tomcat32
Active member
After reading several TRs and articles on the Fort plane crash I decided I wanted to check it out. I had done the Brother-Coe Loop a couple times so I was there strictly to find the crash site.
We left about 8am from the trailhead and got to North Brother about 10am. There was 4 cars at the parking lot and we passed a group of Quebecois taking a smoke break part way up and saw another group of Quebecois at the summit. (Three of the cars had Quebec plates)
The trail was mostly dry up until the North Brother Trail which had its typical water flowing down it but not too heavy. Literally a few snow patches but none that had to be stepped in. The bugs were a little pesky at parking lot but they never were an issue once we started walking. From the summit we took a couple of zoomed photos to help spot the planes tail shining in the sun. We think we could see it but not 100%.
The "whack" to Fort was marked with a few cairns above treeline from N Brother until it came upon the spruce. I had my map and compass but the trail was not hard to follow most of the way and there were many views of Fort along the way. Although a few sections were thick, some sections were better than some wilderness area trails I've traveled. The path was dry and there were a few pockets of snow with maybe only a couple steps in the snow the entire distance. As we reached the near peak of Fort, more cairns led us to the West Peak of Fort. From here you are in very low scrub and can basically see across the entire summit ridge. Two minutes later brought us to the high point and the old radio from the plane. Not much is still readable on the radio but the GE stamp in the metal is still easy to see. A few more minute brought us into thicker higher scrub that required a little search for the herd path.
The whack to the crash is much thicker. Occasional flagging confirmed our route. About an hour after leaving the summit of N Brother I could see the tail through the woods. The bulk of the wreck seemed to be in this area. We looked around and found scattered debris including part of a landing gear and an engine but thick spruce made it tough to get to each piece of shinyness we could see. We struggled to get through some thick stuff around the wreck.
Getting back up seemed harder to follow the path. I think we had more shadows so we stumbled off the "path" a few times. We ate lunch on the bare section of Fort before returning. Again it seemed more difficult to follow due to more shadows. By this time there were a few more bugs on N Brother but they seemed more pesky than biting. (It did reach 84 in Millinocket so it was quite warm on the summit) Shortly after 3 pm we reached our car.
I"m glad I checked out the wreck but I was hoping to see more but thick spruce made it very tough to get around away from the main area of wreckage. Fort is an interesting summit with a broad area above tree line and nice views.
We left about 8am from the trailhead and got to North Brother about 10am. There was 4 cars at the parking lot and we passed a group of Quebecois taking a smoke break part way up and saw another group of Quebecois at the summit. (Three of the cars had Quebec plates)
The trail was mostly dry up until the North Brother Trail which had its typical water flowing down it but not too heavy. Literally a few snow patches but none that had to be stepped in. The bugs were a little pesky at parking lot but they never were an issue once we started walking. From the summit we took a couple of zoomed photos to help spot the planes tail shining in the sun. We think we could see it but not 100%.
The "whack" to Fort was marked with a few cairns above treeline from N Brother until it came upon the spruce. I had my map and compass but the trail was not hard to follow most of the way and there were many views of Fort along the way. Although a few sections were thick, some sections were better than some wilderness area trails I've traveled. The path was dry and there were a few pockets of snow with maybe only a couple steps in the snow the entire distance. As we reached the near peak of Fort, more cairns led us to the West Peak of Fort. From here you are in very low scrub and can basically see across the entire summit ridge. Two minutes later brought us to the high point and the old radio from the plane. Not much is still readable on the radio but the GE stamp in the metal is still easy to see. A few more minute brought us into thicker higher scrub that required a little search for the herd path.
The whack to the crash is much thicker. Occasional flagging confirmed our route. About an hour after leaving the summit of N Brother I could see the tail through the woods. The bulk of the wreck seemed to be in this area. We looked around and found scattered debris including part of a landing gear and an engine but thick spruce made it tough to get to each piece of shinyness we could see. We struggled to get through some thick stuff around the wreck.
Getting back up seemed harder to follow the path. I think we had more shadows so we stumbled off the "path" a few times. We ate lunch on the bare section of Fort before returning. Again it seemed more difficult to follow due to more shadows. By this time there were a few more bugs on N Brother but they seemed more pesky than biting. (It did reach 84 in Millinocket so it was quite warm on the summit) Shortly after 3 pm we reached our car.
I"m glad I checked out the wreck but I was hoping to see more but thick spruce made it very tough to get around away from the main area of wreckage. Fort is an interesting summit with a broad area above tree line and nice views.
