On our third and final day of our hiking trip to Maine we decided on leaving a short hike for last: Saddle back and The Horn. On Monday August 28th the sun finally shone and we finally had some dry conditions to hike in. We drove from the Cathedral Pines Campground to the base lodge of Saddleback Mountain Ski hill and walked up the obvious gravel road. There are a couple of hiking specific trails up the ski hill in the summer but they aren't well marked. There was lots of action was going on on the ski hill preparing for this winter's ski season. The sound of ski run vegetation being cut back was the dominant noise with whipper snippers and chainsaws in action. There was also a construction project for a mid-mountain hut being built and we also saw a micro-hydro dam project that was used to generate power for the hill's snowmaking. Somebody is definitely investing in this hill!

A winding 1500ft climb ended at the chairlift at the top. I looked over to my left and was startled to see a large bull moose walking under a chair! I shouted to my husband "Moose LEFT!" and I quickly pulled out my camera to take a shot. Normally I see moose in lowland swamps and never have I ever seen one this high before. Once we made some noise, I was sure it was going to do what moose normally do which was to run for cover. Instead, this bull continued straight on his path....right towards us! It was evident he wasn't intimidated! Glenn and I decided to scurry a few steps up the hiking trail that leads to the actual mountain summit and wait for him to pass. Sure enough, the bull walked by looked at us and kept going. He was only 30meters away! We were pretty excited about this animal encounter that we had not expected in the least!! 

The hiking trail leaves the ski hill just to the right of the chair and leads up to join with the Appalachian trail. You need to turn left here and continue over a few knolls to the Saddleback mountain summit. Here we met a few AT hikers having a break and drying out in the sun. We took some summit shots and told our moose story and headed back along the trail towards The Horn. 

The descent path down to the col in this section has got a few scramble-y moves that reminded me of Adirondack slab hiking. The rock here in parts was wet which made some moves even more tricky. The ridge here is exposed and so is the col and ascent on the other side. The col is mostly on exposed rock. The ascent up to the Horn is bit friendlier requiring less grunt work. The summit of the Horn is amazing. Both summits offer 360 degree views but the Horn's is my favourite. I definitely could have stayed there longer. We ate our lunch there and drank in the views. We chatted again with some of the AT hikers we met on Saddleback and one new one. I pointed out where they were headed as you could see the cell towers on Sugarloaf in the distance and could also see Spaulding and the Crockers. I have always been curious about thru-hiking and asked a few questions but could have asked many more. We had lingered enough in the sun and then parted ways and returned back to the Saddleback summit passing many other groups.

We dropped down to the ski hill and took the road down again and ended our hike reflecting on how great the hiking is in Maine. It's a shame I only have one more summit in Maine left (Old Speck). Up to 88/115 peaks!

​Stats:
Distance: 13km
Elevation: 2975 feet
Time: 4 hours, 20 minutes

.The first part of the adventure is on this day was the drive in to the trailhead. Caribou Pond Road is let's say, not the most car friendly road. After a wet summer of 2023, there were numerous ruts and wash outs to negotiate the best line through. Luckily a slow drive and 6km later, we found the gate and the parking lot and were on our way.

We started our walk in past the gate on the logging road and started up the AT to South Crocker. A short 2.1 mile ascent starts gradually to the campsite area, then steepens up and then relaxes a bit again before the summit. The ground and rocks on this day were pretty saturated still from the rain 2 days ago and the the sky was still quite cloudy and the air was humid. Sweat dripped off us pretty fast on this day and so we took of our hats and kept our brisk pace going. We passed a slower group of 3. 

We reached the summit of South Crocker but turned right immediately and headed to North Crocker. A couple of fast AT hikers passed us (2 young guys) who seemed to be having a great time. A sizeable descent insued on some looser rock and then up again to the treed summit of North Crocker. We sat down here for small lunch break and summit photos.

Back down the trail we just came up and back up to South Crocker, we went over to the viewpoint and summit area to see a glimpse of the ridge we were on yesterday in the distance. Clouds were starting to part and the sun was beginning to shine. Here we took a couple of photos and then pulled out the map and compass to get ready for our unmarked trail hike over to the third 4000 footer of the day, Mt Redington. We found the flagged herd path off the summit of South Crocker and headed down. In other trip reports, this trail was described as bushy and hard to follow. On our day, it was pretty nice most of the time with some really minor overgrown conifer areas. The flagged trail was pretty well defined and there were only a few logs to climb over and under. I found it better than most ADK herdpaths. We hit a logging road part way and turned left, then right at the cairn. We took a lovely ascent trail up to the Redington summit where we met 3 others on their descent down. We found  the summit and the small wooden sign on a treed summit with a small view. The sun had come out and with a large area with nicely placed logs, we took some time to eat another snack and drink some water. Now about 10km in, we had to decided if we wanted to re-trace our steps back to South Crocker and take a shorter way out or take a longer alternative route on logging roads out. We chose the latter. 

On the descent from Redingtion there is a junciton part way down before returning to the logging road and cairn from the ascent. We turned right here, and took a lovely knee friendly dirt trail ramp through thick forest. It linked us up with a logging road and we followed the flags out to Caribou Pond and back along the river back to the car.

Stats:
Distance: 18.64km
Elevation: 3300ft
Time: 6 hours 22 minutes

ttAfter a 7 hour drive down to Maine from Ontario, we settled into a tent site at the Cathedral Grove campground near Eustis. The forecast for the evening was no ideal as the remnants of Tropical Storm Hilary that hit California earlier in the week were moving their way across the continent. The overnight downpour was very heavy and combined with the oversaturated ground from a generally wet summer,  the mud and puddle abundance was at an extreme level.

At 7:30AM on Saturday August 26th, we met Greg from All Points Transportation at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain to shuttle us over to the Rapid Stream Trailhead near Mount Abraham. The shuttle ride cost us $90 USD, but it was worth it to save the extra mileage of doing an out-and-back hike as well as wear and tear on our car on the Rapid Stream 'road'. 

We began the hike at 8:15AM up the Fire Warden's trail that was a nice gradual hike up for the most part. We cross about a half dozen streams that were all flowing at max spring-like flow after the rain the night before. All were easily passed. After the last stream, the incline started to rise and sweat started to roll off our skin at the near 100% humidity in the forest. Finally we popped out onto a boulder field and got glimpses of our first views of the day. Thinking we were nearing the top, we continued up the exposed rock and even back into trees and out again before actually reaching the summit. Low lying clouds were still  lingering and our summit views were partially obscured. The summit of Mount Abraham has pieces of an old fire tower lying around as well as a large summit cairn and sign. It took us 2.5 hours to reach the summit and 3000 feet of ascent. The forecast was calling for a potential thunderstorm in the afternoon and so instead of taking our usual summit break, we scurried off the unprotected summit down into the trees and took our first break en route to the Appalachian trail. Sections of the trail through here were gorgeous - green moss, nice soft dirt trail, easy going. There are a few rock piles to get through as well so as with most New England trails, it isn't ever totally easy.

We reached the Appalachian trail and met up with a few thru-hikers, backpackers and day hikers  - our first people sightings of the day. We headed towards the Spaulding lean-to where the trail became more saturated and puddle like in the col. The trail up to the Spaulding summit was wet and when we took the short 150yd spur trail to the summit we were back in a cloud and had no views (there might not be any from this treed summit anyway). The summit sign on this mountain says 3988ft, and I am assuming needs to be updated as it's included on the 4000 footer lists.

We re-traced our steps off Spaulding and regained the AT on a ridge towards Sugarloaf. This section was longer than what the map had said in terms of distance by 600m. We turned right and climbed about 600ft to the summit of Sugarloaf, where we met up with a few groups enjoyed a break and looking at views of the ridge. We took some photos from the summit cairn and tried not to get the many buildings, cellphone towers, Helipad, or chairlifts in the shots. Luckily the thunderstorm forecast did not arrive and we were getting a brief period of sun and a view of the entire ridge we had just hiked. Seconds later we were engulfed in a cloud and rain started to come down on us. We quickly threw on our Goretex shells and wolfed down our last bite of zucchini bread and headed down the Tote Road trail to the base. This gravel road is loose and steep initially and only when it started to ease did I look at my watch to figure out that I must have stopped the GPS tracking of the hike at the summit when I rushed to put on my rain jacket. I re-started it but lost 1km of tracking. Luckily Glenn had his full track on his watch so we have some accurate stats. The total descent down the ski hill was a steep 2100 foot leg burner! Glad to have these three in the bag!

Stats:
Distance: 21km
Elevation: 4985ft
Time: 8:07 hours

A full Pemigewasset loop backpacking attempt has been in my mind for many years. As a peak bagger looking to check off 4000ft mountains, it gave me the opportunity to bag 10-12 more summits as well as a challenging backpacking route that I could test my legs and lighter weight backpacking gear on. A summer plan came together at the beginning of August 2023, and off we went over the border and down. The attempt was ultimately UNsuccessful so read on to find out why!

After a 7 hour drive plus a 1 hour border crossing delay down to the Lincoln, New Hampshire area, we found ourselves scoring the last campsite at the Hancock campground. This first come first served campground is right across from the Lincoln Woods trailhead and the trailhead we would be using to start the loop. The forecast was cooler than average for August with daytime temperatures being in the single digits celsius with partly cloudy for two days and a chance of rain for the third. 

Wednesday August 2nd, 2023

After paying our $5/day parking fee via credit card at the machine at the Lincoln Woods parking area, we headed off to start our counterclockwise loop at 7:45AM. The first 8km of trail is very easy and flat with only some old railroad ties left to lift your legs over. We walked swiftly averaging a 5km/hour pace and then finally started up a nice gradual ascent along side the Black Brook.  I left the trailhead with 23lbs on my back including water and food and Glenn at 29lbs. I had invested in lighter weight backpacking gear in recent years, and it was making a significant difference in the speed I can hike with a full pack. At the 12.5km mark, the trail rose more steeply with some rock steps to huff and puff up.

Before we knew it we scrambled up a small rock cliff and soon after recognized the alpine scrub vegetation associated with most New England summits. The summit of Bondcliff at 4625 feet is absolutely stunning - a large open rock covered area with 360 degree views of the entire Pemi Range and beyond. We decided to have lunch here. As we sat at the amazing scenery, I noticed 2 small white airplanes in the distance that didn't sound like a Cessna so I was wondering what type of aircraft it might be. Turned out we were in for a treat! Three military aircraft like the Blue Angels or Canada's Snowbirds were out on a training flight. They flew right between us on the summit of Bondcliff and the adjacent summit Mount Bond in the col and entertained us with some cool acrobatic maneuvers flying sideways and buzzing all around us!

After a quick photo shoot on Bondcliff's rock feature we continued down into the wide open col and up to Mt Bond. So far this direction of travel has worked out really well as the ascents are all fairly gradual. That said, my hiking legs were already in good shape after a backpacking and hiking trip to Iceland in July of 2023. Mt Bond's summit was very small and crowded so we only stayed long enough to find the summit marker and take a photo. The next objective of the day was to get a camp spot at the the Guyot (pronounced Ghee-oh) campsite. We arrived at 2:15PM and early enough to score a tent platform all to ourselves.  We set up the hiking pole tent (Durston Xmid 2) with some McGyvering and emptied most of our pack and downed some filtered water and snack food. The work wasn't done for the day though...we still had the summit of nearby West Bond Mtn to do. 

We took a low key stroll up the ascent from the campsite and up another hill to the junction off the main ridge trail. West Bond has a small rocky summit and is only 0.5miles off the main ridge trail. Now late afternoon, most of the traffic we had seen on it's peak all day had disappeared and we enjoyed the summit all to ourselves for about 10 minutes before a few more fellow campers came out to check it out.

Back to the campsite, we returned to find most of the 10 tent platforms and sleeping shelter full and before long they were completely full on a Wednesday night! After some socialization and dinner at the bear caches, the temperature dropped we migrated to our warm sleeping bag cocoons. The damp conditions made it feel like 3 degrees celsius!

Day 1 totals:
Distance: 23km
Elevation gain: 4685ft
Hiking time: 6 hours
Overall with rest breaks: 7.5 hours

​Thursday August 3rd, 2023

After checking the forecast the night before on my Garmin inReach, we noticed that the forecast had changed since we last checked Tuesday morning. Now calling for the chance of rain and thunderstorms on Thursday after 3PM and continuing all day Friday, we realized we may need to change our goals for the trip. The third day of our trip was supposed to be on the Franconia Ridge section of the loop which is the highest and most exposed section - a place that I don't want to be in a  thunderstorm. We decided to change our plan and try to pack in as many summits as possible before the weather tanked. We decided to get up at 5AM and were on the trail by 6:20AM.

We continued on the Pemi Ridge trail counterclockwise over Mt Guyot and decided to take a spur trail out to Zealand Mountain. The trail out to Zealand drops over 600 feet before rising again towards the summit. The rocky trail descent required some brain concentration which was a challenge for before 7AM in the morning after instant coffee! When we arrived at Zealand's treed summit at 7:40, we found a tent set up and someone still inside sleeping. Without speaking we took a couple selfies and a swig of water and headed back the way we came to the main ridge trail, taking us 2 hours to complete this side mission. Here we met a woman we had crossed paths with before doing a photo shoot with her dog, who had just completed all 48 of New Hampshire's 4000ft mountain summits.

The next hour or so was a fairly flat traverse over to the monster summit of South Twin with another ascent up to it's summit. Now on the Appalachian trail, we saw some thru-hikers on the trail headed the opposite direction as well as some hikers that had slept in the Galehead hut the night before. We got to the open rocky summit at 4902ft and we were not alone. The summit was rather crowded this morning so we took a selfie at the sign and immediately left for our second spur trail of the day to North Twin Mountain. The first half of the path over to the North Twin was much easier than the one over to Zealand earlier in the day. I called it 'mud and scrub' or full of mud puddles and scrubby alpine trees that brushed our arms as we walked by. We zoomed through this initial section and down into the col but then the paced slowed climbing up some rock scrambles and through a forested trail. I wondered if the summit was ever going to appear. Finally at the junction sign we took the very short worthwhile outlook side trail to confirm the summit only 40 minutes after we had left South Twin. From this lookout, we could see the Galehead hut and feel the wind picking up and see the clouds moving in. I doctored Glenn's second heel as he was feeling another hot spot emerge and wanted to stay ahead of it before a huge blister formed. I had taped the other one the day before. It was only 10:40 AM, but we were over 4700 feet of elevation and needed to start thinking about what our plan for the afternoon would be. 

Back over to South Twin, the summit was almost empty so we decided to sit down to re-fuel and catch our breath. The views from this summit were spectacular and we took them in for as long as we could. The wind was definitely strong and if we weren't hot from the 12.7km of hiking we had already done at that point we would have been putting on a layer. We continued on the loop down a steep rocky boulder 1000 foot descent down to the Galehead hut. We could feel our legs jittering after all the braking we had to do on the descent. At the Galehead hut our suspicions were confirmed: the weather was indeed tanking and in a matter of a couple of hours, it would be raining and possibly thunderstorming. The 'chance of rain' forecast I had read days ago had turned into a 'Flood watch' and 90% chance of thunderstorms both for Thursday afternoon and Friday. We had a few Plan B's in mind: either to camp at the Garfield camp and hike out the next day, hike down into the Thirteen falls campground and complete a version of the loop in the valley, or three, hike out the Gale River and hopefully catch a shuttle or ride back to our car. We decided on the Gale River option.

Before we hiked out, we took the 0.5mile trail up to the unspectacular Galehead Mtn summit. This short trail was one of the shortest and quickest hikes I have done to a 4000ft mountain. With no views, we spent about 10 seconds at the rocky summit cairn! Back down to the hut, we treated ourselves to a piece of berry crumble cake for $2 a slice and then headed back to the ridge trail. We saw a few groups and families coming to the hut for the night. Turning off the ridge trail I was sad to let go of my goal of doing the entire loop and knocking off 10-12 summits, but it was the safest decision and one I know I won't regret when I finally am up on Franconia Ridge on day that is sunny. The Gale River trail starts out steep and rocky descending quickly but then mellows out to a soft dirt trail which was a welcome change for our knees and feet that had been pounding on rocks all day. 

We arrived at the parking lot at 4PM and knew we had missed the last shuttle at 2:20PM.  We found a couple in a car that knew of some potential shuttle drivers. As I was getting phone numbers, Glenn was talking to a couple of university aged girls that had finished the trail and one was willing to drive us around to the other side of the loop! We were elated we found a drive within 5 minutes of arriving at the trailhead! We enjoyed a outdoorsy convo on the road and paid her for her time and promised to pay it forward. As it turned out it did rain and thunderstorm all evening and overnight and into Friday morning and we were comforted that we made the right decision. It won't be hard to return to this beautiful part of the world to finish the Pemi range at some point in the future.

Day 2 Total:
Distance: 23.3km (watch battery died exactly 1km before parking)
Elevation Gain: 3323
Time: 9:34hrs including rest time

Combined total: 45km, 8008 ft elevation gain, 17 hours of hiking.
Now up to 80/115 NE list and 28/48 NH summits