Somewhere around 12 years ago my friend and old college
roommate unsuccessfully attempted to hike Mt. Cabot twice. However, we were lucky enough to see 3 moose
and to camp at the remote Unknown Pond campsite during those trips which have made
for a couple great hiking stories. I
made a third solo trip to Mt. Cabot and managed to summit it myself. It had been so long since I had been up there and I was looking
forward to the two day one night trip Kyle and I had planned. Because the area is so far from home, the
plan was to do a 10+ mile hike to Mt. Cabot, The Horn and The Buldge on
Saturday, camp out, and hike Mt. Starr Kind and Mt. Waumbek on Sunday. Rain was in the forecast for Saturday
afternoon, but we were hoping we would dodge it.
It was the same morning drill before a hike. Up at 4 AM meet Kyle at 5, long drive up 93
to White Mt. Bagel for a breakfast sandwich. Usually once we hit Franconia
Notch the ride becomes a little less drab and mountain fever kicks in, but this
time we had another hour to go. We took
Route 3 to 115, to route 2 and then route 16 through Berlin. Once we passed Berlin, NH we saw our first
moose on route 110. Unfortunately it was
a dead one on the side of the road.
Somewhere around 8:45 we reached the Berlin Fish Hatchery gate which
supposedly closed and locked by 4PM. The
lock looked like it was covered in spider webs and hadn’t been opened in years,
but it still gave me a little anxiety in the early goings of the hike about
making it back in time. We drove all the
way to the end of the dirt road to park, gear up and swat at the bugs.
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| Kyle gearing up |
We followed the Bunnell Notch Trail for 2.3 miles to the
Kilkenney Ridge Trail. The trail was
overgrown at the beginning but easy to follow with some moderate inclines.
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| Our first view of Mt. Cabot from the trail |
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| One of many trillium found on Bunnell Notch Trail |
Once we reached the Kilkenney Ridge Trail, we saw the first
hikers of the day while following some switchbacks up to Cabot. At Bunnell Rock we ran into the rest of the
hikers group who were taking in the view.
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| View from Bunnell Rock |
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| More views from Bunnell Rock |
At about 11:00 we reached the Cabot Cabin. It was as creepy as I remembered.
The 2 couples we ran into at Bunnell Rock and their dog showed up and ended
up taking over the cabin when they closed the door behind them. Maybe
those girls were the braless hippies who wash in the river that the guy on the
Moosilauke was talking about? We were
done checking out the cabin anyway so off we went.
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| Cabot Cabin |
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| Cabot Cabin kitchen area |
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| Cabot Cabin sleeping quarters |
In about two hundred feet or so we reached the Cabot summit. We ran into a mother daughter group of 4, one of whom told us “You’re almost there” and I was like “almost where?” Come to find out the summit ended up being ahead of us and we stopped for Kyle’s obligatory photo.
We followed Kilkenney Ridge Trail right past the Horn. We lost significant elevation and then gained it all back as we headed to the Bulge and that’s where things got a little crappy. Moose crap that is! There were moose dropping all the way up to the boulders which make up the Bulge. We had to do a little bit of maneuvering through the boulders to get what were the best views of the day. It was really windy up there (40-50 mph gusts?) but the weather had only gotten better since we started in the AM.
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| Fiddleheads on the trail. You can cook these things! |
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| Moose poop! You shouldn't eat these LOL! |
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| Looking back at The Horn and Mt. Cabot from The Bulge |
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| Southerly view from The Bulge towards the Presidential Range |
After taking a long break (for us), we started making our
way down to Unknown Pond. I couldn’t
wait to get down there and take a look at the campsite I camped at so many
years ago. Kyle took off down the trail
and I leisurely made my way down to the pond.
I made a quick stop at the pond to take a couple of pictures in anticipation of
hanging out at the old campsite by the pond.
Unfortunately there were no signs of the campsite because the area was completely
different than I remembered it. I left
the pond feeling a little disappointed that I didn't get to see this old memory in person.
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| A weathered bog bridge on the Kilkenney Ridge Trail |
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| The Bulge from Unkown Pond |
After the pond we continued on Unknown Pond Trail back to
the car. Before the hike I was hoping to
see the part of the trail where I crossed paths with a moose during one of my
previous trips, but that all seemed doubtful after seeing the changes at the
pond. Once again Kyle took off and I
took my time looking for that spot.
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| Lady Slippers on the Unknown Pond Trail |
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| This reminds me of the spot where I ran into the moose on the trail. Could it be? |
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| This feeding butterfly wouldn't keep still enough for a photo. But I saw lots of butterflies on this hike |
We made it back to the car by 2:45 and started making our way to
Moose Brook State Forest to check into our campsite. The campsite manager was a bit of a
character. He got into talking about the
bears in the park and how he had used an M-80 gun to scare off a bear that was trying to get into the dumpster.
He said he shot the ¼ stick of dynamite and it went right through the
bears legs and when it went off the bear bolted off into the woods not looking back. He then went and rubbed two pounds of cayenne
pepper on the dumpster to deter the bear when it came back. Our campsite had a roof with a standing chimney
fireplace. We both worked on cutting up
a fallen pine tree to make firewood. I
spent the rest of the sunny afternoon checking out the park, drinking a couple of beers and working on getting a giant fire while Kyle called some girls and searched for some local teens on Tinder from his camp chair. The great outdoors!
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| Moose Brook State Park Headquarters |
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| "The Shelter" campsite |
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| Our fire. |
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| My Inferno! |
I think it was about 9:00 when we got into our tents and
soon after that we heard a rumble like a freight train was coming toward
us. It was rain and wind. But not only was it rain and wind, thunder
and lightning came with it and that doesn’t make for a good time when your laying
in a tent held together with aluminum poles. I
was legitimately scared for a while and needless to say didn’t get much sleep that night. Maybe a couple hours sleep all night.
That morning we woke up to a light rain. Everything was soaked and I wasn’t really up
for hiking Mt. Waumbek in the rain so we both decided to head home. And off we went.
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| The damp morning. |
I wore a GPS watch I got for Christmas from Leah. I didn't realize the heart monitor wasn't on until a couple miles in:
