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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Dennison Bog Peak, Boundary Peak, White Cap Mountain, North Kennebago Divide, ME
Trails
Trails: Logging roads, ATV trails, boundary swath, bushwhack
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Thursday, October 6, 2016
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: Accessed the area via Morton Cutoff (from ME16 - north end of Cupsuptic Lake), Tim Pond Road, Wiggle Brook Road, Oxbow Express Road and Porter Brook Road. This approach is clearly marked on the Delorme map of Maine and described in several other reports (NETC, Peakbagger.com etc.). The roads are in very good condition. High clearance / AWD always recommended but right now it could be driven in standard car with some caution. The most problematic section is the first 3.3 miles of Wiggle Brook Road where there are pot-holes and water-puddles to drive through and a few rough sections but after a sharp left turn (~13.5 miles from ME16) the road improves again. Porter Brook Road is perfectly good.  
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Dry Trail, Wet Trail 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment:  
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: One - Porter Brook - small and easy near the end of the hike just before connecting with logging road (extension of Porter Brook Road) for the final walk out.  
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes:  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes:  
Bugs
Bugs:  
Lost and Found
Lost and Found:  
 
Comments
Comments: Bill Schor, Steve Moore and I set out to do this clockwise loop with and out-and-back from Dennison Bog Peak (not entirely sure about this name but it is the ~~3,500ft peak a couple of miles south of Boundary Peak and right on the boundary swath. I do not believe this peak has an official name) to Boundary Peak. We measured this to be a touch over 12 miles and just over 4,000 ft of elevation gain.

We accessed the boundary swath via an ATV trail approx. 1 mile from the Oxbow Express Rd - Porter Brook Rd. jct. It is flagged and the trail goes all way to the Boundary Swath.

The Boundary swath is a cake-walk. The extension of Dennison Bog into the Boundary Swath is wet and muddy - but not troublesome (if you are okay with wet boots). Other reports have questioned the legality of zig-zagging across the border on this path. I spoke to a border patrol officer who was driving around in the area (they are clearly patrolling it as I saw several pick-up trucks belonging to the border patrol) and it is perfectly okay to hike along this swath as long as you do not cross the swath and start hiking into the Canadian side. The swath is ~50 ft wide and clear. You will have to be blind to cross it and not know that you did.
There are a lot of hunting shacks along the swath - all on the Canadian side. Maybe 30 or so. We deliberately did this mid-week and were fully equipped with orange clothing (this is moose hunting season in Quebec). As far as we could tell there were no hunters up there at all except for 2 that we met on the way back from Boundary Peak late morning. They were up there checking game-cameras.

From Dennison Bog Peak we bushwhacked to White Cap - almost a direct line via the saddle between the 2 peaks. There has been some logging activities all the way up to Dennison Bog Peak and initially we followed logging debris and then a short flagged section. For a minute we thought there might be herd path across - but there isn't. However, the bushwhack is through fairly open woods and only right at the summit of White Cap did we encounter a short thicker section. All relatively easy.

Our impression was that there would be a herd-path of some sort from White Cap to Kennebago Divide. If there was/is we didn't find it and we thought we searched pretty good. Here we had to push through some denser sections but we avoided any thick spruce sections. We eventually picked up a herd path a few hundred yards from connecting to the very well-defined herd-path that leads up from the east to the summit of Kennebago Divide.

From Kennebago Divide we headed straight west back towards our car and for about 200 yards there was a nice herd-path but then it evaporated. This area was similar to what we had encountered on the other side of the peak but it did not take us long - maybe 30 mins or so - before we started encountering old logging areas - heavily overgrown but open and easy to walk through. We crossed Porter Brook and was back on the road leading to our car.  
Name
Name: LongMark 
E-Mail
E-Mail: perfrost@yahoo.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2016-10-08 
Link
Link: https:// 
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