Barren, Big Moose, Couburn, Boundary Bald, and Kibby: July 23th-July 27th, 2023

You can read my report on Kibby to find out specifics, but I lost my phone at the end of that hike and consequently lost the vast majority of the photos for the peaks in this report :( - UPDATE: I later recovered these photos!!!

Barren, July 23rd

For Barren, I tried to camp in my van at the Gulf Hagas trailhead but got woken up and agrily told I needed to move to a designated campsite. Not the first time this has happened, but the first time it wasn't a cop, which was kind of nice I suppose...? Anyway in the morning I got back to the trailhead and forward deployed my bike at the Number Three trailhead to bike the last portion. The AT leading up to the ridge was in good condition, and Chairback, Number Three, and Barren all afforded excellent views of White Cap and Baker, along with Saddleback and Jo-Mary in the distance. This was a long and hard hike, but it was worth it imo

Pretty trails :)
Chariback Mountain
Katushka!!!
Number Two Mountain
Katushka!!!
Views from Number Three!!!
Number Three Mountain
Katushka!!!
I hope someone from ADK reads this and feels motivated to increase funding/restructure management so that the bogs in places like Couchsachraga can be protected from encroaching heard-paths by well-maintained trails. I had no idea these bogs were such fragile ecosystems, and the reality of the matter is that people are going to be doing the 46 for a long time, so the bogs along the heard path ridges should be protected by proper trail maintenance - the health of the ecosystem is more important than allowing people to claim they did a "bushwack" by following a heard path
Summit area of Barren!!!
Barren
Katushka!!!

Big Moose, July 24th

Big Moose was a simple hike up from the trailhead on the south side, although it got pretty steep, even by my standards! Nice views at the top

Super specific distance measurement lmao - MILLIyard accuracy
Big Moose
Katushka!!!

Couburn, July 25th

Couburn is the mountain more than any others on this report that I'm mad I lost the photos of, because the road that you hike up to the summit on had the deepest ruts I've ever seen on any road before. Eight feet deep. And no, that's not an exaggeration, I'm around six feet tall and the deepest point of the rut was well above my head. The coolest fucking shit, and I lost the photos for it! Fucking hell. Anyhow, the fire tower at the top is climbable and has some nice views, and the hike was overall a cool experience

That's my four-foot hiking pole for scale
Couburn
Katushka!!!

Boundary Bald, July 25th

Boundary Bald is an unmaintained trail that borders on a bushwhack once you get on the ridge, with the vegetation being very overgrown. There's great views on top, but I can't get over how they put a Helipad on top. Like, I get radio towers and little buildings, but a Helipad!? It looks so out of place and I think y'all can imagine why without the photos

Boundary Bald Ridge (facing away from the ugly Helipad, of course)
Boundary Bald
Katushka!!!

Kibby, July 27th

Kibby was supposed to be a good day for me, as I was planning on bagging it and Snow in the same day, thus getting me two proper new P2ks in the same day (the days I did Reddish and Boundary Bald also did that, but they're not clean P2ks so they don't *really* count imo). Anyhow, I took the road up to the summit and found a nice fire tower with a summit register that I proudly entered my name into! Beautiful views in the cloudy rain. On the way down I checked my phone and assume it must have fallen out of my pocket afterwards, since the goddamn rotten bastards in the women's fashion industry have decided to make pockets so small so we buy purses - like I'm gonna hike with a fucking purse! Anyhow, after getting back to my van I realize dmy mistake and went frantically looking for it. After two hours of tearing my van apart and looking everywhere around where I was parked, and doubling back twice about halfway up the mountain, I accepted defeat, and had to drive all the way to southern Maine to get a replacement sim card for my old backup phone. Fucking hell. This SUCKED. I put a lot of my time and energy into my pride flag projects, and sometimes I push myself really hard and feel like I put my soul into them. And to just see four days of evidence vanish is very disheartening. I had a similar situation last year when my old phone broke and I almost lost the pics of my Giant/Dix trip in the Adirondacks, which was even more biting because those were the last of my second 46. Luckily I recovered my phone, but I got a new one because I wasn't convinced of it's reliability, but I also was able to keep a backup in hand for the future. That came in handy here, as I didn't have to stop my whole project. Still, this sucked. But honestly, having thought about it, if anyone wants to doubt that I did 8 peaks after demonstrating I did another 360+ beforehand, they can go fuck themselves. I've proven myself, and anyone with a brain can see that - which is comforting

08/16/2023 Update - So the vast majority of the photos are still lost, but I was able to find a couple from these trips that automatically backed up...? It was quite odd which ones got saved, but yeah theres like four photos now for eight different mountains lmao, still fucking sucks but at least I have *something* to show for it

11/27/2023 Update - I found my phone which was straddling on top of my doghouse engine for a couple months, so that baby is unreliable now after being fried, but I was able to pull the photos, so enjoy :)

Beautiful views from the fire tower!!!
Kibby
Katushka!!!