Solo. 19/48. Humid and in the 50’s, extremely overcast all day. Didn’t see a single other person all day long.


Started out at 0745 and the gate to the fish hatchery was open. Decided on the Bunnell Notch trail to start, hoping that perhaps by the time I hit the Horn I would get some kind of view.


I would say that probably 65-70% of the time I was hiking today I was being touched by some kind of plant- whether it was ferns or little fiddly tree branches or other greenery along the trail, it was near-constant. If you don’t like being touched by stuff while you hike maybe hit this in the winter. Lol.


The Bunnell Notch Trail starts out nice and easy, very narrow & mostly dirt with some tiny steam crossings, and lots and lots of ferns. Tall ones! It was very quiet in the woods today, barely even a bird chirping- so around half a mile in when I heard something large moving off trail I was sure it was Bigfoot (probably a fat squirrel though.) I did see some moose signs on the trail in a few areas though which was exciting and a bit nerve wracking.


The trail is a nice easy or moderate ascent all the way up to Cabot summit, steep in some areas with rocks or bedrock but they’re over so quickly you hardly notice them. I was sweating pretty good because of the humidity. The Cabot cabin was really neat and unlocked so I poked around inside at all of the graffiti (visitor log pen was out of ink.)


Headed up to Cabot and was rewarded with.. well. A sign in the woods. And a cute bird flitting around. I didn’t stay long and headed to The Bulge. It was damp and slightly drizzly, the trails were wet and the rocks were a pain to navigate, along with the wet roots. I paused at The Bulge for a few minutes to stretch and hydrate and then slowly picked my way down the col to The Horn.


I wasn’t rewarded with very much for views but it was much better than nothing. I drank my summit beer here and ate poptarts, no wind, no rain, just moist and grey out.


I backtracked down to the junction & then took the Kilkenny Ridge Trail down to Unknown Pond. I made decent time, the initial trail was mostly large rocks and some dirt areas, the Unknown Pond Trail was not what I expected. It was a mild downhill the entire time, but every time my brain started checking out, here was a blowdown, here with a thick black mud pit, here was a stream crossing, here was loose scree from a washout, it was a pain. Again, narrow and lots of plants touching you here too.


Overall a decent hike and I’m glad it’s out of the way- certainly not my favorite one so far. The leaves are probably 30-40% changed here so that was a pretty element, along with a few areas of wildflowers in the woods.

Other peaks climbed on this trip