NE 100 Highest (#100) - North Kennebago Divide, Maine

Thursday, July 18, 2019 - I have ONE LAST MOUNTAIN for the New England Hundred Highest: North Kennebago Divide, up north of Rangeley, Maine (which, by the way, is WAY UP THERE!)

A close-up of the area from The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (DeLorme, 13th Edition, 2007):

North Kennebago Divide is the circle-in-the-middle.

After my Thursday Men's Breakfast in Boston, I headed up 93-to-95 into Maine (you know the drill by now). 4-plus hours later I was turning off Route 4 onto Route 16 (the green circle):

and at 1:53 I was at the "Burnt Mtn Rd - Mile 4" sign:

(pretty nice day up here in Northern Maine!)

Following up on my directions from my last blog:
Turn right on Porter Brook Rd (excellent bridge over Porter Brook)
drive 1.2 miles N/NE/E, then take the right-fork.
at 2.1 miles, cross ditch 1
at 2.2 miles, cross ditch 2
at 2.25 miles, cross ditch 3
at 2.28 miles, cross ditch 4
at 2.3 miles, stop. There is a big ditch in front of you, plus the trail goes down to the right!

It takes a LONG TIME to drive on these logging roads! I started hiking at 3:25. The first mile is (generally) a nice logging trail to the east, up through the woods:




After the first mile, the "trail" sort of peters out, which makes sense - people just cutting into the woods - south for North Kennebago Divide, or north for White Cap. It looks like I went a little farther east than necessary, but was able to use my compass and go southwest, where the rabbit trails converged onto a real "herd path" up the mountain ridge:

It zigged-and-zagged, but never got really lost. I hit the summit at 4:37:


Pretty satisfying!

Here is the list I'm sending to the AMC 4000 Footer Club:



I had started today with 3 water bottles, but one slipped out of my waist-bag. I found it on my way back down:


The "trail":


I finished 3.49 miles at 5:30 PM (2 hours 5 minutes). Google Earth (looking southeast) shows today's hike (in yellow) versus last October 25, 2018 (in red):

Looking south, you can see that when I got lost-in-the-snow last October, it was ok to quit-for-another-day:


Back down the logging roads to the Town & Lake Motel in Rangeley, Maine at 7:30:


After another great dinner at Parkside & Main, I headed off to bed. WOW - Thank you GOD for these wonderful HIKING adventures!

Today's music from one of my mp3 cds:

Neil Young - After the Gold Rush 1970


Chick Corea Akoustic Band - Alive, 1991,


Yes - Close to the Edge, 1972


James Taylor - Hourglass, 1997


lyrics "Little More Time with You":

Why leave the life I love here in the great state of Maine ...

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Looking Forward, 1999


Bruce Springsteen - Lucky Town, 1992


and, when I got in range of Rangeley (ha ha), WRGY 90.5 FM