Mt Cabot - Someone "missed it by that much"

For those old enough to catch the reference, I expect a hiker who climbed Mt Cabot with his Golden Retriever is probably going to come to the realization at some point that he really didnt climb to the "top" of Cabot. I hiked on Saturday (3/31) with a couple of other folks and there was 1 to 2" of snow on the way up the cabin. We barebooted up past the intersection of old Mt Cabot trail, occasionally encountering hard ice covered with snow so it was time for microspikes. There was a hiker with a happy golden retreiver ahead of us but as we stopped to enjoy the sun at Bunnel Rock we didnt encounter them until the cabin where they were coming back from the summit. Once we headed out from the old tower spot, the snow was a bit deeper and filled in the many postholes and monorail. As usual its easy to get turned around up on the summit ridge and some of the long term blowdowns added a bit of interest. I did see evidence of some hand saw work I did last year on some of them, but one of these days, a chainsaw could get a good workout. I also got to meet one of Petchs coworkers from Sebago, who was out fo fill in his yearly 4000 footer list, as I was with two speedy hikers, it was nice to hike with someone with a moderate pace for awhile and it turned out that he is potential future neighbor.

One of the other hikers in our group was in the lead and were following the hiker and his dog's tracks. I was in the back but my "radar" indicated something odd near the summit. Within 100 feet we came out in fairly open clearing much larger than I remembered with no sign or signage. At that point I did a quick backtrack and found the actual trail to the traditional summit complete with sign. As I was breaking a fresh trail and there were no tracks coming from any other direction I expect the prior hiker missed the summit "by that much". The spot where he turned around was the blowdown patch about 100 west from the summit sign. Hope he wasnt working on the grid. As we were headed down, it had warmed up and the sun had burned off most of the fresh show. We ran microspikes down to just past the junction with the closed portion of the Mt Cabot trail (which has signs of recent use). We took off the microspikes as they started balling up and barebooted the rest of the way down. As usual Bunnel Notch trail is wet in spots and some of the wooden puncheons are rotting out.

While we parked at the trailhead, I noticed the fish raceways were loaded with brookies. Its interesting how tuned they are to being fed. Even walking along the outside of the fence it was obvious that every fish was swimming towards me. Must be interesting when they are released, since they appear to be adapted to swimming towards the person standing on the banking.

Nice report. It will be a shame if he thought the cabin was the actual summit of Cabot. Maybe, there was something else going on. We may never know, unless he sees your report and responds. I wouldn't want to do Cabot more than once for "the list".
We had a little difficulty finding the trail beyond the cabin due to drifting snow in February.

Donna

Was this conditions report a member of your group?

To Michael J, yes the poster of the trip report was on the same trip.

For Donna, the out and back from the Fish Hatchery does get a bit routine although I like the view from the old fire tower site East and West. The loop including the Horn and Unknown Pond is rather nice.

peakbagger said:

While we parked at the trailhead, I noticed the fish raceways were loaded with brookies. Its interesting how tuned they are to being fed. Even walking along the outside of the fence it was obvious that every fish was swimming towards me. Must be interesting when they are released, since they appear to be adapted to swimming towards the person standing on the banking.

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It may be illegal (not sure) and it certainly is unsporting, but I have seen people arrive just after the truck has made a delivery, and toss a handful of sand into the pond/lake and the fish come flying to that spot...

(When I was up there in November for the Weeks peaks, I stopped and walked around the hatchery, doing the tourist thing, and boy do the fish get excited to see someone.)

I've seen plenty of heron flying over that general area, and what is interesting to me is that some of the pens are covered with screens and some are not. I wonder how many fish are lost to predators? Seems like it is a free meal for (m)any fish-eating animals.

Tim

bikehikeskifish said:

It may be illegal (not sure) and it certainly is unsporting, but I have seen people arrive just after the truck has made a delivery, and toss a handful of sand into the pond/lake and the fish come flying to that spot...

(When I was up there in November for the Weeks peaks, I stopped and walked around the hatchery, doing the tourist thing, and boy do the fish get excited to see someone.)

I've seen plenty of heron flying over that general area, and what is interesting to me is that some of the pens are covered with screens and some are not. I wonder how many fish are lost to predators? Seems like it is a free meal for (m)any fish-eating animals.

Tim

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We're getting off topic, but there is a fish hatchery in the Catskills that was concerned that the return of Eagles would doom their business. It turned out to be a positive influence. The Eagles would only take the dead fish, and they ended up keeping the pools that much cleaner.

There's a Hatchery in Twin Mountain, too, but not being situated at a trailhead it doesn't get discussed very much. Of interest is that it was built atop the springs that form Carroll Stream which provide a continuous, oxygen-rich environment.

I arrived at the trail head at the same time as the fellow with the Golden Retriever and chatted with him for a minute before your party arrived. After confirming that it was the correct trail head and checking the route on a map with him, I got the impression that it was his first time up Cabot. I went over to the Weeks so I didn't see him again (or anyone else). Live and learn, I guess.

edit: FYI - the planks over the dam on York Pond Tr are gone.

I heartily agree with peakbagger about the loop or doing an out and back from Stark, Mill Brook Road to the north trailhead of Unknown Pond Trail..i got lucky and did Cabot on a fall foliage day with high peaks snow covered..could pick out Dorset and Ludlow over 110 miles away from Cabot Cabin (Horn is in Scudders view guide)..Roger's Ledge is another nice one and it seemed quicker to me from Mill Brook Trail (from hatchery) than from South Pond..can see the sun glinting off Madison Spring Hut..go back if you can!!

peakbagger said:

The spot where he turned around was the blowdown patch about 100 west from the summit sign. Hope he wasnt working on the grid.

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The summit is what you make of it

There is a separate contour at the N viewpoint that may be higher than the sign

Some believe that the summit is where the trail crosses over and others believe that it is slightly to the north (about 100 yards). I try to visit each when I'm there just because.

Clearly "team New Owl's Head Summit" needs to get up there and start some herd paths going.

During his summer '02 record-setting NH48 hike, CaveDog almost missed the true summit of Cabot, too! I accompanied him on his last day, and Cabot was his second to last peak. We had just left the cabin and hit the open tower spot, CaveDog in the lead, when he began hiking back toward me, thinking the old tower site was the true summit of Cabot. After giving him a bit of a hard time and kidding him about it, we continued on to the real summit. On his recon hike of the peak, it was dark so he assumed the tower spot to be the summit. Easy to do if you've never been there (and didn't read your WMG)!