Moxie Bald Mountain (2,629') & Moxie Bald North Peak (2,350'), Bald Mountain Twp. 10/5/2023

Moxie Bald's North Peak

 

Today I made my way up to the Moxie Pond area to return to Moxie Bald Mountain, this time starting at the Troutdale Road, instead of the AT Road. The bridge across Austin Stream on the Troutdale Road is still closed, and looks like it will be for some time, but the trailhead is easily approached from the south via the Stream Road from Moscow.

Signage at the trailhead

I chose to do this hike today because we haven't had much rain in a while, and the crossing of Baker Stream just after the trailhead is rather notorious for being a difficult one. It turned out this was a good choice, as the wide crossing of the stream was rock-hoppable without much issue today.

The crossing of Baker Stream

The first few miles on the AT were quite easy, and it wasn't too long before I reached the Bald Mountain Brook Lean-To.

Bald Mountain Brook Lean-To

 

 

A waterfall near the lean-to

After the lean-to, the trail crosses AT Road, and soon starts to climb steeper. I first visited the main summit, where the view south was blocked by a fog bank, but there were some views north and west.

The summit with footings from the former fire tower

View across the undercast to the west from the summit

I then continued on to my favorite part of the mountain, North Peak. The exposed alpine ridge and windswept summit are spectacular and rare for a mountain with this elevation.

The northern ridge of Moxie Bald

As expected, it was extremely windy on the ridge, but there were excellent views all around, including some undercast views to the south.

At North Peak

Looking back towards the main peak

The view west from North Peak

The view north from North Peak

After spending a while on North Peak, I descended via the AT and the Summit Bypass Trail.

Remains from the fire watchman's camp at the junction of the AT and the Summit Bypass Trail

Moxie Bald never fails to impress, and I only saw 2 other people during the entire 12+ mile hike.

Coburn Mountain, Upper Enchanted Township (3,720') 9/20/2023

The snowmobile trail up Coburn Mountain is included in the new edition of the Maine Mountain Guide, and I had not hiked that route up yet, so it gave me a good excuse to go back to Coburn. The road to the trailhead is in excellent condition, and I arrived around 8:45.

The trailhead

I had heard that a storm earlier in the year caused significant damage to the lower portion of the trail, so I was interested to see how bad it was. It turns out it was pretty bad! Water had carved a canyon up to 6 feet deep in the trail. 

 

An extremely eroded section of trail

This portion was somewhat tricky to navigate, due to the loose rocks and dirt, but luckily it didn't last for too long. 

 

The first radio repeater

Just past the first radio repeater, I turned right off of the snowmobile trail onto the footpath to the summit.

 

The start of the footpath to the summit

The footpath seems to have seen some significant maintenance since I was there last. It now follows a well cleared trail corridor and both end points on the snowmobile trail are clear and obvious. It is still just about as steep as a trail can possibly be without being a scramble, and it luckily hasn't seen much of any erosion. The steepness of the trail is impossible to capture in photos, but I've given my best attempt.

 

A steep section of the footpath

I took this picture looking across the hillside to try and give a sense of how steep the trail is

The summit was in a cloud when I reached it, and it unfortunately didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. 

 

The summit observation tower

The summit area and second radio repeater from the tower

I spent a bit of time exploring around the summit, and walked a short distance down the old fire watchman's trail heading north of the summit.

 

This was the former fire tower which collapsed in an ice storm in 1938

Telephone cable and an insulator for the fire tower just north of the summit

Remains of the fire tower cab

On the descent, I followed the snowmobile trail.

 

The upper part of the snowmobile trail

The upper part wasn't bad, but the section below the switchback was very grassy and wet.

 

A very wet section of the snowmobile trail

I would definitely recommend avoiding the snowmobile trail in most circumstances and instead just doing an out and back on the footpath. After reaching the lower radio repeater again, I headed back to my car along the lower portion of the snowmobile trail/old road.

 

Heading down the last section of trail

On the drive out, I stopped briefly at Markham Pond, near the start of the Enchanted Mountain Road.

 

Markham Pond

Although I didn't get any of the outstanding views from the top today, it just gives me another reason to head back to Coburn again in the future!

 

 

 

Coburn Mountain - Maine By Foot