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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Mullen Mountain, ME
Trails
Trails: Wassataquoik Lake Trail, bushwhack
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Sunday, July 5, 2020
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: We walked Nesowadnehunk Field 
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment:  
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Not quite rock hob-able, some splashing, on the way in for crossing Little Nesowadnehunk and on way out hell it was raining so hard we just walked through its water since nothing mattered anymore 
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: Trail clear, could use some brushing in a few places 
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: No pets allowed in Baxter, nor firewood or fireworks 
Bugs
Bugs: Legendary black flies, deer flies and dinosaur flies  
Lost and Found
Lost and Found:  
 
Comments
Comments: We hit the trail at 5:30 am and zoomed along thinking we needed to go almost all the way to Center Pond, nearing the pond I bet we walked on almost a mile of bog bridges before we realized, um, we are in a swamp. We back tracked to where the bog bridges had begun and headed East, just about on the contour map where 1600'contour line is pointy, that is where we crossed the Center Pond drainage. This was thick with moments of short lived open areas until we climbed back up to 1600, we avoided the swamp! We enjoyed more open woods as we hiked aiming for below Bald's north side's tighter contours. We got a little lower and we were in some tight stuff for a long time but not too tight. Woods greatly improved as we headed up on the east side of Mullen's ridge (wasn't what we had planned but we went East a tad further than we had planned). Decent woods, it is a steep climb and between boulder bands we got lucky and snaked our way up to the summit with little stress. Very cool summit and it was something to look up at Fort! Surprisingly I got a text message out here, service was strong but in and out. We hit the summit at 12:15 and we took a good lunch. Bugs bad but I was learning the Maine way to just ignore them. Our luck just kept getting better after almost effortlessly snaking our way back down the boulders and staying on the west side of the ridge off the steeps we found more open woods. We stayed higher to just to the north side of the col and since we could hear Thunder far off we decided it wasn't our day to summit Bald. We stayed higher and continued west aiming back to our starting point and we learned if we had only been another 100 or 200' higher on our way in we would have found good woods. We were feeling blessed to have found open woods all the way back to nearing the drainage. We didn't make it back to the trail before buckets of water were being dumped on us and the thunder was loud above our heads. A Mommy Spruce Grouse spooked me and hissed at me in the wet thick dark woods. On the trail we put on rain jackets to hold in a little heat as we kept moving. We made a good team figuring out this long hike/whack. If we ever go back for Bald we know the way now. Back at Camp Cozy at 6 pm. Another long day and Lew is just one peak short of completing his Maine 3k list. And we'd get that the next day.  
Name
Name: Nordic_Gal, LewDow 
E-Mail
E-Mail: amybike@gmail.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2020-07-08 
Link
Link: https:// 
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