Mt. Cabot, Bulge, and Horn

hikerfast · Sep 28, 2004

Saturday went up to Gorham, met the person I hiked with, and followed route 16 into Berlin, there is no sign for route 110 west. The sign is ON route 110 AFTER you make the turn. I saw the sign looking to the left and swerved to make the turn. After about 8 turns thru residential neighborhoods trying to follow route 110, I headed towards Stark. I saw the hiker sign and took a left onto Mill Brook Road. This road is about 4 miles to the Unknown Pond Trail. There was some note about 8/10 past a closed gate, but the gate was open. I found the trailhead for Unknown Pond and headed up the trail. It was a bit muddy but not bad at all. Shortly it headed up at a moderate grade thru a pretty birch forest. After a couple miles it leveled off and I came to the junction with the Kilkenny ridge trail. After checking out the beautiful view of the horn from unknown pond, we headed up towards the horn. The trail to the horn is unmarked as of now. You bang a left and in a few we summited the horn. It was hazy and gorgeous. Another hiker showed up and took our picture. Clouds came over Mt. Cabot as we were there eating. We headed back down to the Kilkenny ridge trail, and went downhill, then up the bulge, where there were no views. We headed down to the bulge cabol col and started steeply up and came out on Mt. Cabot. A hiker came up and announced he had finished his 48 at the summit. It should be noted that the Kilkenny ridge trail is not marked here, and coincides with the Mt. Cabot trail going south, where it branches off later to head towards Waumbek. It is marked going back to the horn, but not well. We went back down and up the Bulge, then at the Horn trail(unmarked) junction decided to head down as it was still hazy. About 11 mile day and I would definitely recommend that as a nice way up. The hiker on top of Cabot had come up Bunnell Notch trail, and said the mud wasn't bad, and that a LOT of work had been done recently to the trail. I avoided that route after reading the horrible descriptions on here. The hiker on the Horn had come up the unknown pond trail from the other end, from York Pond Road, and said it was a good route. Great day all in all. Unfortunately on my ride home my alternator ceased charging and I ended up with no headlights at the southbound rest area. I fixed my car with my checkbook on Monday.

Tom Rankin · Sep 28, 2004

This past April, 6 of us did just the opposite trip. The trail was ok. There was some mud, but not too bad. A good bit of it was still snow covered. The outhouse on the summit was still surrrounded by 5 feet of snow!

Decent views from Cabot, and whichever one is the bushwhack, if you climb up on the large rock at the top.

MichaelJ · Sep 28, 2004

Nice trip - I'm glad you enjoyed that route up! It's definitely underrated. Sorry about the haze; if you ever have a chance, revisit the Horn in clear weather.

And congrats to you, mystery finisher on Cabot!

hikerfast · Sep 28, 2004

oh I've been up the horn in nice weather. I was there on a stark day 3 summers ago. First time I went up Cabot was March 1 1987, it was snowing like crazy. Back then there was no trail to the bulge and the horn. We compassed our way over. I remember the horn was like a needle. I was glad to see the great view 3 years ago. This time it was surreal

MichaelJ · Sep 28, 2004

Tres' cool!

amstony · Sep 28, 2004

I did that route in August, definitely a nice hike. Getting to the trailhead on Mill Brook took forever coming from down south. But it is definitely an underutilized trail route to Cabot, Buldge and Horn. I think we passed one college group camping and 2 hikers on it all day.

Tony

Tesno · Sep 28, 2004

We did the loop up Bunnell Notch and out Unknown Pond on Sunday. When we got to Cabot it was fogged in but when we got over to the Horn it had cleared out and the views where great. That makes 47.