5/10/15 Elephant Mountain, Maine NEHH

It was a nice drive from Gorham, although it was nearly and hour and a half it went by quickly, saw a small female moose eating just inside the woods on route 5.....I always love to see wildlife. The roads are perfectly clear all the way to the parking area, there were no huge washouts, we drove all the way to the parking area in a Jeep Grand C. The start of the whack is very easy to spot as you find your way to the end of the old logging road and see the cairn on the far left corner. The drainage is the bushwhack, so we followed water probably 1/2 way up if not more? then started to turn more west and less north into the woods. There were patches of snow in the shady areas and in the thick spruce it was waste deep....but if you are patient you can skirt around most of the thick spruce, just stay to the left of it, wait it out and it will not be quite so thick or tall. I had heard that there was a deep heard path at the top but it was covered in about a foot of snow so it was not evident. I found some prints in the snow and an entry into the canister from the day before! If anyone was waiting for the road to clear so they can hike this one....go! I didn't leave much for tracks except for on top and it will be melted very soon. Don't bother with snowshoes or spikes!! As far as conditions....blow downs and sticks poking you in the face are the worst of it. The bushwhack is short and sweet! The canister was glorious to see! Anyone else think that the canister is definitely NOT on the height of land??
Debbie

I was there on 5/9/15! The best part of the hike was no bugs!! I hiked to the east peak, and realized it was the wrong peak once I got there (no canister) UGH! So I whacked over to the west peak and found the canister!! YAY! Glad your hike went well!! I obviously didn't take the most direct route, but was glad to get this one in the books! The knee deep post-holing coupled with the dog-hair spruce fir was the worst of it for me . . . 15 to go!!
Don