Paradox
New member
- Joined
- May 29, 2006
- Messages
- 2,268
- Reaction score
- 314
NKD(#54) and WC(#55)
I did not get as far as I wanted this weekend, but Chips, Zippy and I had a great time hiking in Maine and along the US/Canadian border. We left the house here in Central New Hampshire at 6:30 or so, and drove up the 150 miles or so to spend the night at the trailhead. Saw two moose on the way, one off to the right of the road, the second one I had to slam on the brakes to miss her by 10 feet. A mapping GPS and the newest edition of the Delorme Maine Atlas make navigation on these roads a breeze. I must admit the signage on these roads is great, Boston should be so simple to find your way around. I want to thank: Nate, Raymond, onstep, bobandgeri, and Papa Bear for their notes and TR's. They were of considerable help in saving time and gasoline.
We got to the trailhead for White Cap/NKD described by bobandgeri about 9:30 pm (19 T 359292 5006542). I inflated the mattress and turned in about 10:30 pm. We slept in the back of my Ford Explorer. It has just the right kind of space to sleep a 6’3” human and two 70 lb Labrador Retrievers, and it handled the rough, dirt roads of backcountry Maine without a problem.
We got up around 6 am, and hit the trail about 7:00am. We had gone only about 100 yards when what should come loping down the trail right at us but a large black bear. I got off two quick photos from about 100 yards. I then yelled “HEY! HEY BEAR!” He looked at us for less than a second, turned tail, and ran back up the trail.
The next two miles or so was very interesting in that, I would pass through some very warm patches of air for five seconds or so, and then some very cold air then back to what felt average, then warm again. This country was very different than hiking in the Whites. The ground is very soft and easy on the footzies, most grades are very easy, and there are many boggy areas.
After about 2 miles at WP UTM NAD27 19T,358302, 5009377, 2860 feet we turned left to go up NKD. Un-maintained trails took us quickly to: 357859, 5009154, 3248 feet where we took some pictures and turned right. We were on this herd path for only a short time when I turned around to see a very nice view of CoP Snow, which I recognized from the presence of the remains of a fire tower visible with binoculars. After another .10 miles I began looking intently up the hill to my right looking for a herd path to allow me to make a beeline for the summit. I found one at: 357732, 5008910, 3502 feet after about 100 feet, I began to think that I had not found a good one because the spruce became extremely thick in short order. After pushing my way for a few hundred feet I noticed that I had lost the business end of one of my hiking poles that I had tied onto my backpack. It must have been pulled out by one of the branches. The other pole-end was on the verge of being lost. I tried to find it on the way out but no such luck. I reached the canister about 8:40am signed in, took a few pictures, and took the older registers, leaving only the newest. The oldest one had been there since 1992 and was getting pretty beat up, I’ll be in contact with Bill Bowden as to how to proceed with this register. This canister is very small and the simple act of taking the notebooks in and out beats them up.
I went down the way I came up as the herd path seemed to be the best way toward White Cap and I wanted to find my pole tip section. I found FORK5, 19T, 357787, 5009377, 3274 feet. But there wasn’t much more than open woods to follow and soon came to a very steep rise I had to climb. It was in my head that I needed to work my way further Northeast and eventually found a pretty good trail at TRAIL 01, 19T, 357801, 5009778, 3275 feet that took me right up the hill. By TRAIL 2, I was over the height of the col and knew I had to start climbing again as I worked my way Northwest. I had some aerial photos of the area which indicated a cleared area (possibly a slide) that extended due south of the summit. I eventually forced my way over there and did find evidence of a very old slide which I took for a short stretch to the top. I signed in, took a picture of boundary and decided to head back to the car. There is a distinct trail leading WSW from the summit for almost half a mile. Belive it or not I found two Bud Lite cans up here on this trail. I rinced them out, and put them in Zippy's pack (she collected six beer cans over the course of the weekend.) Eventually the trail and herd path system end up in some pretty nasty spruce. It is a pretty tough fight to get down that hill until you eventually meet up with the old logging road again. The round trip was 8.3 miles and took 6 hours and 5 minutes.
When we got back to the car I changed into some clean clothes, fed the dogs, policed up the area, and made the 60 minute drive into Rangely for a beer and a burger at Sarge’s. After some other shopping in town, I headed back to the Cupsuptic area. There will be a TR on Boundary Mountain posted sometime soon.
pictures
I did not get as far as I wanted this weekend, but Chips, Zippy and I had a great time hiking in Maine and along the US/Canadian border. We left the house here in Central New Hampshire at 6:30 or so, and drove up the 150 miles or so to spend the night at the trailhead. Saw two moose on the way, one off to the right of the road, the second one I had to slam on the brakes to miss her by 10 feet. A mapping GPS and the newest edition of the Delorme Maine Atlas make navigation on these roads a breeze. I must admit the signage on these roads is great, Boston should be so simple to find your way around. I want to thank: Nate, Raymond, onstep, bobandgeri, and Papa Bear for their notes and TR's. They were of considerable help in saving time and gasoline.
We got to the trailhead for White Cap/NKD described by bobandgeri about 9:30 pm (19 T 359292 5006542). I inflated the mattress and turned in about 10:30 pm. We slept in the back of my Ford Explorer. It has just the right kind of space to sleep a 6’3” human and two 70 lb Labrador Retrievers, and it handled the rough, dirt roads of backcountry Maine without a problem.
We got up around 6 am, and hit the trail about 7:00am. We had gone only about 100 yards when what should come loping down the trail right at us but a large black bear. I got off two quick photos from about 100 yards. I then yelled “HEY! HEY BEAR!” He looked at us for less than a second, turned tail, and ran back up the trail.
The next two miles or so was very interesting in that, I would pass through some very warm patches of air for five seconds or so, and then some very cold air then back to what felt average, then warm again. This country was very different than hiking in the Whites. The ground is very soft and easy on the footzies, most grades are very easy, and there are many boggy areas.
After about 2 miles at WP UTM NAD27 19T,358302, 5009377, 2860 feet we turned left to go up NKD. Un-maintained trails took us quickly to: 357859, 5009154, 3248 feet where we took some pictures and turned right. We were on this herd path for only a short time when I turned around to see a very nice view of CoP Snow, which I recognized from the presence of the remains of a fire tower visible with binoculars. After another .10 miles I began looking intently up the hill to my right looking for a herd path to allow me to make a beeline for the summit. I found one at: 357732, 5008910, 3502 feet after about 100 feet, I began to think that I had not found a good one because the spruce became extremely thick in short order. After pushing my way for a few hundred feet I noticed that I had lost the business end of one of my hiking poles that I had tied onto my backpack. It must have been pulled out by one of the branches. The other pole-end was on the verge of being lost. I tried to find it on the way out but no such luck. I reached the canister about 8:40am signed in, took a few pictures, and took the older registers, leaving only the newest. The oldest one had been there since 1992 and was getting pretty beat up, I’ll be in contact with Bill Bowden as to how to proceed with this register. This canister is very small and the simple act of taking the notebooks in and out beats them up.
I went down the way I came up as the herd path seemed to be the best way toward White Cap and I wanted to find my pole tip section. I found FORK5, 19T, 357787, 5009377, 3274 feet. But there wasn’t much more than open woods to follow and soon came to a very steep rise I had to climb. It was in my head that I needed to work my way further Northeast and eventually found a pretty good trail at TRAIL 01, 19T, 357801, 5009778, 3275 feet that took me right up the hill. By TRAIL 2, I was over the height of the col and knew I had to start climbing again as I worked my way Northwest. I had some aerial photos of the area which indicated a cleared area (possibly a slide) that extended due south of the summit. I eventually forced my way over there and did find evidence of a very old slide which I took for a short stretch to the top. I signed in, took a picture of boundary and decided to head back to the car. There is a distinct trail leading WSW from the summit for almost half a mile. Belive it or not I found two Bud Lite cans up here on this trail. I rinced them out, and put them in Zippy's pack (she collected six beer cans over the course of the weekend.) Eventually the trail and herd path system end up in some pretty nasty spruce. It is a pretty tough fight to get down that hill until you eventually meet up with the old logging road again. The round trip was 8.3 miles and took 6 hours and 5 minutes.
When we got back to the car I changed into some clean clothes, fed the dogs, policed up the area, and made the 60 minute drive into Rangely for a beer and a burger at Sarge’s. After some other shopping in town, I headed back to the Cupsuptic area. There will be a TR on Boundary Mountain posted sometime soon.
pictures
Last edited:
![Yellowstone National Park [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kGuJ72qjL._SL500_.jpg)
![Grand Teton Day Hikes and National Park Map [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DB0jvRnbL._SL500_.jpg)
