Mullen & N Turner

[onestep]

Saturday Pig Pen, mhrsebago, and I hiked into Russell Pond Campground in Baxter Park. First order of business after checking in with the Ranger was to find the beginning of the old Mullen Pond tote road. Our plan for the next day was to avoid several miles of bushwhacking by following the tote road up to Mullen Pond. We had several sets of "directions" to guide us so we where able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and find it. We built a small cairn to mark its beginning.

Sunday we bushwhacked Mullen Mtn – 3463’. It was easier than expected. We followed the tote road without difficulty up to the pond. From there was a half mile whack to the summit. Our route up cheated towards the right. It got thick at times but not too bad for too long. The highlight was finding a boulder cave to go through that bypassed a wall of rock that we faced! The summit jar was missing. The weather was cool but sunny with incredible views!! We lounged around on the summit for an hour or so.

The next day we ascended N Turner -3325’ via the eastern scree slope route that DMS went up. NICE route!! The morning was rainy drizzly cold. No views from the open top. We ascended mostly open woods till the scree slope. This led us up to a thin band of thick stuff that soon opened up to more open woods. We came across another scree slope that brought us up to the thick growth of the summit ridge. A short push through the thick stuff led us to a winding open rocky "heard path" through the scrub to the summit. No views except for wind driven cold drizzle and thick misty clouds. We descended the same route we took up. By the time we reached the bottom the weather improved. The drizzle stopped and the sun was trying to break through.

Given the opportunity, I'd do either of these peaks again in a heartbeat!

Onestep

 

[dms]

Kurt, N. Turner is positively worthy of a nice weather day!! Mullen was absolutely one of the worst 3ks I did, just shows how a different approach route can make a world of difference! The list grows shorter for you!

 

[mhrsebago]

Another incredible adventure with Onestep and Pigpen... Baxter has always been one of my favorite destinations, but at peak foliage it was an especially beautiful place to spend 3 days hiking.
Another highlight was a black bear on the Wassataquoik Tr, luckily, galloping AWAY from us.

 

[onestep]

A few pic's

A few pictures here...

 

[spencer]

I'm glad you guys had a good trip and found the road okay. It's pretty damn obvious once you hit it, huh?

I'll make a plea for folks to not build cairns for such purposes in BSP.

Thanks!

Spencer

 

[onestep]

Cairns & Axe Blazes

Spencer, thanks for your help in locating the tote road. Although it starts out as a faint foot path it is very obvious if you know where to look!

The cairn we built was actually a reconstruction effort. What was a bit more interesting where the fresh axe blazes (2) marking the start of the tote road. Both visible from the NWB trail.

Onestep

 

[spencer]

That's too bad. I'm sorry to hear about the blazes. I hope that doesn't become a common theme for people working on the 3k peaks.

spencer

 

[dms]

Spencer, first of all lets not immediately assume it's 3k peak baggers doing this, in fact, I would assume the exact opposite! I have hiked with all the "generations" of the 3k folks, and the ones I know would never, ever do such a thing. I have never seen ax blazing on a trailess 3k route on any of the peaks I have done, so I think your suspicions are unfounded.

 

[spencer]

I should have stated it better. What I meant was, I hope it's not a trend that we (I'm including myself in that group) begin to find more axe blazing. I agree it's unlikely that a peakbagger carried an axe into Russell Pond, carried it to the "trailhead" and then made the blazes. I only know of only one person likely to have an axe at Russell Pond.

that being said, if there are new blazes, what's the cairn for? We don't need to contribute...

spencer

 

[onestep]

that being said, if there are new blazes, what's the cairn for? We don't need to contribute...
spencer

Spencer I agree with you. We should have dismantled the small cairn we built Saturday evening.

The 2 axe blazes are "very small" and about 10 feet in off the NWB trail. We initially missed them when scouting things out. Thats why we rebuilt the small cairn. It should have been dismantled Sunday afternoon when we finished the hike.

It's interesting though that once onto the "tote road" for only a few hundred feet it is obvious that trail maintaince has been done.

Onestep

 

[Nate]

I wonder if the park is working on putting in a new trail? Considering the BSP's recent trails, perhaps this is to be another one.

 

[Oncoman]

Thanks Onestep for sharing. You have really convinced me that I must visit those Baxter 3K pks. I truly feel drawn into that 3K list black hole, but I must keep resisting its spell...

Spencer, you are quite an Ayatollah for us bushwhackers and I compliment you in keeping our ethics code alive. After all we do want the next generations of bushwhackers to enjoy the mountains in as much as possible their virgin state. Some purists would even consider using logging rds, GPS coord. cheating. Even the act of putting up canisters or cairns on wild summits could be debated. I for one, who plans to do all 1K pks of Québec including 15 or so pks in the Torngats, have no intention of placing any distinctive mark of my passage on those remote northern summits.

Pierre

 

[Pig Pen]

Great weekend, but you forgot to mention that big black dog on the whatyamacallit trail.