Coe & The Brothers Circular - September 1, 2002

[askus3]

Date of Hike: Sunday, September 1, 2002

Pictures: link to Gallery - Baxter Park Trip - Album 1 - #1

Route: Starting at the Marston Trailhead at Slide Dam on the Baxter Park Road we started up the Marston Trail. We followed this to the junction with the Mt. Coe Trail. Here we made a right turn and followed this loop trail in its entirety, over Mt. Coe and including the South Brother side trail to the South Brother summit. Back at the Marston Trail we made a right and ascended North Brother Mountain. From here we descended and returned to Slide Dam via the Marston Trail all the way.

Total Distance: 10.2 miles

Difficulty: strenuous

Conditions: excellent

Weather: sunny 60s

Participants: Aaron Schoenberg, Dean Gletsos, Alex Lantino & Eileen Berch

Hike Statistics: Total elevation gain: 4,170 feet.

0.0 1200 7:00 Slide Dam - Start of Hike
---- 1650 7:25 Stop
1.2 2100 7:45-8:00 Jct. Mt. Coe Trail
---- 2600 8:40 Stop
2.7 3050 9:00-9:10 Jct. OJI Link Trail
---- 3560 9:30-9:40 Stop
3.3 3795 9:50-10:20 Mt. Coe
4.4 3610 11:00-11:10 Jct. South Brother Side Trail
4.7 3970 11:30-12:00 South Brother
5.0 3610 12:20 PM Jct. Mt. Coe Trail
5.7 3450 12:35-12:40 Jct. Marston & Coe Trails
---- 3800 1:00-1:10 Stop
6.5 4150 1:30-2:00 North Brother
7.3 3450 2:30-2:40 Jct. Marston & Coe Trails
8.2 2350 3:30-3:50 Pond
9.0 2100 4:10-4:15 Jct. Mt. Coe Trail
10.2 1200 5:00 PM Slide Dam - End of Hike


Trip Report:

This was a gorgeous day and a Sunday bringing out many hikers. We arrived from outside the park and when we got to the Togue Pond Gate, the Mt. Katahdin trailheads were all filled up. Some people camped out at the gate at 1:30 AM. We were fortunate that we had no intention to climb Mt. Katahdin this day. We were the first to arrive at Slide Dam to start our hike. By the time we completed our hike we met forty hikers. One of the first hikers we met stayed with us for the rest of our hike. Claude made friends with Alex Lantino and became our official summit photographer. The Coe slide was tough and steep as it climbed solid slab rock. In 1979, I climbed North & South Brother and there was no trail over to Coe. So the Coe Loop was all new as well as the Marston Trail between the Mt. Coe Trail junctions. It used to go down the South Brother slide and now it descends further to the north past a scenic pond. This was a tough hike on a beautiful day. Great day to be out.

Everyone was impressed with the view of Doubletop (see pictures in photo gallery). So Dean was considering climbing OJI with the Link Trail, so he could do OJI today and Doubletop tomorrow. But, I told him the main reason I wanted to climb OJI is to go up the challenging North Slide and then descend 500 feet to Old OJI Rock, which time on this hike today would not permit. The hike was long enough, so I did not want to add another mountain (although if I was in the mood and I wanted to add another mountain I would have added Fort to the hike). We never did climb Doubletop on our trip,(I climbed it in 1979) but we were impressed with this stand alone mountain.