Coming off Big Spruce, we followed old twitch roads NNW toward the base of Whitecap Mountain and the White Brook Trail. Moose signs were very prevalent throughout here, as were deer signs later on the same trail. There was a frozen swamp we wandered through, and the snow lessened to no more than 6" depth. By 11:30 AM, we were at the waterfall which forks the trail into the White Brook cut-off trail to the Appalachian Trail (AT) between Whitecap and Hay Mountains, and the old Fire Warden's Trail which runs steeply and directly to the summit of Whitecap. We had hiked 3.8 miles to this point. Choosing the Fire Warden's Trail, we followed the most direct route, despite the snow on the ground and the snow which began to fall from the sky. We replenished our water supplies at the waterfall, using Peter's water filter.

The Fire Warden's Trail is a little less than a mile long, leading from the fork in the trail. The terrain is very steep, and with snow depth increasing to 8-12", this part of the trip was easily the most physically demanding. We took turns breaking trail and with my axe I took out eight separate trees (mostly minor in size) blown down across the trail while climbing up and down Whitecap. The summit (elevation 3,644') was windy and icy, with the sleet in the wind stinging our faces as we celebrated reaching the summit.

We decided to see what the ridgeline was like across the AT, which proved to be a gentler descent and a pleasant walk in snowy woods through ~10" of fallen snow. When we got to the White Brook cut-off trail at 2:45 PM, we decided it would be best to forego the next three mountains, and instead back-track to our trucks. As much as we wanted to achieve our goal, safety and our group's well-being took precedence. We followed down through the cut-off trail, returning to the White Brook trailhead, a circuit up and down Whitecap 4.25 miles long.

At the top of the White Brook trail, we decided to break into two groups and simultaneously collect both of our trucks. It was only 2 miles to Peter's truck through the frozen swamp and some minor bushwhacking. Peter and Roger followed this route while Mark and I continued down the White Brook Trail, which became a passable woods road. We eventually came to the intersection to the road to Gulf Hagas Mountain (over a bridge with some broken planks we had to replace to cross over). We continued up the hill to my waiting truck, arriving at about 4:45 PM just as it was getting dark. We had traveled about 4.5 miles in roughly 1 ¾ hours.

Driving out, Mark and I met up with Roger and Peter at High Bridge, unloaded Roger's stuff from Peter's truck so we could head back to Greenville (Peter's lives about 30 minutes away in Milo), and the three of us arrived at my house in time for supper. We had traveled over two peaks totaling 6,747' in total elevation, approximately 2,600' in total elevation gain, and 12.5 miles in maximum distance hiked. There was a small gathering of friends waiting for us to see how we did. We shared our story with everyone, and realized that at any age (within the previous week one of us had just turned 35, the other 62, the rest of our troupe within this range of ages) physical challenge, leadership and friendship all can intersect on snowy mountain peaks in November in Maine. It doesn't matter how difficult the journey: there can be no greater reward than to share adversity with friends, find the reward of personal accomplishment and physical beauty from atop a snowy Maine mountain, and to finish the day safe and sound and in the good company of family and friends. Some will ask me "why did you do all of that this weekend"? I will ask them in turn, "Why haven't you tried doing the same"?
Keep climbing!