btausend
New member
Date of Hike - 03/10/12
Trails - York Pond, Bunnell Notch and Kilkenny Ridge Trails
I was on a group hike with about 10 others to Mt Cabot. We parked at the Unknown Pond trailhead parking lot and walked over to the York Pond trailhead. The parking lot has plenty of room and is plowed except for the inch or two of new snow.
The trails to Mt Cabot are well broken out. We wore snowshoe on our way up and most of us wore them on the way down. The trail was very firm with an inch or so of new snow on it. There was some evidence of older postholes, but they looked like from snowshoes. Most of the water crossings on the trail are not bridged, but you can easily hop over them. Be careful of the ones that are bridged. One member of our group post holed through one with her snowshoes into the water.
When we went by the old Mt Cabot trail and there were recent tracks on the trail, but I wouldn't call it broken out. On our ascent to the cabin we meet someone coming down the trail and he was the one that came up the old trail. The Kilkenny Ridge trail to the Bulge and the Horn has not been broken out.
On our way back down to the trailhead we met a group of four, a couple groups of 2 and a single hiker. Only two of these people were wearing snowshoes. The others were either barebooting it, wearing Microspikes or crampons. They all said they had no problems hiking the trail this way with no postholing. On parts of the trail you wouldn't even know people were barebooting and other places it was obvious because they were chewing up the trail. I did see a couple fresh postholes, but not many.
The morning was mostly sunny and warm. We had cloud cover for the trip back to the cars, but overall it was a very nice day for a hike to Mt Cabot.
Brian
Trails - York Pond, Bunnell Notch and Kilkenny Ridge Trails
I was on a group hike with about 10 others to Mt Cabot. We parked at the Unknown Pond trailhead parking lot and walked over to the York Pond trailhead. The parking lot has plenty of room and is plowed except for the inch or two of new snow.
The trails to Mt Cabot are well broken out. We wore snowshoe on our way up and most of us wore them on the way down. The trail was very firm with an inch or so of new snow on it. There was some evidence of older postholes, but they looked like from snowshoes. Most of the water crossings on the trail are not bridged, but you can easily hop over them. Be careful of the ones that are bridged. One member of our group post holed through one with her snowshoes into the water.
When we went by the old Mt Cabot trail and there were recent tracks on the trail, but I wouldn't call it broken out. On our ascent to the cabin we meet someone coming down the trail and he was the one that came up the old trail. The Kilkenny Ridge trail to the Bulge and the Horn has not been broken out.
On our way back down to the trailhead we met a group of four, a couple groups of 2 and a single hiker. Only two of these people were wearing snowshoes. The others were either barebooting it, wearing Microspikes or crampons. They all said they had no problems hiking the trail this way with no postholing. On parts of the trail you wouldn't even know people were barebooting and other places it was obvious because they were chewing up the trail. I did see a couple fresh postholes, but not many.
The morning was mostly sunny and warm. We had cloud cover for the trip back to the cars, but overall it was a very nice day for a hike to Mt Cabot.
Brian
