I went for a hike with a group up to Caribou Mountain in Evans Notch yesterday. Despite living in the area for years I had never been there. I was quite surprised. Definitely a great hike. Caribou sits at the Northeast corner of Evans Notch region. The summit area is quite an extensive set of open ledges with 360 degree views including a view south to Long Lake and Sebago lake which is normally blocked by Pleasant Mountain in Maine. The views over the Mt Washington and the Northern Presidentials as well as north up along the Kilkenny's are unexpected. There is still plenty of leaf cover in the surrounding hills but definitely getting past peak. There is a nice loop up Mud Pond Trail and then back down the Caribou trail.
I was with some redliners, so we did an out an back to the easterly trailhead. This leg of the trail starts at the height of the land at the junction of the Mud Pond trail and the Caribou Trail. It runs down through an unusual steep walled canyon populated by yellow birches with minimal understory and eventually ends up a dead end trailhead on a FS road that come in from RT 2.
The one caveat with hiking in this area is that trail blazing is very minimal to non existent even outside the wilderness boundaries. The trail bed is generally quite apparent and usually follows drainages but in some spots where the trail takes a sharp turn it can lead to some searching. The biggest trail finding issues are the extensive summit ledges. There are signs warning hikers to stay on the trail to avoid damage to the alpine zone but the lack of blazing and cairns and the trail not necessarily going in a straight direction probably leads to more degradation of the alpine zone, so the lack of blazing in wilderness area is at cross purposes to alpine zone protection. Someone at one point did put some yellow arrows on the rocks but they are somewhat faded in places and are spotty at best. We did run into a local who had hiked up from the easterly trailhead in winter, I expect its worth hike but with pen woods down low and no blazing without a GPS track I expect it might be a challenge to find the route.
We were quite surprised by the number of other hikers on the trail. A group of hikers from Denmark Maine who do weekly hikes was doing the loop as well as couple of other parties were out enjoying the day.
Overall a hidden Gem
I was with some redliners, so we did an out an back to the easterly trailhead. This leg of the trail starts at the height of the land at the junction of the Mud Pond trail and the Caribou Trail. It runs down through an unusual steep walled canyon populated by yellow birches with minimal understory and eventually ends up a dead end trailhead on a FS road that come in from RT 2.
The one caveat with hiking in this area is that trail blazing is very minimal to non existent even outside the wilderness boundaries. The trail bed is generally quite apparent and usually follows drainages but in some spots where the trail takes a sharp turn it can lead to some searching. The biggest trail finding issues are the extensive summit ledges. There are signs warning hikers to stay on the trail to avoid damage to the alpine zone but the lack of blazing and cairns and the trail not necessarily going in a straight direction probably leads to more degradation of the alpine zone, so the lack of blazing in wilderness area is at cross purposes to alpine zone protection. Someone at one point did put some yellow arrows on the rocks but they are somewhat faded in places and are spotty at best. We did run into a local who had hiked up from the easterly trailhead in winter, I expect its worth hike but with pen woods down low and no blazing without a GPS track I expect it might be a challenge to find the route.
We were quite surprised by the number of other hikers on the trail. A group of hikers from Denmark Maine who do weekly hikes was doing the loop as well as couple of other parties were out enjoying the day.
Overall a hidden Gem
