join us.

PHIL: Check it out one day, it's a winner!

Donna