On my hike of Snow Cupsuptic, I collected more than 1/2 cup of evergreen needles on my person, between my pants, pockets, shirt, and underwear. And while I love wilderness as much as any other introverted hiker, spruce thickets are very enthusiastic in their welcome and don’t like to let me leave. So as it turned out, for three out of my five hikes, I didn’t take the optimal/most popular way. Unfortunately, I realized too late in my peakbagging adventures that the AMC Four Thousand Footer committee offers a paper pamphlet and paper maps for the Hundred Highest’s bushwhacks for $15 (it’s buried on their website and I missed it the first few times). I paid with my credit card so the truck would be covered by the credit card company’s comprehensive rental car insurance. I paid $135 for three days (plus parking for my car). I ended up renting a Ford F-150 pick-up truck from a rental agency at Portland International Jetport. Having braved the atrocious backwoods dirt road to Elephant Mountain trailhead and read other peakbaggers’ accounts, I was certain I would need a vehicle with higher clearance than my Ford Fiesta’s four inches. The sixth hike (Snow – Chain of Ponds) technically has a trail, but there were no signs or blazes and it was old logging roads followed by a herd path, so honestly, there isn’t much practical difference. Five of the six are bushwhacks with vague herd paths. Six of the most isolated peaks on the New England Hundred Highest list are located around Rangeley, Eustis, and Carrabassett Valley, Maine.
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