poison ivy
Well-known member
While it poured for the entire drive from Massachusetts to Maine on Saturday, when I arrived at the boat launch parking lot in Oquossuc at 8 a.m., the skies were starting to clear. Soon, Oncoman arrived, after having hiked East Kennebago that morning and we were quickly joined by Amicus, sal and her husband Mark. Everyone but Oncoman jumped into my car, which has 4WD, and Pierre followed us as we headed up Route 16 to Morton Cut-off.
I always seem to have trouble navigating the logging roads and this was no exception, despite having printed out directions from BobandGeri’s Web site. I managed to drive us right up to the Wiggle Brook access for Cupsuptic Snow after making a wrong turn… so we turned around and Oncoman led us the correct way this time (and very nicely pointed out that his DeLorme is newer than mine, hence more accurate… really I just cannot navigate logging roads to save my life.) A short way down the two-mile logging road, Oncoman joined us in my car because his car wasn’t high enough to effectively deal with the rutty spots -- the road had numerous washouts and logging debris scattered about. We continued down the road, stopping at a small washout about a half-mile from the “impassable washout” described on their site. The road looks passable to the “impassable washout” if you are braver than I am and not worried about hurting your husband’s beloved truck.
We geared up and got on the trail at around 10 a.m., heading up the road which was framed with a multitude of wildflowers. Everything from bluets to wild strawberries to devil’s paintbrush to lupines grew in abundance along the road, all frequented by a variety of butterflies. It was really easy to follow even as the road narrowed since is lined with pine trees making it hard to go astray. Many of us had planned for a rainy day hike and were happy to see the blue sky mushrooming out from the gray clouds. However, I didn’t bring the sunscreen and it became very hot and sunny as we cruised along the road. It was a little buggy in the wet spots so we tried to keep moving and I resorted to DEET a couple of times.
As we hiked up the road, we passed a very obvious herd path leading in the direction of North Kennebago Divide, which we decided would be our second hike for the day. Oncoman said we should take that herd path down from the peak, which sounded like a great, though improbable idea. Along our route we passed a few other herd paths in the general direction of NKD, including one marked with a large stick covered with lots of red and white flagging.
As the road started to peter out, we found a small cairn marking the start of a herd path. After checking our compass bearings to ensure that it was the route to Whitecap, we followed the herd path -- Mark in particular has a good eye for the paths, even in spots where it was pretty invisible to me. We soon found ourselves at the summit canister for 3,856-foot Whitecap -- celebrating sal and Mark’s first ever bushwhack. This was peak number 94 for me and 73 for Amicus (everyone else is not quite obsessed enough to know the number off the tops of their heads.) After a snack break, we headed back down the herd path to the logging road.
We descended a bit but decided to start our bushwhack up North Kennebago Divide from higher up on the road than the earlier herd paths we saw. It was really easy going -- on an overgrown path and we soon reached a very discernable path, which we followed to the col between the two peaks. Everyone took a turn leading and although we had one or two areas that were pretty thick but we always managed to find the path again after a couple of minutes. It was a pretty easy trek up to the summit, thanks to Oncoman’s eye for herd paths and Amicus’s excellent compass work.
While heading through one of the sprucey areas, Oncoman discovered a lone moose antler, which had been gnawed on by some animal or another. It was the first time I’ve seen a moose antler (not attached to a moose of course!) We soon made it up to the summit canister for 3,775-foot North Kennebago Divide, my 95th peak on the NEHH and Amicus’s 74th. The pair of hikers who had last signed the register had finished the NEHH here after hiking Whitecap, Boundary and NKD on 6/21.
We stopped for another snack break before discussing our route down. We decided to retrace our steps and follow the herd path back down to the col. Oncoman led us down the path -- only losing it once or twice, but we quickly found our “wrong turn” and headed back to the col. From there we followed another path, which descended rather steeply but quickly brought us back out the road right at the herd path Oncoman had pointed out on our way up. We marched back down the road and arrived back at the car at 4:30 p.m. Most of us headed out for the long drive home, but Oncoman headed over to add Cupsuptic Snow to his growing list of hikes completed on Saturday.
Pictures from the hike can be found here.
- Ivy
I always seem to have trouble navigating the logging roads and this was no exception, despite having printed out directions from BobandGeri’s Web site. I managed to drive us right up to the Wiggle Brook access for Cupsuptic Snow after making a wrong turn… so we turned around and Oncoman led us the correct way this time (and very nicely pointed out that his DeLorme is newer than mine, hence more accurate… really I just cannot navigate logging roads to save my life.) A short way down the two-mile logging road, Oncoman joined us in my car because his car wasn’t high enough to effectively deal with the rutty spots -- the road had numerous washouts and logging debris scattered about. We continued down the road, stopping at a small washout about a half-mile from the “impassable washout” described on their site. The road looks passable to the “impassable washout” if you are braver than I am and not worried about hurting your husband’s beloved truck.
We geared up and got on the trail at around 10 a.m., heading up the road which was framed with a multitude of wildflowers. Everything from bluets to wild strawberries to devil’s paintbrush to lupines grew in abundance along the road, all frequented by a variety of butterflies. It was really easy to follow even as the road narrowed since is lined with pine trees making it hard to go astray. Many of us had planned for a rainy day hike and were happy to see the blue sky mushrooming out from the gray clouds. However, I didn’t bring the sunscreen and it became very hot and sunny as we cruised along the road. It was a little buggy in the wet spots so we tried to keep moving and I resorted to DEET a couple of times.
As we hiked up the road, we passed a very obvious herd path leading in the direction of North Kennebago Divide, which we decided would be our second hike for the day. Oncoman said we should take that herd path down from the peak, which sounded like a great, though improbable idea. Along our route we passed a few other herd paths in the general direction of NKD, including one marked with a large stick covered with lots of red and white flagging.
As the road started to peter out, we found a small cairn marking the start of a herd path. After checking our compass bearings to ensure that it was the route to Whitecap, we followed the herd path -- Mark in particular has a good eye for the paths, even in spots where it was pretty invisible to me. We soon found ourselves at the summit canister for 3,856-foot Whitecap -- celebrating sal and Mark’s first ever bushwhack. This was peak number 94 for me and 73 for Amicus (everyone else is not quite obsessed enough to know the number off the tops of their heads.) After a snack break, we headed back down the herd path to the logging road.
We descended a bit but decided to start our bushwhack up North Kennebago Divide from higher up on the road than the earlier herd paths we saw. It was really easy going -- on an overgrown path and we soon reached a very discernable path, which we followed to the col between the two peaks. Everyone took a turn leading and although we had one or two areas that were pretty thick but we always managed to find the path again after a couple of minutes. It was a pretty easy trek up to the summit, thanks to Oncoman’s eye for herd paths and Amicus’s excellent compass work.
While heading through one of the sprucey areas, Oncoman discovered a lone moose antler, which had been gnawed on by some animal or another. It was the first time I’ve seen a moose antler (not attached to a moose of course!) We soon made it up to the summit canister for 3,775-foot North Kennebago Divide, my 95th peak on the NEHH and Amicus’s 74th. The pair of hikers who had last signed the register had finished the NEHH here after hiking Whitecap, Boundary and NKD on 6/21.
We stopped for another snack break before discussing our route down. We decided to retrace our steps and follow the herd path back down to the col. Oncoman led us down the path -- only losing it once or twice, but we quickly found our “wrong turn” and headed back to the col. From there we followed another path, which descended rather steeply but quickly brought us back out the road right at the herd path Oncoman had pointed out on our way up. We marched back down the road and arrived back at the car at 4:30 p.m. Most of us headed out for the long drive home, but Oncoman headed over to add Cupsuptic Snow to his growing list of hikes completed on Saturday.
Pictures from the hike can be found here.
- Ivy
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So which peak will be #100? 
