July 5, 2008
Today I got a chance to bag one of my missing New England 100 highest. After a 20 mile hike yesterday, I was looking forward to a much shorter hike today. This was an AMC hike headed up by Peter Broderick and George Brown. After some carpooling and car spotting, 13 of us got out of our vehicles at the end of a logging road. It was my first time hiking with all 12 of the other hikers. Before we started, Peter went over some basic compass and map skills since this hike would be a bushwhack.
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Looking up to Elephant Mountain
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We started with a walk up an old logging road.
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A few minutes later we cut into the woods.
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There was a pretty well defined herd path for quite a while but it finally petered out. We made our way up to the col where we went through a muddy area. Yours truly came out the muddiest. I lost my footing once, stepped in the mud, and one leg sank up to me knee. My boot was nearly sucked off as I pulled my self out. I'm sure glad I didn't loose my boot. That would have been fun reaching down two feet to try to find it.
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From the col we headed toward the south summit. The two summits of Elephant are very, very close in elevation. In fact, up until just a few years ago, it was believed the north summit was higher and the cannister used to be over there. Here's Brian as we worked our way through the thick trees.
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Some how I found myself at the front of the pack. It wasn't my hike so I didn't want to over step my boundaries. I checked with Peter and George, and they said I could continue. I worked my way through the woods until I stumbled across a herd path. We were getting real close, and I knew this would lead us to the top. A couple minutes later I spotted the canister where I took a picture of myself.
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The rest of the group was right behind me.
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This was #95 on my list of New England's 100 Highest. We descended over the same route. Well, for the most part. It's hard to follow the exact route on a bushwhack. We got about a quarter of a mile from our vehicles, and it was time for a decision. Most of the group decided to bushwhack over to the Appalachian Trail and then up to Old Blue. It's unusual for me to pass on more hiking, but I had already hiked that section of the A.T., and I had had a long day yesterday. Five of us decided to call it a day, while the rest continued on to Old Blue.
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Special thanks to Peter and George for heading up this hike. Five more peaks to go to complete my New England 100 Highest List! I didn't realize it until after the fact but this peak is also on my list for New England's 50 finest (peaks with the most prominence). It was peak #25 so I'm halfway on that list.
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