May 19, 2009
Eric Fernald, a co-worker of mine, mentioned there was a small mountain near where he lived named Black Cat Mountain. I checked it out on my Delorme map and realized it was just within biking range. After work, I made the 18 mile bike road down Route 26 then Route 11 and finally North Raymond Road. If you are going to climb this mountain I suggest parking on North Raymond Road. From Route 11 and North Raymond Road head south for a couple of miles until you pass Cassie Lane. Shortly after this you will go passed some wet lands. Right after that there is an unmarked dirt road. Since I was on my bike, I figured I would keep riding as far as I could. A quarter of a mile in or so it became to difficult for my road bike although a mountain bike could have continued. There are several places where ATV/snowmobile trails intersect with the road. Just stay on the main road and keep going up. I saw this signing confirming that I was headed the right way.
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There were scattered patches of pavement indicating that at least part of this road was paved at one time.
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This little mountain had a respectable climb considering its small size. It had about 500 feet of elevation gain.
OK, who's good at flower identification? Gary Tompkins responded to my question identifying the flowers in the two photos below.
Columbines
Violets
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There was a huge antenna near the top. Here is the base of it . . .
. . . and here is the top of it.
Not only is Gary good at flower identification. He is good at antenna identification. He looked up the antenna in some database to find out that it services WFNK - Lewiston, 107.5. The tower is 155 Meters, or about 504 Ft tall.
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Looks like I might get a view
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Partial view near the summit
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Another minute and I was at the 820' semi-rocky, wooded summit. I did manage to find a small view. If a few trees were removed, there would be a great view of Upper Range Pond.
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Maybe I'll come back in winter sometime. A few feet of snow might just get me high enough for a better view. I returned over the same route staying on the move since the mosquitos were ferocious.
Black Cat Mountain from North Raymond Road.
I then made the long bike road home getting home at dark.
Here's the track from the hike.
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