Cabot

Another good hike! Two thumbs up for sure on this one. Cabot is the northern-most mountain in the 48, it seems very far away. And it's down this long road that has a fish hatchery on it, with a gate. That's supposedly only unlocked 8-4, limiting your hiking time.

I stayed at my friend's in NH again. Just me this time, no surprise guests. The sun woke me up at dawn, and I was thinking about going back to sleep, but I had a long day ahead, and 5:45 was a good time to start!  I left the cabin at about 6:15 - it's over an hour to the trail even from N. Conway. I had to stop for coffee on the way there, and I ate a huge jar of oatmeal that I made on Wed night - awesome morning food for hiking (also, I ate coffee beans from Trader Joes that are the bomb! That store knows how to make good products.)  Anyhow, I got to the Fish Gate at 7:40 ish, and it wasn't locked, plus there was a summer camp inside the gate, so I thought it might be opened after 4. Trailhead at just before 8.

There are two ways to do Cabot - out and back or a loop that goes up two more 4000 foot mountains (not official 4000 footers because they don't go up and down enough - they are considered sub peaks.) It's 4.7 miles to the top of Cabot, so 9.4 if you do an out and back. The loop goes down the other side of Cabot, over "The Buldge," up and down "The Horn," then to Unknown Pond, and then back to a different trailhead - it's 6.9 miles after the summit, totaling 11.6 for the loop (The Horn is an out an back .3 mile extension, but it's the only place with a good view.) I wasn't sure if I would be up for 11.6 miles, so I parked at the trailhead for the out and back, but it turned out that Cabot had switchbacks on the way up, plus there was a view rock about 3.5 miles in where I stopped to take a rest, so I was feeling pretty good at the top and decided to do the whole thing!

Cabot is a nice little mountain - for all its 4000+ feet, it didn't seem that tough. I mean it was hard going up, but not exhausting. About 3/4 mile after the viewpoint, there is this little cabin that I stopped at - there used to be a fire tower, and I guess that's where the fire tower people lived, now hikers can just stay there! And, there's an outhouse!  It's so weird to get almost to the top of a mountain and find an outhouse :)  I was a little sad because I didn't need it at the moment.  The top of Cabot is viewless, and there's a little trick because there's a trail junction, but the top is probably 10 feet away at a cairn - I'd read up on it so I knew to tag the cairn.

The way down Cabot was surprisingly steep. No switchbacks on the other side. I practiced using gravity and trusting my feet. The tail then went over The Buldge, which had no view. I got to the sign for The Horn faster than expected, and decided I had to go up, otherwise it would be 11 miles with only the one partial view at 3.5 miles.  I was so glad I did!  It wasn't that hard a mountain to climb, and the view was amazing. I ate two cheese sandwiches on challah (so good) and basked in the sun (no helicopter came to rescue me, phew). The top of The Buldge is a big rock which was pretty fun to climb up!

Next was Unknown Pond.  It was really woodsy and remote feeling heading over. Tons of moose droppings, but I didn't see any moose. I bumped into a woman (OK, she passed me) who was a little freaked out by the remoteness - she was chatty. mmm. The pond was so nice!  At first, the woman was eating carrots behind me and it was so annoying, because I walked all this way to this remote pond - and it was all crunch crunch. And so I was rude and just sat by myself, and I was so glad I did because the spot I found was so much nicer. I counted 8 frogs around me. Imagine living your entire life at that perfect, serene pond? There's a camp ground there, I bet it would be amazing to stay.

After the pond it was 3.3 miles out. It was mostly downhill, not too exciting. For a little while I had dark thoughts. But it actually only took me like two hours, and that was partly because it was so overgrown.  I got back to the other parking lot, and fortunately it was only a short walk to my car. There was no one around, one car in the lot and I was sure that it belonged to this guy I bumped into who was camping by the pond. I've never done this before, but I changed outside, next to my car! I had some wipes to clean off, it felt amazing!

In the entire hike I saw about a dozen people. Almost everyone was hiking solo, just one group of three running. I scared a guy because he thought I was a moose. It is Friday - summer hiking Friday, I love it!