| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
White Cap, Kennebago Divide, ME |
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 | Trails: |
road walk, ATV trails, bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, July 16, 2018 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Bear Brook Rd is washed out 1.3 miles north of Wiggle Brook Rd. Recent washout, impassible. Driving north from Wiggle Brook Rd, no problem for .6 miles. Right after that is a minor washout. My F150 got through that no problem, but another hiker turned his Honda back at that point. At about the 1.3 mile mark, major washout of Bear Brook Rd, 2'-3' deep ruts and not enough consistent room on either side to pick one. Backed up my F150 from that point and parked .6 miles north of Wiggle Brook Rd to get started. Up above the washout I noted is worse, culverts missing in 2 areas with 15'-20' gaps in the road and broken in 2 other places. Even if you could drive past the 1.3 mile mark you could only make it to around 2.5 miles before a hard stop. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
My phone fell out of my pack on the bushwhack between the ATV trail coming down from White Cap and Kennabago Divide summit. Amazingly, we retraced our steps and found it at one blowdown area we had to scramble over. |
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 | Comments: |
What I thought would be a fairly quick up and back to bag these 2 peaks turned into much more due to the additional road walk and then challenging bushwhacking to Kennebago Divide. Random connection with Scott from Alfred, NY at the beginning of the day and we decided to hike together, had a real nice time and I think we helped each other out very well during the day. Stats from where I parked at the washout on Bear Brook Rd... 12.4 miles, 5:23.
Deets... Nothing to the road walk except it's hella long!!! Adds well over 3 miles to the up and the back. Nice day for a road walk in such a beautiful place, but would rather have gotten the miles in on another peak somewhere. Most trip reports put this hike in the 5.1-5.75 mile range. We made a few navigational errors once off the road that added some distance too. The plan was to do K Divide first, then follow Dan & David's route from 6/23/18. But we went into the woods at a cairn on the left I think a little higher than they did (3250' for us vs looks like about 3200' for them). We followed pink tape and I think that got us to their upper path, which we then mistakenly followed as it swung to the right. We ended up back on the atv path up to White Cap, so changed plans to climb that first then K Divide. Easy up to White Cap on the atv path, although Scott was convinced we were off track a few times. Coming down we moved right (south) at about 3450', same place we had come out of the tape trail on the way up. But we took a herd path that started to move more west before devolving into nothingness, so returned to the atv trail. Decided to go down to 3200' to try a different route, but ended up back at 3250'. Here's where we got stupid, we basically followed a parallel path to the first time we went up that and came out at 3450' on the atv path again!! At that point Scott took a compass reading towards K Divide and we decided to just push through the woods. After a brief period of that we found some reasonably clear herd paths and some pink tape, and from there to K Divide summit was easy. Got back to 3450' pretty easy too, then just down the atv path to about 2800' where this hike usually starts, then 3+ miles back out Bear Brook Rd. |
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 | Name: |
Joe Connelly |
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 | E-Mail: |
joeconn4@comcast.net |
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| Date Submitted: |
2018-07-17 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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