[wpv-view name=”tracklog-display” ids=”5034”]
Look for R’s email about finishing the Potholes trail
A mission accomplished …
… and new puzzles to solve.
Exciting news: Z. & I completed locating the entire abandoned Potholes Trail on Cadillac Mountain’s east face. And later we located the three original wooden signs at the Potholes trailhead during a second hike several days later, starting in the reverse direction. Canyon Brook Trail was once actually an extension of the Dorr Mountain South Ridge Trail. Eagle’s Crag Foot Path used to lead directly up the east face of Cadillac to Eagle’s Crag but we have only scouted out roughly the lower first one-third of it. Hopefully, next year we will completely trace out the rest of it. Soon Z. will be posting tracklogs and a set of route coordinates on her website, once we’ve assembled and sorted out the GPS data.
—The tree has grown so much that it has begun to pull the nails nearly clean through the signs.—
—Z. was especially excited to find these ghostly relics from a not-quite-yet-forgotten era!—
—Where the “extension trail” crosses Otter Creek.—
—Somewhere along the lower portion of Eagle’s Crag Foot Path.—
Another very interesting discovery we made was of a mostly intact stone staircase leading down from near the shore of The Bowl. It was supposedly part of a small network of many more abandoned trails connecting The Bowl trail, The Beehive, Enoch Mountain, Champlain Mountain and what is now the Park Loop Road. We were talking with the NPS ranger who narrated the program on the Baker Island cruise (we took the cruise on Saturday, September 13th, our anniversary) who revealed to us the existence of these trails.
Finally, Z. and I have learned of a bronze plaque, commemorating Waldron Bates (a prolific MDI pathmaker), which was supposedly placed on the long-abandoned Chasm Brook Path on Sargent Mountain by the BH VIA in 1910. NPS has searched unsuccessfully for this plaque. Do you think we might get lucky enough to find it ourselves if we gave it a shot??? What a real “scoop” that would be! Perhaps next trip. :~)
Beaver program at night (and had pizza afterward? with Dave??)