On McFarland Mtn.

All in all a more active day than anticipated. The theme would be "Discovery."

I started out in the morning with the idea of hiking over the Razorback. On the way I decided to extend the hike so I could come down the Sluiceway, a trail I hadn't been on in many years.

On the way up I was pleased to discover a single snowberry in a small patch along the trail (see extra). Certainly these are uncommon here, but after all the Moby Dick I've been listening to this discovery was probably more exciting then it should have been. "No, the daubloon is mine." I thought to myself, "Fate reserved the daubloon for me. I only; none of ye could have raised the white berry first!" Such is how my mind sometimes wanders while hiking in the woods alone. Of course I harpooned the little fella and gobbled him up. (Very minty on the front end, with a slight aftertaste of mossy dirt.)

Coming down the Sluiceway, I wanted to keep one eye open for an old abandoned stairway I remembered coming across some twenty years ago. Was it a figment of my imagination? Had it rotted completely away? No, I did find it (see extra). Unlike last time I even went up it and tried to pick out the remnant of whatever trail it used to be part of, but had little success due to all the moss and downed trees. Doing a little research after getting home I found this used be on the "Kaighn Trail," which appeared on local maps from 1906-1917 but has long since been abandoned.

It was while talking about this and going over various reference maps and satellite images that my son convinced me to go for a second hike, this time exploring an area without any official trails that I had never been to. Our adventure took us over McFarland and Youngs Mountains along a mostly overgrown single track that was clearly a regular highway for coyotes and had some surprisingly nice views, such as today's main image.

The photo shows Cadillac, Pemetic, the Bubbles, Penobscot, and Sargent Mountains (from left to right) with Eagle Lake in the foreground. The fluffy things are clouds.

My legs will feel this all tomorrow but it was worth it.