[at-l] Western Maine Peaks, Friday July 16: East Kennebago

[papabear.nyc at verizon.net (Papa Bear)]

On Friday the group split up.  Cantdog and I were going after East Kennebago while Audrey, Pat and Little Bear were going to try for Spaulding and Abraham from Caribou Valley Road (they actually did Sugarloaf rather than Abraham due to conditions).  Marge was taking the day off.  Audrey and Pat had done East Kennebago and Cantdog was with them but got separated from them and missed the summit, so today was her East Kennebago revenge.  Audrey had seen an entry in the EK log of someone who had bushwhacked along the township boundary line which crosses the woods road at about 2950' and thence to the peak.  Since anything that differs from the "normal" route intrigues me, and since Cantdog was game and would be doing the peak from another route we decided on this plan.  I had climbed the NE peak of Elephant last year from the AT starting along the county boundary line which crosses east of that peak and I liked it and it was not too hard.  Boundary lines tend to be well marked, but since they take no cognizance whatsoever of steepness or anything else for that matter, they can be "interesting".  The map showed this particular boundary rising from the woods road just south of west for about 300' and then leveling off. At the point where it reaches the height of land (about 3280') there seemed to be a broad ridge climbing steeply at first and then more gently towards the peak in a northwesterly direction.  This was our target route.

We followed the driving directions on the logging roads in from Route 16 and Cantdog was able to get onto the final woods road up to about 2350' where she parked just after an open area where another road went up to the left.  The last mile or so was rocky and slow going.

The hike up the woods road was easy going. It was grassy up above where vehicles were able to drive.  There seemed to be a lot of logging activity to the right (downhill side) of the road with alternating areas of clear cut and uncut areas and skid roads running down the slope.  This continued up to about 2600' after which we had uncut forests on both sides of the road. After hiking about 1.4 miles we reached the boundary line.  It was marked with a small cairn on the left (uphill side) and yellow paint blazes (splotches, really) on trees along the line.  It ran in a B-line diagonally up to the right.  The forest was fairly open here and the boundary line was not cleared, but was easy to follow due to it's straight line nature and the occasional yellow blaze.  It was relatively easy going.

After about .4 miles and 23 minutes, we reached the height of land and the boundary flattened out.  This was about 3300'.  We set our compass bearing from the map and headed into the woods.  The forest was mid aged with a number of older trees and an extraordinary amount of biomass underfoot.The mulch in places was 2 feet deep.  The route was fairly steep at first and there were a few thickets of younger Spruce but it was not tough going.  There were no herd paths to speak of.  This route really did seem pristine and untrodden.  We soon reached the broad ridge top and Cantdog hit the canister right on the dot.  We were just 35 minutes from the boundary line and just under an hour from the woods road.  Once again we had found an excellent route which I would recommend.

Cantdog had a very big smile when she reached the canister. Her revenge was sweet after missing this peak a few days earlier.  We saw the note in the log (http://gallery.backcountry.net/papabear_2004_East_Kennebago/aaj)  that Audrey had left on the previous Sunday: "We lost Julie!".  Cantdog (Julie) wrote a cute reply "Yeah, I'm late for dinner here".  The important thing is we made it and we felt great.  Another entry just above Audrey's said "6-21-04 Found It!! Second attempt and almost gave up today. #99 and one more to go. Now I hope I can find my car".  Yes we hope he did find his car. We had a bite to eat and then returned the way we had come.

On the way down we strayed slightly to the right (west) and found ourselves with a few "cliffy" areas.  If you try this route, err to the left on the way down, and on the way up start up from the boundary line as soon as you reach the height of land.  Don't go too far along or you'll hit a fairly steep slope. Look at the topo map and you'll see what I mean.  We were back to the woods road in about 55 minutes and back at the car about a half hour later.  The sun was making occasional appearances, we were done and it was just 12:20.

That afternoon we hiked Bald Mountain, near Audrey's cottage.  A nice "dessert" hike as Cantdog called it.  There were beautiful views from a lookout tower of Rangeley Lake and Lake Mooslookmeguntic. When we got back to the cottage, Marge swears she saw us on the tower through her binoculars from the lake shore at the cottage.  Who knows, could have been.  Oh, and we saw a moose on the drive back.  It was a nice end to a great week of peak bagging.


Summary:

East Kennebago Mountain, elevation  3791', #91 of NE HH 
Delorme Atlas: Map # 28

Driving directions: 
    - Route 16 north from Rangeley, 9.8 miles
    - Left on dirt Langtown Main Road, over bridge and right at T, .9 miles
    - Right at fork, 1.4 miles
    - Left at fork onto rocky road, .8 miles
    - Left onto "rugged" road, slow going, .8 miles
    - Park just after open area where a road goes up to the left.  Path is straight on woods road.

Topozone: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=19&n=4997062&e=373602&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

Distance on foot (one way): logging road, 1.4 miles; boundary line, .3 miles; bw, .3 miles. 
Total distance: 4 miles.

Elevation gain: 1450'

Total time: 3:29

Pictures: http://gallery.backcountry.net/papabear_2004_East_Kennebago