Date Hiked: 9/5/07

Conditions: Dry clear, sunny and cool day - perfect for a bushwack and endless driving on dirt roads!

Special Required Equipment: Usual for these parts: Topo map, Delorme Maine Atlas, 2007 edition (essential), compass & GPS if you have one.

Comments: Here are the specific driving directions:
From Rangley (North Country Inn)

Take Route 16 out of Rangeley, stay on Route 16 when Route 4 goes south. Cross the Oxford county line. Just past Kennebago River Road on the right, turn right onto Morton Cutoff Road (across from Arundell Road), there is a small kiosk at the start of the road. SET ODOMETER. At 3.0 turn right at T onto Tim Pond Road/Lincoln Pond Road (you will see a road sign on the left about 3000 feet after you make the right turn). There was an active logging yard at 5.3, at 8.4 you pass the trailhead for West Kennebago, at 10.1 turn left onto Wiggle Brook Road (it is signed with a yellow sign about 50 feet in from Tim Pond Road - it is before the causeway over the Kennebago River - on the west side of the causeway). At 11.2 bear to the right (left is Sol Brook Road), at 12.9 Wiggle Pond Road turns sharp right (another smaller road is straight ahead), cross a bridge at 13.0 and pass a 3 mile marker at 13.3, at 13.4 a newly constructed curve to accommodate logging trucks goes to the left, we stayed to the right - another 200 feet to a T where Wiggle Brook goes left (and to Snow Mountain). We turned right. At 13.9 you reach were there was a bridge washed out 2-3 years ago, but this did not affect us as we turned sharp left onto Bear Brook Road. Around 14.0 we went over a new bridge & continued straight. At 14.7 go straight and the road becomes older with grass in the middle but in excellent shape. There was a logging yard at 15.1 and at 15.6 the road was new construction. This new road would be a mud pit in the proper conditions but it was dry for us in a 4 WD, high clearance Jeep. The new road became rough. We drove as far as possible (17.2) and parked to the side as much as we could, the elevation was about 2,800 ft. The road was still under construction and the excavator was parked.
We walked the road and herd path to the col below the summit of White Cap, we followed the path up White Cap until it started to turn right along a contour (about 3,500 feet), we then turned left into the woods to bushwack to the summit. We found the herd path to the canister. We had no problem following the herd path back down. Back at the col, we took a compass bearing and again went into the woods, occasionally following herd paths. After easily locating the canister, we made the mistake of going too far to the right and missed the herd paths on the descent until we got to the old logging roads.
Before we reached the car, we chatted with the excavator operator who had arrived after we started hiking. A very amiable, friendly guy -- maybe he was just happy to see people! He said he would be done with the road in 2 weeks. It will not be plowed this winter. He said snowmobiles use the road in winter and go over the col to the other side of the mountains and around NKD and White Cap. He said he put in a road last year within a mile of White Cap’s summit from the Kennebago/Canada Road going past the pond. We suspect he was referring the the CMP road. We want to make it back in winter so this was good info.
A great day in the remote Maine Woods.

Submitted by: JR