onestep
New member
Rollie and I approached these 2 peaks from Rt 118. While not the shortest approach to Kineo, we took what mother nature had to offer (a ton of snow) and made the best of it...
We started out following / 'whacking the Hubbard Brook trail from 118. Along the way where many water crossings that proved interesting. While not that wide they all looked like canyons. Their snowbanks where up to 4-5 feet high on each side.
We reached the unplowed forest road at the end of the HB trail and followed it to the Mt Kineo trail. We took this trail up to the SE ridge of Kineo. (yeah it's a long way around... in the summer we could have drove to the Kineo trail head saving 3-1/2 miles of snowshoeing)
We left the trail just prior to the height of land and 'whacked through mostly open hardwoods. We encountered a band of thick spruce protecting the ridge top. After pushing through it we found slightly better conditions atop the ridge. The final push N to the summit was again thick but by staying low and skirting to the W we avoided most of the nasty stuff.
We where surprised to find a sign marking the summit. No doubt about this bump! The PVC canister looked new. The bottom plug was hard to remove. It took a couple of good whacks with a hiking stick (and a few choice words) to break the sticktion. Last entries where from late fall / early winter...
We dropped off Kineo towards the ENE in the general direction of the unplowed forest road. The woods where more open on this side but a lot steeper. Made for some great glissading. Once back on the road we followed it to it's conclusion at the SW base of Cushman.
The steep 'whack up Cushman was fatiguing. The first 2/3 of it was through mostly open hardwoods. The final third was steeper and thick with spruce. When we reached the flat summit ridge we where greeted with good views in between nasty thick patches of spruce. Fortunately the snowpack was consolidated... this place could be spruce trap hell under less than ideal conditions.
After struggling the length of the summit ridge Mark finally spotted a piece of orange flagging! There it was, the PVC canister and a jar. They where attached to a dead spruce right at snow pack level! There must have been 5-6 feet of snow up there.
The canister looked new, a twin to the one on Kineo. In order to open it Mark had to dig a hole in the snow underneath it. This time the bottom plug unscrewed easily.
Instead of following our tracks back through spruce trap alley, aka hell, we dropped off the summit through slightly more open woods. We headed downhill through the path of least resistance, always cheating R when possible, and finally came upon our ascent route. We followed our snowshoe tracks back to the logging road, Hubbard Brook trail, across the canyon lands, and to the car.
All told it took us 11-1/2 hours round trip. We finished under headlamp.
some pics here
We started out following / 'whacking the Hubbard Brook trail from 118. Along the way where many water crossings that proved interesting. While not that wide they all looked like canyons. Their snowbanks where up to 4-5 feet high on each side.
We reached the unplowed forest road at the end of the HB trail and followed it to the Mt Kineo trail. We took this trail up to the SE ridge of Kineo. (yeah it's a long way around... in the summer we could have drove to the Kineo trail head saving 3-1/2 miles of snowshoeing)
We left the trail just prior to the height of land and 'whacked through mostly open hardwoods. We encountered a band of thick spruce protecting the ridge top. After pushing through it we found slightly better conditions atop the ridge. The final push N to the summit was again thick but by staying low and skirting to the W we avoided most of the nasty stuff.
We where surprised to find a sign marking the summit. No doubt about this bump! The PVC canister looked new. The bottom plug was hard to remove. It took a couple of good whacks with a hiking stick (and a few choice words) to break the sticktion. Last entries where from late fall / early winter...
We dropped off Kineo towards the ENE in the general direction of the unplowed forest road. The woods where more open on this side but a lot steeper. Made for some great glissading. Once back on the road we followed it to it's conclusion at the SW base of Cushman.
The steep 'whack up Cushman was fatiguing. The first 2/3 of it was through mostly open hardwoods. The final third was steeper and thick with spruce. When we reached the flat summit ridge we where greeted with good views in between nasty thick patches of spruce. Fortunately the snowpack was consolidated... this place could be spruce trap hell under less than ideal conditions.
After struggling the length of the summit ridge Mark finally spotted a piece of orange flagging! There it was, the PVC canister and a jar. They where attached to a dead spruce right at snow pack level! There must have been 5-6 feet of snow up there.
The canister looked new, a twin to the one on Kineo. In order to open it Mark had to dig a hole in the snow underneath it. This time the bottom plug unscrewed easily.
Instead of following our tracks back through spruce trap alley, aka hell, we dropped off the summit through slightly more open woods. We headed downhill through the path of least resistance, always cheating R when possible, and finally came upon our ascent route. We followed our snowshoe tracks back to the logging road, Hubbard Brook trail, across the canyon lands, and to the car.
All told it took us 11-1/2 hours round trip. We finished under headlamp.
some pics here
