Saturday Oct 30, 2004

Cupsuptic Snow

Today's hike was a peak on the NEHH list in Maine starting 12 miles from Rte 16 via logging roads.

This is the route we took today up to the summit.

Directions to the trailhead: From Black Brook Cove Campground on Lincoln Pond Road 18 miles east of Errol, NH follow Lincoln Pond Road to a fork at 4 miles where you bear right. At 7.9 miles you will pass a memorial site for a B17 WWII plane that crashed in the area. At 10.8 miles turn right. at 14.2 miles cross a bridge over Cuscuptic River. At 15.1 miles turn left onto Burnt Mountain Rd. You will now see West Kennebago in front of you. At 24.7 miles bear right at a 3-way intersection. At 26.8 miles you will come to the end of the road and the start of the hike.

Time to summit: 2:00

This is the profile of the hike to the summit from our GPS.

This is the part 1 of the route to the start of the hike.

This is the part 2 of the route to the start of the hike.

This is the part 3 of the route to the start of the hike.

A 3-D view of our hike.

The memorial site of a B17 that crashed here in 1944 - this was 7.9 miles from the campground via logging roads.

We were suprised to come across the memorial here in the middle of nowhere. The crash of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber occured while being ferried from Kearney, NE to an aerial Point of Embarkation near Bangor, ME for shipment overseas. This was the crews final move before being dispatched to the European Theater for action. Last contact was at 1055 when its position was established between Albany, NY and Manchester, NH. After circling the area around Rangely Lake for approximately 1½ hours, the B-17 crashed into Deer Mountain 500 feet below the summit. Conclusions of the investigating board were that the pilot was definitely lost since they were off-course, possibly due to radio failure when they encountered a thundershower in the area, and "the pilot got confused to such an extent that he possibly became panicky.

14.2 miles from the campground we came across this campsite next to the Cupsuptic river. The campsite can be reserved by contacting the Cupsuptic Campground on Rte 16.

The road crosses the first of several bridges.

Quite the bridge considering where we are - many of these bridges have been re-built by snowmobile clubs.

West Kennebago in the distance.

The end of the logging road and start of the trail we are taking today.

Julie at the 1st of two rock slab areas. Notice the sunshine! It was suppose to rain today, but once again we managed to have a great day of hiking and stay dry.

Geri at the 2nd rock slab. It was 27 degrees when we left the camper this morning, but had warmed up to 42 degrees by the time we started the hike.

The start of the bushwack. We were able to follow herd paths for much of it. We did see signs of someone doing the Hansel & Gretel technique - except with pieces of toilet paper tied to tree limbs :<

The cannister on the summit - the bushwack mostly followed moose trails, although we did encounter a couple of sections of thick spruce trees.

Geri removing the register to sign it - this was number 88 for us on the list of the 100 highest peaks in New England. Julie was here in July but wanted to join us when she heard we were doing some bushwacks this weekend.

There are a couple of old bones at the summit. We also saw a piece of a vertebrae close to the start of the trail.

Geri and Julie relaxing before we head back down.

We saw several grouse throughout the day, but this one posed for us for some time. Guess it knew we didn't have guns. We did see many bird hunters while driving on the logging roads.

But when it realized we were not going to share our food, it decided to look elsewhere.

During the bushwack descent we walked right into this cute bunny.

So few people hike this mountain we assume that it has never seen humans. We admired it for some time walking around it as close as 5 feet. It seemed to be curious about us - or maybe it could smell the carrots in Geri's pack - which she didn't share. Poor thing has probably never had a carrot :<

After we returned to the car we decided to explore the logging roads north towards the Wiggle Brook Bridge. The first bridge we came too was easy to cross.

Just on the other side is a small washout that smaller cars may have trouble with.

Just around the corner was another bridge which was replaced two years ago.

And a third that although rough looking was easy to traverse and safe.

We ran into a couple of local hunters we showed us how to get across this brook. We decided not to follow them! They did tell us that this area of woods was logged @ 25 years ago. Trees grow slowly here due to the short warm season.

We successfully reached the west side of the river where Wiggle Brook Bridge used to be. This is a 26 mile drive from Rte 16 via the Morton Cutoff, but should be navigable by most cars. Certainly saves having to cross the river and long road walks.

On our return trip we stopped at Big Falls. Exploring the many miles of logging roads is very intersting. If your ever in the area and need a good way to kill a rainy day, grab your DeLorme Atlas and enjoy.

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