Mt. Cabot was our 36th 4000 Footer. At 4,160 ft., it is the highest peak in the Pilot Range of the White Mountains of NH. It is also the northernmost of the 48 4000 footers. Since it is relatively isolated, it has the fifth highest topographic prominence in NH. The mountain was named for the Italian explorer Sebastian Cabot. It is drained by brooks to the Israel River on the West then to the Connecticut River and on the East drained by the Upper Ammonoosuc River which flows North then West to the Connecticut River and eventually Long Island Sound.
The mountain is accessed via the Bunnell Notch Tr to the Kilkenny Ridge Tr. It is 4.6 mi to Mount Cabot (9.2 mi r/t) and book is 5:30. We took 2:45 up gaining 2600 ft and 2:20 down. We started on the hike at 9:22 am and finished at 3:04 pm. There was extended stops to chat with other hikers at top and to have lunch. Bunnell Notch Tr starts on the East side of the mountain just past York Pond in the town of Berlin, NH. A few miles off NH 110 (1670 MSL). You drive through a National Fish Hatchery to access the trail, which means access to the trailhead is limited between 7am and 4 pm. Don’t make the mistake of returning late and unable to exit the gate, your car will be trapped for the night. The Bunnell Notch Tr follows a brook most of the way up to the junction of Bunnell Notch, Mount Cabot, and Kilkenny Ridge trails.
There is a shorter route up this mountain on the West side of Mount Cabot via the Cabot Notch Trail. It would save 45 minutes of driving and also make a 1-day summit of Cabot and Waumbek (as two seperate hikes) more doable because the trailheads would only be 15 minutes apart. Unfortunately, the trailhead for Cabot Notch Trail is on private land and the owner Robert Crane was in a dispute with the AMC. Mr Crane (his side of story) had in the past granted a right-of-way across his land for the trail. He is also a snowmobile enthusiast and owns a snowmobile museum in Lancaster. He is involved in many projects constructing snowmobile trails. He wanted to build a snowmobile trail through Willard Notch to York Pond, which would seem to be a similar path as the York Pond Trail. In order to do that he needed permission from the organization that manages the National Forest in that area, which is the AMC. He offered to give the AMC miles of land so that they would own the entire Mt. Cabot trail and offered to build a parking lot at the trailhead. In exchange, he wanted to build a snowmobile trail with his own funds and then donate it to the town. The AMC says the trail he wants is to be only for hikers and xcountry skiers, so Mr. Crane closed the beginning of the Mt Cabot trail which is on his land. The AMC offered to buy the land from Mr. Crane but he refused, wanting the leverage to get his snowmobile trail thru Willard Notch. Others chimed in that it may not be a call for AMC because the White Mountain National Forest is Federal land and that area is permitted for NO mechanized vehicles. Mr. Crane may be barking up the wrong tree. It would also seem that when Mr. Crane bought the land with the Right of Way to the trail already in place. Seems Mr. Crane may be on shaky legal ground, but the AMC and WMNF are not interested in wasting time on challenging legal access to a trailhead with a private property owner. So the trail remains closed. There really isn’t much Mr. Crane can do if you decided to use it, except that it is not maintained and parking could be a problem.
I had come across this saga because I was interested in hiking Cabot and Waumbek on the same day with Jacob. I found out about it being closed by reading trip reports. I figured we could still do it because you can’t really close a trail, but it turns out you can make it more difficult. Looking at Google Maps Street view, I followed the road to the Mount Cabot trailhead and about a mile back, saw a locked gate across the road. This would have made the hike harder and parking a problem, so I decided against it. With the Mount Cabot trailhead being only 15 minutes from Waumbek trailhead it would be very doable. In hindsight I’m glad we did it this way, I was very sore and tired after Cabot and Waumbek hike would not have been in the cards for the same day.
Thursday Aug 10, 2023 was a beautiful day. Morning in the low 70’s getting to upper 70’s and sunny. Unfortunately, we had gotten heavy rains two days before and I was concerned about how wet the trail would be. I had delayed one day forcing us to hike Thursday and Friday instead of a day in between. Saturday was our last day in NH and we needed to get these two hikes in to stay on our plan for finishing all 48 in two more summers (his UVA graduation year). Weather in the U.S. had been crazy this summer. Most of it was punctuated with record heat throughout the West and South (we saw Vero heat advisories to 110 every day we were in NH), fires in Hawaii, massive fires in Canada clouding skies in the U.S., record rainfalls in California helping their multi year drought (and now a remnant of a hurricane causing flooding), AND record rains in N.H. It was the wettest July on record in NH. The rivers were swollen and the massive flooding in Vermont wiped out downtown Montpelier. Mt Washington saw record snow in June! This is all to say that most of the hiking trails were wet and muddy, but lucky for us, nothing that couldn’t be handled.
As a side note, Jacob had just flown up on Monday and his cousin Madison and Lauren took a road trip to Montreal per my suggestion. As adults now they could have some fun in Montreal. Thought it was pretty cool they could do this together on their own. They spent a couple nights there and got back late Wednesday, not leaving a lot of time for Jacob to rest up.
We parked the car on the road next to the trailhead at 9:15 am, because the trailhead lot only allowed for 4 cars and it was full. We each carried a liter of Gatorade and a pint of water, travelling light in our packs. Jacob lead and set a pretty fast pace through the first mile of the trail. Bunnell Notch trail was just 0.2 mi from the East York Pond trailhead and would be the trail we took for 2.6 mi. of the 4.6 miles to the top. It was wet, but the mud could be traversed around. There was one brook crossing that was a little tricky with rock hopping but we made sure our footing was solid and didn’t slip off into the brook.
On many parts of the trail it had turned into a stream itself with water running right down the middle and over the rocks. At about 1.8 miles we encountered one blowdown but easy to get around. Jacob and I had some great conversation on the way up. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but it was adult conversations and made me realize how much he is growing up and maturing. Yes, I was huffing an puffing for the first couple miles. Got my heart rate up to 130 bpm covering the 2.6 mi in 1:15 to the Kilkenny Ridge Tr. I was sweating pretty good.
At 1:50 into the hike (11:10am) we reached Bunnell Rock which provided the first views from the forest we encountered on the hike. This was a view to the South-SouthEast.
In 25 more minutes we would make it to Cabot Cabin at 11:37 am. More about the cabin later. We met two other hikers having lunch on the porch of he cabin. They were not hiking together. One was coming down from Cabot and the other was doing an overnight hike of the Kilkenny Ridge Trail. We had a nice chat with them.
10 Minutes after leaving the Cabot Cabin we would be at the summit of Mt. Cabot at 11:57, making it 2:45 from the trailhead. This ranked right up there with one of the most anti-climactic peaks we had done (Thinking Owl’s Head). There was a small cairn on the ground. We took a couple pictures of the surroundings and headed back toward Cabot Cabin to have lunch.
At Cabot Cabin there was a break in the trees giving a view to the East of the Mahoosuc range in the background, just over the border in Maine, with Gorham NH at the foreground. We went inside the cabin to check it out. I could see where it would be a great shelter in the winter if you were doing multi-day hikes and got caught in the weather. We had our lunch on the porch of salami, cheddar cheese, energy bars, and Raisinets. The Raisinets are now a tradition. This cabin had been restored by volunteers from the US Forest service and maintained by Boy Scouts from Jefferson. It was originally built to house a Fire Warden who manned a fire tower that used to be at the same location. There was a visitor log and Jacob sat down to write in it. The number of entries for 2023 was extensive and a quick glance showed hikers from all over the US and world and a large number from Winter months. I figured he would just write his name, but you can see below he has some poet (or rapper) in him. “35/48, through slick and slide and fallen trees we abide, but remember to enjoy the ride!”
After a rest and good lunch we left Cabot Cabin and headed back to the car at 1 pm. I had forgotten that I would much prefer going up the trail than down the trail. You had to rock hop all the way down and it is just brutal on 61 year old knees. Jacob was quit a bit ahead of me but I refused to pick up the pace. Didn’t want a fall to ruin what had been a fantastic day. We covered the 4.4 miles back to the Trailhead in 2:20 hours and there wasn’t much conversation with Jacob leading ahead of me. We got to the parking lot at 3:04pm for a 5:30 hike. I was pretty thirsty having sweated quite a bit during the day. We had more water in the car and I quickly drank a pint.
We got home close to 5 pm after a drive back with some good conversation about music. Jacob put his music on the car stereo and I was surprised to hear quite a bit of 70’s music. He is into mixing music and being a DJ. When we got home we sat out back and had a few beers and talked with the rest of the family. It was a wonderful day.
The recorded hike to top on Apple Watch had me at 2:40 hours including all stops with 2600 ft of ascent and 4.65 miles. An average pace of 33:45 and avg heard rate 108 bpm. My max heart rate was 142 bm and I spend 15:30 in zone 3 of 130-142 bpm and 35 min in zone 2 of 120-130 bpm. Most of the hike down was in zone 1 for 2:15 with heart rate <120 bpm.