| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
North Brother, Fort Mountain, South Brother, Mt. Coe, ME |
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 | Trails: |
Marston Trail, Mt. Coe trail, bushwhack and herd path to Fort Mountain |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Thursday, August 16, 2018 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Plenty of parking for the Marston trail head |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Numerous water crossings which were not too difficult - some requiring rock hopping |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Generally the trails were in excellent condition. There has been consideration erosion on the Marston Trail in the last .9 miles up to North Brother. A number of blazes need refreshing on the Mt. Coe slide. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
Mosquitoes and black flies greeted us when we returned to our car at 6:45pm |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
This 11 hour hike was one of the more challenging hikes I’ve done requiring good planning and flexibility. We stayed at the Big Moose Inn since it is close (20 minutes) to the south park entrance. They also offer a complete breakfast starting at 5am which allowed us to reach the gate before 6a and begin the 45 minute drive (at 20mph) to the Marston trail head. Four days before the planned hike date we altered our reservations by one day to take advantage of a cooler and dry day avoiding thunderstorms predicted for our original hike date. We chose to do the loop clockwise which park officials do not advise due to the Mt. Coe slide. However our priority was to summit North Brother for my companion’s NE67 list and to do the bushwhack to Fort earlier in the day when we had more energy rather than towards the end of the day. The hike to the North Brother summit was uneventful and not too difficult. However the bushwhack over to Fort proved a daunting challenge taking us an extra hour to reach the summit. The herd path back from Fort was easy to follow taking only 45 minutes to re-summit North Brother. It revealed what had gone wrong trying to reach Fort. Since a July trip report, all flagging, except for a few useless pieces, has been removed from the herd path. From the summit of N. Brother we could see small cairns to the northeast marking the way to the beginning of the herd path. Unfortunately at one of the cairns we went straight following foot traffic rather than taking a hard left. This path eventually petered out. We were able to find the correct path but soon reached the blowdown section where we lost it again. Rather than spend a little more time searching for it we attempted to circumnavigate the blowdown area. This was a mistake as the vegetation density in places is all but impenetrable. Do NOT leave the herd path. As of this report date the herd path works its way thru the blowdown area. We made good time back down North Brother and on to the Mt. Coe trail to South Brother. South Brother was an relatively easy climb and had some great views of Katahdin. Mt. Coe was also an easy climb of only a couple hundred feet. The trail down from Coe is initially pretty steep before it reaches the slide. We took the slide down slowly avoiding the oily looking wet black moss which is very slippery and scree which is everywhere. We kept a careful watch for the blue blazes as the slide area is huge. Once at the bottom the trail reaches a stream which it crosses several times and more scree sections. This is followed by a long stretch where we could make good time back to the Marston Trail and trail head. |
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 | Name: |
Dexhiker |
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 | E-Mail: |
dexpcdoc@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2018-08-17 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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