peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
I have lived in the northcountry for years and just never have gotten around to doing these summits (and I still havent) . For anyone who has driven in on York Pond Road to Cabot these mountains are to the North after you pass Deer Mtn. The actual summits arent anything special but each has an impressive cliff band that runs just below the summit. I had been up Cabot recently for the thrid time in 3 months and decided it was time to vist these two summits.
Using the updated USGS mpas with the WMNF ownership updates and more importantly the fire road locations I drove to the end of Spruceville road in Milan to the gate which incidentally is the start of the rarely hiked (except for redliners) West Milan Trail. Very soon I was climbing my way up on the north side fo the peaks via a logging road system in excellent condition. There were a few odd counter intuitive turns but they were shown well on the USGS maps. About the only wildlife signs I saw was lots of moose signs and some turkey tracks. The road appears to be a popular snowmachine trail and in some spots there was still an ice layer but the majority of the road was clear.
Eventually the official maintained fire road stopped at large landing but an older but really well built road continued on with evidence of past cuts. It ran all the way to a saddle just north of the Square and Greens ledge. There was a fairly recent cut south through open hardwoods. Plenty of moose sign and stripped maple nibbled down and some raspberry canes. I had originally planned to hit the col between the summits so I diverged out of the hardwoods into increasingly denser spruce/fir woods and the blowdowns interspersed with fresh growth made for slow going. I made it up toa broad saddle between the two summits but given the consitions I ended up heading up Square Mtn slabbing a bit to the north back into the birches, then followed them up to a sknny section of the saddle approx 200 feet of elevation short and about 200 yards east of the summit (which looked quite dense). I came out on narrow part of the saddle with a big flat granite ledge that jutted out a bit so I got a good view of the Square Mtn ledges which appeared to be quite interesting. I also got a nice view of the Northern Presis peaking over Deer Mountain.
At that point I looked at the watch and decided to head out as given the conditions on the saddle between the summits, I expect I would have been out for a couple of more hours to get to Greens ledge. I got to my main objective which was a view from the ridge.
Now the next objective one of these days is Deer Mtn, immediately to the south.
Overall a nice way to spend a sunny day in the spring. I expect Mtn bikers could bike all the way to where I turned off the old road if they were willing to duck a few blowdowns.
Using the updated USGS mpas with the WMNF ownership updates and more importantly the fire road locations I drove to the end of Spruceville road in Milan to the gate which incidentally is the start of the rarely hiked (except for redliners) West Milan Trail. Very soon I was climbing my way up on the north side fo the peaks via a logging road system in excellent condition. There were a few odd counter intuitive turns but they were shown well on the USGS maps. About the only wildlife signs I saw was lots of moose signs and some turkey tracks. The road appears to be a popular snowmachine trail and in some spots there was still an ice layer but the majority of the road was clear.
Eventually the official maintained fire road stopped at large landing but an older but really well built road continued on with evidence of past cuts. It ran all the way to a saddle just north of the Square and Greens ledge. There was a fairly recent cut south through open hardwoods. Plenty of moose sign and stripped maple nibbled down and some raspberry canes. I had originally planned to hit the col between the summits so I diverged out of the hardwoods into increasingly denser spruce/fir woods and the blowdowns interspersed with fresh growth made for slow going. I made it up toa broad saddle between the two summits but given the consitions I ended up heading up Square Mtn slabbing a bit to the north back into the birches, then followed them up to a sknny section of the saddle approx 200 feet of elevation short and about 200 yards east of the summit (which looked quite dense). I came out on narrow part of the saddle with a big flat granite ledge that jutted out a bit so I got a good view of the Square Mtn ledges which appeared to be quite interesting. I also got a nice view of the Northern Presis peaking over Deer Mountain.
At that point I looked at the watch and decided to head out as given the conditions on the saddle between the summits, I expect I would have been out for a couple of more hours to get to Greens ledge. I got to my main objective which was a view from the ridge.
Now the next objective one of these days is Deer Mtn, immediately to the south.
Overall a nice way to spend a sunny day in the spring. I expect Mtn bikers could bike all the way to where I turned off the old road if they were willing to duck a few blowdowns.
