Morning Hike

Ever since Katka and Adam hiked back over Burleigh in the days before the summit trail I've been wanting to do it too.
I'd hiked a couple of times as far as Mud Pond but never had time to go further. This morning I busted a move and made it past that point to the summit of what I think is Hershey Mountain.
I love the south side of Burleigh - it really feels different. It has much more of a northern Maine feel, lots of signs of wild life and logging and skidoo trails.

On the hike in I saw signs of moose, deer, beaver, chipmunks, grouse and fox.

Mud Pond doesn't have much of a name but I actually find it quite lovely. It's obviously been a stop over spot for loggers, campers, hunters and hooligans of all sorts.

From there it was a relatively simple matter to find a side trail that hooked up with a skidoo trail. I was making for the next high point south from Burleigh so I figured there would be some kind of trail at least part of the way.
From there it was some off trail bushwacking uphill looking for the easiest path. About halfway up the hill I saw some orange flagging tape that looked like it might be a trail.
Sure enough after loosing the trail a few times I followed it up to the summit.

Check it out - just like Katka and Adam had reported back in the day there was a little cabin up there!


Sarah was coming back into town so I beat feet back half running and half sliding back down.

Great hike to an amazing and isolated spot - amazing views to Ragged Mountain, Cardigan Mountain, Lafayette and Flume. Remarkable and just what I needed after this lousy week.

I felt tired, happy, renewed and inspired.

The back 40

A few days ago around when we had that first snow I took a hike up to the summit via the new trail and then bushwacked down the back side. I'd been meaning to do this for some time so it was pretty exciting to finally do it.

The back side of the mountain is much steeper down to a high valley, so you don't drop down nearly as far as on the north side where the ski slope was.

Once you get away from the steep sides there is a very nice pine band with lots of level spots that would be great for camping. After that there is a tangle of old logging roads - hard to say what's being used now. These thread their way to a pond just south of the summit. Mountain pond is off to the east of this but the pond doesn't have a name on the Delorme Atlas. Russ thought it might be called Mud Pond. I recognized it from a previous hike I'd taken with Shaffer years ago from the Old Bristol Road side.

There was some sign of logging activity but the snow was fresh and there weren't any recent tracks. So I'm pretty sure there hadn't been anybody back there in a few days anyway.

It's been a bad year for snow machines - maybe this last storm today will help open some of the northern trails - I would doubt there is enough down our way yet.

I had wanted to continue on up Hershey Mountain the next one south of Burleigh - but I was running out of time so I threaded my way back basically in my own trail. I lost my trail as I was approaching the ridge and came up onto the summit from the east. From there I was able to regain the trail and make it back in time for lunch.

Deer and small rodent tracks everywhere.

I didn't take any pictures unfortunately - but it was a great hike and one I'd like to do again soon. It would be beautiful with the snow we have now.