"Tour de Pleasant"
26 July
2007
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Trip Report
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"Tour de Pleasant" - Pleasant Mountain's Five
Summits
Date: 26 July 2007
Trailhead: Southwest Ridge on Denmark Road
Distance: 10.6 miles (~6.5 miles on trails)
Elevation gain: 1558'
Time: 3 hours and 21 minutes
I hike or jog up Pleasant Mountain every other year on our summer family vacations in Denmark, Maine. My standard route is up and down the Ledges trail which leads directly from Mountain Road to Pleasant Mountain's main 2006' summit. Two years ago I hiked up the Bald Peak trail for the first time and discovered a trail along Pleasant Mountain's ridgeline. This year, both Ledges and Bald Peak trailheads had new information boards installed as part of major trail maintenance work being done by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The information boards included a map showing Pleasant Mountain's full trail system and revealing a route that immediately caught my eye. By using the Southwest Ridge (MacKay Pasture) trail I could connect all five of Pleasant Mountain's summits for a 6.5 mile trail run - a "Tour de Pleasant".
Sunday morning I had jogged up and down the Ledges trail, a 7.4 mile round trip from our cottage. On Tuesday, I had scouted the northern part of the Tour route, jogging up the Bald Peak trail to Sue's Way (with a short side trip to the "Needle's Eye"), taking Sue's Way and the North Ridge trails to Point 1905, continuing along the North Ridge trail to the 1932' Big Bald Peak summit (what I called the "North Summit" in 2005), rejoining the Bald Peak trail and following it along the ridge to Pleasant Mountain's summit, and then descending on the Ledges trail. This was an 11.25 mile round trip from our cottage.
Thursday morning Cindy dropped me off at the 448' Southwest Ridge trailhead which is about 3.5 miles northwest of Denmark on Demark Road. The trailhead was not well-marked, but easy to find behind a parking area large enough for a dozen cars. I paid for my late 9:15 am start with lots a sweat on the hot and humid morning. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the 1.7 mile climb up the Southwest Ridge. The trail was well-established and well-marked with cairns where it climbed across large rock slabs. It took me 40 minutes to reach the 1900' Southwest summit of Pleasant Mountain. The remains of an old wooden sign marked the trail's continuation to the fire tower on the main summit.
My next objective was the nearby 1904' "Tower" summit, topped with a large microwave tower. I had reached this summit by a different route in 2002. The Southwest Ridge trail skirts this summit on the west side, I presume to keep people away from the tower site. As I prepared to bushwhack to this summit, I came to a faint side trail across which several branches had been laid. Stepping over the branches, I followed the faint trail and quickly came to the second summit, just 7 minutes after leaving the Southwest summit. After absorbing a sufficient amount of microwave radiation, I retraced my path back to the main trail and continued on toward Pleasant Mountain's true summit. I passed a single hiker along this section of trail.
From the microwave tower it took me 24 minutes to reach the fire tower atop Pleasant Mountain's 2006' summit. From that point I jogged along the ridge in the opposite direction I had taken two days before. Several times along the way I paused to enjoy some of the ripe blue berries that lined the trail. From the fire tower, it took me 31 minutes to reach the fourth summit, Big Bald Peak. While the continuation of the Bald Peak trail was obvious from this summit, I had to hunt little for the North Ridge trail. The North Ridge trail begins a little north of the summit just west of the sign marking the Bald Peak trail. From Big Bald Peak it only took 11 minutes to reach the fifth and final 1900' summit. While snacking and checking out the view on this summit, I heard a loud rustling noise on the ground in the trees not far from me. I thought that it must be a deer to be making such a racket. After moving closer to check it out, I saw something climbing very slowly up a tree. It was much too large to be a squirrel. I moved a little closer and saw that it was a good sized porcupine. After taking a few pictures of the fellow, I let it be and continued on the now descending North Ridge trail.
Near the top of Apache Peak's ski slopes, the North Ridge trail turns into Sue's Way trail. Sue's Way follows as a steep rocky ravine through dense trees. This was the least established section of the trails I followed and required careful footing on the rocks in places. After rejoining the Bald Peak trail, I continued down that trail reaching Mountain Road 2 hours and 49 minutes after starting from Denmark Road. From there I jogged the remaining 4 miles back to our cottage at an easy pace.
The only remaining Pleasant Mountain trail that I've not climbed is the 3-mile Fire Warden's trail which leads from a trailhead on Wilton Warren Road to the main summit. That trail is definitely on my list for our next vacation in Denmark!