Washington County High Point Trip Report

Pleasant Mountain

Date: July 13, 2000
Author: Roy Schweiker

The greatest benefit of climbing this peak is that it puts you in rather exclusive company on FRL item 43.

This peak is located is located just over an hour's drive E of Bangor. The Bangor International Airport is occasionally in the news as the first point in the US where westbound transatlantic flights can evict unruly passengers. If it happens to you, rent a car and head E to the jct. of Rtes. 9 & 93 near Beddington.

From the junction, go E on Rte.9 2.0 miles, and turn L on private logging road 45-00-0. This is a good gravel road usually open to the public except in snow and mud seasons. Go N 2.1 miles, and turn R on another private road whose number sign was missing the day I was there. This road has grass growing in the middle and passenger cars should watch out for high centering. Follow this road E for 0.8 mi. to a Y- junction. The better-traveled road goes R here, but you want to go L. I chose to walk from just beyond as it seemed foolish to risk a car when the walking on this road is nearly as fast as driving, with the grass thicker in the middle, bushes closer on the side, and some nasty ruts. If you want to prove you can get a Honda anywhere or justify the $35K you spent for an SUV, the road continues another 0.8 miles to end at a log landing at 867'.

From the log landing, I walked up an overgrown skid road from the SE corner, which had both moose and human tracks. It crosses a brook and ascends most of the way to the ridge before ending at a cairn, from here follow a fainter path through a band of spruce until it peters out also, then bushwhack maybe 100 vertical feet to the ridge. Turn L and climb a lesser amount to the first summit then cross a shallow col to the second summit. The difficulty here is tall ferns which are tedious to walk through and may hide obstacles such as rocks and fallen trees. Each of the two summits has multiple bumps of which the highest cannot easily be determined, I didn't find or leave a register. Head W downhill from the N summit and eventually pick up an even more overgrown skid road which I follow to the NE corner of the log landing.

Round trip about an hour from the log landing, plus time walking the road and driving to near the ends of the earth (or the US at least).