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View Full Version : Mahoosuc Notch -camping at N. End?



TEXMAN
07-10-2016, 19:05
One of my guides shows a campsite at the north end of the Mahoosuc notch ...is this an area that has tent sites I can count on or is really just a stealth camp?

thanks

tdoczi
07-10-2016, 19:38
One of my guides shows a campsite at the north end of the Mahoosuc notch ...is this an area that has tent sites I can count on or is really just a stealth camp?

thanks

i dont think its an official campsite and i cant really speak to it's legality, but yes, there is a campsite there. a large and oft used one at that

peakbagger
07-10-2016, 19:56
I have never seen indications that it is an "official campsite" yet it has been used extensively for years. There was a logging camp in this area at one point in the past. It is not hard to miss. There is the upper camping area right along the trail plus additional areas used by campers along Mahoosuc Brook if you head down slope. There is room for many tents and groups have used it in the past. Its very obvious, you leave Mahoosuc notch along a stream and then climb out of the stream bed, the trail then levels out flat with the sites on your right, The AT then bears left and heads up hill distinctly. It is on State of Maine Public Reserve land. There is bootleg path that leave this area and runs down to end of the Bull Branch road. which eventually ends up on the Sunday River road.

The water source is Mahoosuc Brook, the one that you just hiked down.

Its a nice option but a lot of thru hikers skip it as they get there too early if they stay at prior shelter.

LIhikers
07-10-2016, 20:43
My wife and I camped there in 2015. As you are going northbound it was on the right side of the trail just a little past where the trail turns away from the stream and starts going up-hill.

Lone Wolf
07-10-2016, 21:36
One of my guides shows a campsite at the north end of the Mahoosuc notch ...is this an area that has tent sites I can count on or is really just a stealth camp?

thanks

yes. stayed there twice

rafe
07-10-2016, 22:07
yes. stayed there twice

Ditto, most recently last summer. Just off the trail, to your right, northbound. Room enough for lots of tents.

jred321
07-11-2016, 15:24
That brook is the coldest water I experienced on the trail. Even if you don't stay at least stop by for a nice cold drink :)

peakbagger
07-11-2016, 15:51
That brook was the fed from the year round ice in the notch. I do suggest treating it as there is lot of human traffic through the notch.

TEXMAN
07-11-2016, 16:30
THanks everyone for the info ..I will be hiking southbound next Sunday and am planning on staying at that campsite if I get to Speck Pond shelter too early in the day....looks like good weather too!

Lone Wolf
07-11-2016, 16:34
That brook was the fed from the year round ice in the notch. I do suggest treating it as there is lot of human traffic through the notch.

one year i went through there was a dead moose in there

LIhikers
07-11-2016, 17:53
I seem to remember seeing a smaller place to camp at the south end of the notch, if that helps.

tdoczi
07-11-2016, 17:56
I seem to remember seeing a smaller place to camp at the south end of the notch, if that helps.


not sure if you mean the same thing but i, out of necessity, pitched my tent right at the junction of the notch trail and whatever the local name of the trail that continues up the next mountain as the AT towards full goose shelter. its possible, clearly, but theres really no campsite of any real kind there that i saw.

peakbagger
07-11-2016, 19:17
I agree not much for camping on the south end unless you head down the Notch trail.

tdoczi
07-12-2016, 08:17
I agree not much for camping on the south end unless you head down the Notch trail.


the confusion might be that the north end of the notch is trail south and vice versa.

fiddlehead
07-12-2016, 09:15
one year i went through there was a dead moose in there

And somebody stuck a cigarette in his mouth, remember?
I think it was either '89 or '91.