I had heard a lot about this trail and knew I had to hike it when I got to Bar Harbor. Although I didn't find this trail physically challenging, I do have a healthy fear of heights and it did mess with my head in certain sections. I felt myself gripping onto the metal bars much harder than necessary.
The trail starts with a meander through the woods and, about 20 minutes in, you come to the first set of bars where you have to pull yourself up and over. At this point, there are two sections where you have to climb or hop across large, rather sharp, boulders. You also have to climb under and through two small 'caves' that are ten feet or so in length. They are an easy crawl through and one of them you can actually stand up in.
It doesn't really test your fear of heights until you get out of the trees and onto the bare ledges. This is when you get some beautiful views of the Porcupine Islands. There are some damaged (and a few missing) bars along the way, but the rocks have some great areas to place your feet and pull up with your hands. I don't think it will cause the average hiker too much trouble. At the top I was surprised to find a shallow pool of water teaming with frogs!
It was a great trail to help prepare me for more challenging vertical climbs and I will probably visit it again then next time I visit Bar Harbor.
Caves - crawl throughs
Bridge near the beginning of the trail
Bars to small ladder
There is a narrow ledge and you hold onto the horizontal bars to help keep you from slipping.
This bar helps you pull yourself up from the ladder seen on the bottom right of the photo.
Beautiful views of the Porcupine Islands
View looking down
You hold onto the horizontal bars on the left to keep you from slipping off the narrow ledge.
You can see some bent bars here, some are a little shaky. There are a couple of broken ones here as well. A little caution will keep you safe.
The bars here are to keep your feet from slipping off. You can see the hand bar on the top left.
Near the top of the trail.
A view from the top. Just beautiful
Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III pose) because I felt like one :).
If you go into a hike with a ‘fixed set of plans’ you’re apt
to be disappointed. I always make a fixed
set of plans but with an expectation of change.
When people ask me what my hiking plans are I tell them but add, “That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it,
unless I don’t.” There are so many
elements that can’t be controlled. When
the universe is on your side, things go as planned. When it isn’t, you change them and add an adventure
to your day.
I left at 8:00pm after my class to drive to Stratford, NH with the intention of hiking North Percy Peak, the South Peak and Sugarloaf the following morning. I
reserved a small cabin for the night. It
was pouring rain and I had a 3 hour drive. I’m not the best driver in good
conditions and a tentative driver at best in the rain. In a 65 mph zone, I drove only 45 mph
annoying everyone behind me. I am
especially nervous at the 34A, B, and C (Cannon and Lafayette) exits; the
narrow winding lanes in heavy rain, at night, are enough to send me over the
edge literally.
I arrived 30 minutes late but the owner Judy waited up for
me. She ran out of her cabin in the rain,
holding a flashlight, to tell me the power was out because of the storm. Ugh. I had expected a warm cabin and a light to
read by before I went to sleep. Instead
I had a cold, dark cabin with lightweight summer blankets.
I used my headlamp and flashlight to illuminate the cabin.
It was a neat, clean, minimally furnished cabin. The ERD was not happy, he is used to better,
warmer, accommodations. It was so cold
in the cabin that I had to put on every item of clothing I had in my backpack
including my raincoat, gloves and extra pair of socks. I was still cold. The
ERD’s ears were ice cold.
I woke up at 5 and checked to see that the power had been restored. When I turned on the light I realized one of
the windows was wide open! No wonder it
was so cold! It was still raining. It
was dark and gloomy with no hint of sunshine. There was no service on my phone
so I couldn’t check the weather. Well, I
didn’t drive 3 hours to go home without a mountain under my belt.
Driving to the Trailhead
I fed the ERD, ate a banana and waited…nope, no change in
the weather. I packed the car and headed off to the trailhead, maybe the
weather will improve…nope. I get to the
trailhead, it’s raining. I start up the trail, maybe the weather will improve…nope.
I hike up to the sheer, slanted, rock face. I have read a number of trail logs saying you
shouldn’t do this section of the trail in the rain. I look up…yep, I can see why. Water was running down the rock face, the fog
obscured the way up to the summit.
Damn. I sit. I eat. The dog eats. I made a decision, I’m going up. I take off my backpack and put it on the
ground. I look at the surroundings to
take note of where I am and where I am leaving my pack. I take just my camera and the ERD and we
scurry up to the summit. It was completely silent except for the rain. I took a few photos and sat looking at the
fog that surrounded me wondering if I would ever find my backpack.
Slippery slanted rock face to the summit
I took good mental notes, even with the fog, I was able to
find my pack and headed back down the mountain.
I took my time, collecting edible hedgehog mushrooms, taking photos and
drawing faces on quick-staining boletes.
I thought if I took my time on the descent, the weather would improve
and I would head off to summit Sugarloaf….nope.
The clouds were still looming.
In spite of the weather it was a peaceful, silent (except for me occasionally talking to myself and the dog), and meditative hike. It was just what I needed.
drawing faces on quick staining bolete mushrooms
My pack was left right behind the 'side-facing person tree'
Eerie views
Me and the ERD at the summit sign on North Percy Peak
Unlike most of my hiking friends, I don’t live close to the
mountains on my list. To avoid the
multi-hour drive to and from the mountains I have resorted to finding reasonably
priced places to stay, since the sleeping in the car wasn’t working out for
me. I decided to hike The Horn and
looked for nearby campsites, motels and inns.
All were booked because of an upcoming ATV event. I found one place but
she didn’t allow ERDs (evil rat dogs).
He’s not evil, he is just a 10lb Chihuahua that likes to hike mountains.
She referred me to the Trailside Lodge in North Stratford.
As I got closer to the address it started to feel like a
Stephen King novel, foggy, intermittent rain, narrow streets, run down houses
that looked abandoned except for the one light shining in the back window. The
hair on the back of my neck started to rise as I got closer to my destination.
I turned onto a dirt road and drove up to an old log cabin with pitch forks and
other creepy, dusty things on the front porch.
I rang the doorbell, no answer. I looked around and “Friday the 13th” came
to mind. I opened the door, stuck my
head in and said, “Hello?!” No answer.
Louder, “Hello!?” I hear a voice
but can’t make it out. I stand and wait, nothing happens. I walk to my car and a big guy comes out of
the house and looks at me. “Hello, I
have a reservation?” I say uncertainly. With
a big booming friendly voice he said, “Yes you do, Sharon went out to rescue
some guests who got stuck on the wrong side of Percy Road. It narrows to an ATV trail and you can’t get
through.” I guess I’m glad I didn’t go
that way!
He takes me to the lodge next door and we walk through a fun
common space for all of the guests. He leads me to a nice, neat room with a
small kitchen, bathroom, and sliding glass doors with a deck looking out into
the foggy night. The hair on my neck
relaxes and the ERD makes friends with the big, nice guy, who made me laugh
several times. It’s an interesting
place, interesting people, and I would definitely stay again.
I got up at 5:00AM. No surprise, thick fog and rain. I turn on the TV to check the weather. Sunny with a chance of thunderstorms. Okay!
I make myself some coffee, feed the dog and get ready to leave. I love the fog, but hiking in thick fog on
unfamiliar trails, in deep woods, while it’s still dark, brings to life every
horror flick I have ever watched.
Thankfully, it started to clear as I neared the turnoff onto Millbrook
Road.
Millbrook Road is a long, long dirt road. The proverbial phrase, “Are we there yet?”
kept ringing in my ears, as I drove, and drove, and drove down this road. Ah, the first bridge, good almost there….finally
the second bridge and a trailhead sign!
There is a 2 car pull-off on the side of the road right
after the second bridge. You will see
the trailhead sign on the opposite side of the road. The trail has no blazes. It is narrow and overgrown in places, but very
easy to follow. There is quite a large
area of mud about 30 minutes into the hike and of course I stepped into an area
where the mud was shin deep. It almost
sucked off my shoe!
My friend, who is an avid peakbagger, referred to the
Unknown Pond trail as dreary, but I was so fascinated with the fungi and flora
I was completely engaged. If you like
foraging, there are the largest, most beautiful, chanterelles I have ever seen,
along the brook, on the right side of the trail. Of course I collected some on the way back to
the car. There are beautiful berries,
some edible, some not-so-much. Bunchberries
are ready for the taking. They are bland-tasting but provide a great burst of
energy. Eat the flesh around the seeds,
don’t eat the seeds.
Beautiful, tasty Chanterelle mushrooms
Bunchberries, not tasty but high in vitamin C - gives a burst of energy!
Clintonia borealis (blue bead berry) not tasty
Purple Trillium fruit - tastes good but mildly toxic (don't eat)
I was hoping to see moose at Unknown Pond but I had no luck today. There was moose scat everywhere but I have so
many things, noisy things, hanging off my backpack, you can hear me coming a
mile away! I will never get to see a
bear, moose, coyote, or bobcat until I stop sounding like a market vendor
dragging a cart over cobblestones in Florence.
I don’t know what I expected to find at the summit of Horn
but didn’t expect a small rocky, horn-like summit. I looked at the large, high boulders and tried
to pull myself up. There was no place to
grab onto or wedge my foot. I looked at
a climbing hook in the stone and started to get out my rope to loop around the hook and pull myself up. I stopped when I
realized there was nothing in the trail logs about Horn being difficult to
summit. So I walked around and found the
way up.
The wind was surprisingly strong and I could feel it trying
to push me backward. The ERD
whined. He doesn’t like the wind. I watched the clouds moving with the
wind. I watched as it obscured the Cabot
summit and moved toward me. Beautiful. It’s not a Chocorua summit, but it has its own
charm.
On the way down I took my time photographing plants and fungi
and talked to hikers heading up to the summit.
I met three teens hiking up. I
looked down to see one of the kids didn’t have any shoes! I said he was just like the guy [Cody Lundin]
on the Discovery Channel [Dual Survival].
He laughed. Apparently he does
all of his hikes barefoot.
I was almost to the car when I came back to the muddy
section. This time I didn’t walk in the
mud, I walked on the rocks that were placed there so hikers could avoid it. I slip on a rock, smash my already bruised
shin from a previous hike and an unsavory word is involuntarily propelled from my mouth
echoing throughout the trail… Bruised shins
look awful with shorts.
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