There is a test of courage and sanity on Elephant Mountain in Maine (one of the New England Hundred Highest). And by that we don’t mean the act of summiting — or figuring out where to start this bushwhack for that matter. The real test is whether or not to don the brittle plastic/rubber elephant trunk mask found at the summit. It’s nasty, mice chew it, it is no doubt diseased, yet it has long been a part of this mountain. Donning it a rite of passage, if you will. So was our guest courageous enough to put it on, or wise enough to pass on the opportunity. We won’t tell but our guest knows (or should we write nose?), so does Redline Guide Pat Ferland who was leading this. Pat provided this summary and the photos that follow.
Elephant Mountain Trip Report: Awesome hike and remote areas today, we went after Elephant Mountain just east of Andover Maine. Elephant Mountain is 3700′ with no trail to the summit. Today, after meeting at 6 AM in Twin Mountain, NH, we made our way over east to Elephant Mountain. After a little driving down some dirt roads and coming to an impossible road that added a couple miles to our overall hike, we took off on foot where we followed some old abandoned, logging roads and skid tracks, then disappeared and it became a good old-fashioned whack. Luckily, we had a track set in a GPS from a previous guide who’s done this hike (Ken) between so the GPS and a compass were able to make our way up over the top and straight to the canister so we could sign our names. We took a little bit of a different route down to avoid a blowdown section. We made our way back out seeing lots of moose and bear sign, but no furry animals. All said we spent about six hours on the mountain today and covered 7½ miles. —Pat
