The Nubble

Hiking The Nubble or Rather, Just Follow the Moose Scat…

Today we hiked the unblazed trail to the Nubble or known as Haystack Mountain.

We started off the trek at a lot off of Gale River Road. 

We walked a snowmobile corridor for about .6 miles.  Along this corridor, there was one window of views out.

We then veered right, by a small cairn. 

 

The trail entered a deep forested area, that was muddy, slippery and just so beautiful.

We crossed a brook by another cairn, however that was in error and backtracked to the cairn, remaining straight on the trail.  Silly moose tracks really led us astray on that one.

Don’t follow the moose path, keep the cairn to your right, don’t go left and cross the brook here, like we did.

Well I went across and had to come back, oops.

Finally on the correct trail, we slide over very wet rocks and had shoes sucked in by mud.  We then crossed over the rock slab and listened to the gorge above raging.  We had to keep a look out for all the moose scat, that lined the unmarked trail, so we didn’t end up stepping in it.

As we neared the summit, the sun shined through the trees beckoning us to keep going. Up I go.

The rocky ledges came into view and we started the scramble up on them.   

Thankful for all the blueberry bushes I held on to both coming and going. 

There was one very narrow part, that sent me into panic mode and I did have a brief sit down strike that I was going no further.  However, reason and the fear of regret of not summiting took over and I continued my scramble up, sometimes on my knees.

Once up top, we oohed and awwwwed at the views.  

After taking pictures and snacking, we began the descent.  I sat and scooted on my behind for most of the descent off of the peak.  It made it easier for my short legs and fear of falling to descend that way.

Once we were off the ledges, we spent some time, absorbing the beauty of the forest.

I did have a few falls due to slippery rocks, my feet became one with the mud on a few occasions and I did impale myself on a stick pitching forward in a fall.  Other than those minor mishaps, I LOVED this hike.

Overall it was a little over 3 miles, a little over two hours.  I am so happy to finally have hiked the Nub and hope it remains off the beaten path.