Saturday November 13, 2004

Boundry & Gosford (Canada)

Today's hike took us into Canada to hike a mountain on the boudry between the United States and Canada, and a Canadian peak in the afternoon.

This is the route we took today up to the summit of Boundry Peak.

Directions to the trailhead: From STratton Maine, follow Rte 27 into Canada. Contiune on fr @ 3 miles into Woburn and take a left onto Rte 212. About 2 miels later take a left onto a dirt road with a sign at the end for "ZEC Louise Gosford". in 3.8 miles you will come to a guard house on the left. Here you will pay a $5 charge per car. From here, pass through the gate and follow the dirt road across a stop sign - pass the trailhead for the Gosford trail at 3.8 miles. Take that left fork at 6.3 miles and park at the gravel pit at 8.3 miles.

Time to summit: 1:30

The 8.3 mile drive from the gate was exciting. We had been told that there was 18 inches of snow at the trailhead. At the guard hose the was maybe an inch of snow, but as we went further down the road the snow level increased. By the time we reached the trailhead we were driving through a foot or more of snow.

We were joined by Julie (aka Cantdog) and Richard (aka Papa Bear).

We donned our snowshoes at the start of the hike, and were very glad Richard had called ahead and asked about the snow conditions.

The trail starts uphill quickly warming you up in the first 10 minuntes.

The trail is easy to follow and only had a few trees laden with snow that were across it. The temp when we started was 12 degrees.

This was the only spot where we had to negotiate trees.

Here is Julie at the clear cut boundry between the United States (on the right) and Canada.

Geri making her way in the snow. She has a hunter orange bandana on as it is hunting season, although none had driven in as far as us, so we were not concerned.

The Canadian side of the bundry is lined with hunting blinds such as this one.

Here we are making our way towards Boundry Peak which you can see in the background. Here we found 2 - 3 feet of snow in most places.

This clearcut runs the entire length of the border between the two contries.

Crossing into Canada was easy - they only asked where we were going and if we had warm gear when we told them we were hiking. They did not ask for any ID.

Returning to the United States was a differant story. At the border they asked for ID's and asked each of us where we were born. They really didn't even check the ID's very carefully.

Some of the hunter blinds were very nice with materials brough up via ATV and trailers.

The dining room table! :>

Geri enjoying the warm sunshine before the final ascent to the summit.

Our destination.

The border is also marked with these mounuments. This is number 446.

The summit of Boundry Peak with the cannister in the background.

Geri filling out the registration.

The view looking East into the United States.

Here we are before donning our packs and heading down to the car.

Our next stop was the trailhead for Gosford.

There was less snow here, but due to all the snow of the morning hike we decided to take our snowshoes with us.

There was a bridge to cross a river right away.

At first the trail was fairly clear of snow, but with some ice you could avoid by walking on the sides.

We crossed several more brooks as were made our way up the trail. The trail is well marked and easy to follow without a knowledge of French.

Geri cooling off. You can see that trail is now snow covered. The marking for the trail can be seen on the left.

We caught up with two Fench Canadian hikers.

A little over halfway there! Just to the right of this out of camera range was a leanto shelter.

The trail is fairly gentle most of the way, but there is one very steep section.

Getting closer!

The final part of the trail is narrower as it passes through a field of spruce trees.

It then comes out onto a bare summit that has wind shelters and a small tower.

Here is Geri at the summit.

The views from the summit were wonderfull.

Julie climbing the stairs to the tower. We didn't stay long as it was very windy. If you hike Boundry Peak, this is a good afternoon hike that is only a few miles away.

One more look around.

Geri and I - a little cold, but very happy.

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