"Cabot, Waumbek & the (ohmygodyou) Kilkenny (youbastards!) Ridge"

June 18-19, 2005 White Mountains (Cabot and Waumbek)

Trail:  Kilkenny Ridge Trail to Starr King Trail

Elevation of Peaks:  Cabot (4170'), Waumbek (4006')

Elevation Gain: 7890'

Miles:  26.9 miles

There's a famous saying that describes New England weather, and I'm tempted to make it the title of this trip page, as no other words could really be more fitting.  However, I've tortured many of my friends by repeating it over and over as a joke, so I opted not to even mention it and use the South Park reference instead.  But I digress, and will continue on by noting that the especially unpredictable weather of the White Mountains would once again prove to be a factor as Bruce and I set out to bag the Cabot and Waumbek, the two northernmost 4k+' peaks in the White Mountains.  

Our plan was to hike the entire Kilkenny Ridge from north to south in order to climb those mountains, and we'd also climb quite a few sub-4k' in the process.  We planned to do the lengthy hike in two days, but joining us for just the day was our friend, Hannah and her two dogs, and also my neighbor, Anita.  

After meeting up at the Starr King trailhead (our endpoint), we left my car there and shuttled the rest of the vehicles to the midway point at York Pond for Hannah, and the rest at starting point at the South Pond campground where the trailhead for the Kilkenny Ridgetrail is located.    We arrived at the campground at 10am, which is also the time when they open the gates.  Had we gotten there earlier, we would have had an extra mile or so to hike in.  For once, getting a late start on the day proved to be beneficial.

We unloaded our gear under overcast skies while swatting away at the hordes of mosquitoes which enveloped us.  Bruce loaned me his extra bug jacket, and I was amazed at how well it performed.  Since its made almost entirely out of mesh, keeping cool while wearing it was not an issue, which was important since it was still a bit warm and muggy at the start.

As we hit the trail, light rain continued to fall and we donned our raingear as we trudged our way through the mud.  The trail grade began easy enough, but after a mile or so it quickly steepened.   We also noticed that moose poop was everywhere.  Every 50'-100' there'd be a new pile.  I thought we were probably in an isolated area that had a lot of moose activity, but the amount of terds would not let up for the entire trip.  We literally saw several hundred piles, but much to our dismay, we never saw any of the perpetrators. 

A few miles later we reached Roger's Ledge, where a temporary break in the weather afforded us some pretty decent views.  I sat down with my feet dangling over the edge of the cliff while looking at my trailmap, and felt a tug at the back of my bug jacket.  I turned around to see Hannah was trying to get a look at my map, but somewhat afraid of heights, she was laying down and didn't want to get too close to the steep drop off of the ledge.  We got a chuckle out of this, but I also don't blame her.  About 5 or so years ago, I would have done the same thing.  I've just gotten very used to heights since then.

We hiked down the ledge and into a boggy area where several footbridges had been constructed around Kilback Pond.  It was here where the sun broke through the clouds for the first time, and we rejoiced.  The forecast had called for most of the rain to fall in the morning, so I thought we were probably in the clear.  That wasn't the case at all, though.

We hit another uphill climb to Unknown Pond where Hannah had decided to call it a day (Anita turned back towards the beginning), and she took the Unknown Pond Trail back to where we had shuttled her car.  Bruce and I bid her farewell and continued, and soon the skies grew darker and a heavy rain began to fall.  The downpour proved to be relentless, and continued as we hiked up The Horn and The Bulge, two sub-4k' mountains that were along the trail.  

A few more climbs later and we reached Cabot, my 39th peak of the 48 peaks over 4k' in the Whites!  I'm not sure if the views were any good here given that there are trees on the summit, but it didn't matter much since we were in a cloud anyway.  It's interesting to note that the moose poop sightings didn't stop here, as there was a big pile right on the summit. 

On the summit we began to notice the temperature had dropped.  The damp conditions magnified the chill, and we began to seek out the cabin that was near the summit and get out of the rain.  About 100' or so down the trail we found it, and we stepped inside and put on our jackets.  I had begun to shiver, but the new layer of clothing was warming me up.  Another hiker was also there, and had planned on staying the night inside with two of his friends who had yet to arrive.  We chatted with him a bit while we ate a snack, but only stayed about 10 minutes since we wanted to get moving again.  Thankfully, the rain had let up a little at this point. 

We planned on setting up our camp at Willard Notch, but we'd have to climb over Terrace Mountain in order to get there.  We were both pretty tired at this point, and getting over the mountain's three steep humps proved to be taxing.  Also, rain began to fall again.   I was having fun, but the conditions were still miserable.

When we reached the Willard Notch, we found a great area to camp.  But upon closer inspection, the two best places to set up tents both had big piles of moose crap on them.  Jeez, those bastards definitely get their fair share of fiber in these parts.  But I cleared the poop out of one of the areas with unexpected success, and set up my tent while Bruce did the same in another area.  We then ate dinner (couscous with chicken for me) and then hit the hay. 

I slept a solid 11 hours that night, and woke up feeling very refreshed.  We ate breakfast, packed up, and shipped out under skies that were overcast with thin clouds that didn't appear capable of dumping any rain.  Still, after yesterday, I was skeptical.  Luckily though, we would have much better weather this day.

We hiked up Weeks Mt., which also has three peaks, but at least by the time we got to the top of the first one, the sun had broken though which significantly boosted our morale.  We traversed Weeks and then enjoyed a very pleasant ridge walk that climbed very gently towards the summit of Waumbek. 

We reached the summit and I rejoiced at having bagged my 40th of the 48, and number 33 for Bruce!  We ate a small snack, and headed down the Starr King trail to the end where my car was.   By the time we reached it, there were only a few clouds in the sky, and we had excellent view of the Presidentials while driving east on Route 2 en route to get Bruce's car.   After that, we ate lunch in Berlin, and then went our seperate ways on home.   As usual, it was a great trip!

Ah, what the heck....

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE WEATHER, JUST WAIT A MINUTE!

(Sorry Kate)