ACC Maine Hiking Camp - Day 7
Cranberry Peak
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September 20, 2014
Given that Cranberry Peak had defeated Jim and Paul earlier in the week, we decided on a full camp assault from three
flanks simultaneously. Sharon and Don attacked from the west, Pat, Na, Cedric, and Judith took the east ridge, and
finally Debbie, Jim, and I decided to make an attempt directly up the south face. The ridge groups were traversing,
and our plan was to summit and take the west ridge trail down. We followed a snowmobile trail for about three
kilometeres around the base of the mountain and then spied an old logging road which took us into the woods and upwards
for a bit before it turned off in a direction which did not correspond to where we wished to go. The bushwhack was now
on! For the most part it was fairly open forest with the occasional thick section and tangles of blowdown. Some parts
were steep and we had to route find through a couple of rock bands, but for the most part it was a fairly benign forest
scramble. We stopped for a short break at about 2200 feet beside a small creek and then pushed on towards the summit
ridge. Some thick sections were found up here as we crossed the ridge and then back down the north face until we
intersected the trail about 500 meters west of the summit. A short walk brought us to the summit cone, where we layered
up for a cold and windy final push. After a few photos on top, we dropped down a bit to a sheltered spot where Don and
Sharon were waiting. We had lunch and a celebratory summit beer, even though it was only 10:00. Sharon and Don decided
to start heading down and we waited for a while to see if Pat's group would arrive. In a short time though, we started
to get cold so packed up and headed downwards ourselves.
At about the point we had originally finished the bushwhack, we
looked back and saw Pat's group climbing the summit. We shouted, but they could not hear us in the wind. Continuing
on, we made a short detour to the Cave Ledge which was a really neat rock formation. We spent a few minutes exploring
this and then headed onwards and downwards. We met an enthusiastic little boy who was geocaching the mountain with his
parents. A short bit later we were at the parking lot. As we did not have a vehicle, we just walked the last two
kilometeres back to camp. A 5.5 hour day with a great bushwhack scramble concludes a fantastic week in Maine.
Following the snowmobile trail.
Forest scrambling.
Gravitaionally challenged tree.
Making like a moose on the ridge.
On the trail, the summit awaits.
Final ascent.
Finding our thrill on Cranberry Hill!
The Cave-Ledge.
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