Double Bow
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- Apr 29, 2005
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After almost a year just one peak to go, it was time to "git er done" and finish my New England 4Ks. Orginally the plan had been to finish on the Bigalows, but Baxter has a funny way of changing your plans. That's what happened last time I was up there...
So, that Thursday afternoon, Mary & Zeb met up with me in Portsmouth near my work. We loaded up Mary's Outback + pod and headed up for the long haul to Baxter. Unfortunately, we stopped at Capitol Buffet, a Chinese restaurant in Augusta and while the food was good and we tried to eat quickly, we lost some time. By the time we got to Millinocket, we knew there was no way we were making it to the gate before it closed so we did what any good hiker would do. We picked up some beer and checked into a motel.
The next morning we got up and out fairly early, which was a surprise, and headed into the park. Before too long we were at the Marston trailhead. We started up and a little ways in took the right fork that leads to Coe as I was determined to pick up all the NEHH peaks along the way since I'm closing in on that list as well. The slide was wet in places and sometimes tricky. I'm not going to kid you, it wasn't easy. We kept looking for the trail that leads off toward O-J-I but never saw it. As we were popping out we thought we had finally hit it, but in actuallity we had gone past it and were now at the summit of Coe which was a nice surprise.
After a short snack break, we were off again, heading toward South Brother. That was a great stretch of trail and lots of spots were we could gaze at Katahdin and The Klondike. Before long we reached the spur to go to the summit of South Brother and thought "Great, we're almost there". Man, that is one tough spur! There was lots of scrambling and steep climbing for a shortish spur. Finally, we hit the summit and the view was again fantastic. We took a longer break taking off our boots, eating more and lying out on a large flat boulder. Still, we were only through half the peaks for the day so on we went.
The distance to the trail junction was nothing to write about so I won't... or did I? Heading up North Brother felt so great once I was out of the trees. I just pulled on ahead motoring to the summit. Once there, on the last of the New England 4Ks that I hadn't climbed, I kissed the sign. It had been a looooong time coming. In all the preparation, I had forgot to bring Andre or The Doctor with me, but I knew we'd be celebrating plenty back at camp.
After hanging around for a little bit, we started off toward Fort (leave no stragglers). Shortly into that though, Zeb decided that it wasn't for him and turned back to wait for Mary and I on North Brother. The two of us pushed on, never finding the wy too difficult. As long as you look down, you can find the treadway. It's not a wack by any means. It's more like a badly overgrown trail. We found that on the summit ridge there were two places that looked like the higherst point and had treadway linking them, so we visited both. The views here we great too. On the way back to North Brother, my Wet Rib opened and I lost a headlamp and some food and stuff. Seriously, I need a sherpa to follow me around and pick up all the stuff I've lost! With Zeb in tow, we headed down and set up camp.
That night we celebrated with chicken, beans, cornbread, wine, beer, cigars, and fire. It was perfect ending to that journey.
The next day, Zeb went for a run and Mary went back into town for some forgotten supplies. I went for a walk on the road. We were all feeling unmotivated to hike. Still, at the crack of noon, I headed up Doubletop which was incredible. BTW, does anyone know the story of the fellow who the plaque honors up there? The views were amazing and it was really cool to look back and admire the view of what I had climbed the day before. Even though the climb was a little tougher than I wanted considering the day before, I was very glad to have done it and would highly recommend it to anyone.
The last day, we headed to South Branch Pond campsite and hiked a trail that followed the pond first and then went up a stream passing a ton of great swimming holes and ended at a waterfall. It was an easy hike great for families and tired hikers. I will do this again and will bring my bathing suit! At least I got to soak my feet. It was a great ending to a wonderful fun weekend.
So, that Thursday afternoon, Mary & Zeb met up with me in Portsmouth near my work. We loaded up Mary's Outback + pod and headed up for the long haul to Baxter. Unfortunately, we stopped at Capitol Buffet, a Chinese restaurant in Augusta and while the food was good and we tried to eat quickly, we lost some time. By the time we got to Millinocket, we knew there was no way we were making it to the gate before it closed so we did what any good hiker would do. We picked up some beer and checked into a motel.
The next morning we got up and out fairly early, which was a surprise, and headed into the park. Before too long we were at the Marston trailhead. We started up and a little ways in took the right fork that leads to Coe as I was determined to pick up all the NEHH peaks along the way since I'm closing in on that list as well. The slide was wet in places and sometimes tricky. I'm not going to kid you, it wasn't easy. We kept looking for the trail that leads off toward O-J-I but never saw it. As we were popping out we thought we had finally hit it, but in actuallity we had gone past it and were now at the summit of Coe which was a nice surprise.
After a short snack break, we were off again, heading toward South Brother. That was a great stretch of trail and lots of spots were we could gaze at Katahdin and The Klondike. Before long we reached the spur to go to the summit of South Brother and thought "Great, we're almost there". Man, that is one tough spur! There was lots of scrambling and steep climbing for a shortish spur. Finally, we hit the summit and the view was again fantastic. We took a longer break taking off our boots, eating more and lying out on a large flat boulder. Still, we were only through half the peaks for the day so on we went.
The distance to the trail junction was nothing to write about so I won't... or did I? Heading up North Brother felt so great once I was out of the trees. I just pulled on ahead motoring to the summit. Once there, on the last of the New England 4Ks that I hadn't climbed, I kissed the sign. It had been a looooong time coming. In all the preparation, I had forgot to bring Andre or The Doctor with me, but I knew we'd be celebrating plenty back at camp.
After hanging around for a little bit, we started off toward Fort (leave no stragglers). Shortly into that though, Zeb decided that it wasn't for him and turned back to wait for Mary and I on North Brother. The two of us pushed on, never finding the wy too difficult. As long as you look down, you can find the treadway. It's not a wack by any means. It's more like a badly overgrown trail. We found that on the summit ridge there were two places that looked like the higherst point and had treadway linking them, so we visited both. The views here we great too. On the way back to North Brother, my Wet Rib opened and I lost a headlamp and some food and stuff. Seriously, I need a sherpa to follow me around and pick up all the stuff I've lost! With Zeb in tow, we headed down and set up camp.
That night we celebrated with chicken, beans, cornbread, wine, beer, cigars, and fire. It was perfect ending to that journey.
The next day, Zeb went for a run and Mary went back into town for some forgotten supplies. I went for a walk on the road. We were all feeling unmotivated to hike. Still, at the crack of noon, I headed up Doubletop which was incredible. BTW, does anyone know the story of the fellow who the plaque honors up there? The views were amazing and it was really cool to look back and admire the view of what I had climbed the day before. Even though the climb was a little tougher than I wanted considering the day before, I was very glad to have done it and would highly recommend it to anyone.
The last day, we headed to South Branch Pond campsite and hiked a trail that followed the pond first and then went up a stream passing a ton of great swimming holes and ended at a waterfall. It was an easy hike great for families and tired hikers. I will do this again and will bring my bathing suit! At least I got to soak my feet. It was a great ending to a wonderful fun weekend.
