On the north side of the Androscoggin, nearly opposite the Shelburne station on the Grand Trunk Railroad, rises Baldcap, a mountain lying partly in the town of Shelburne and partly in Success. It is in fact a miniature mountain system, consisting of several chains of ledge-crowned knobs radiating from a great central mass. The hollows between its many heads are the resting-places of pretty ponds, and the streams of which these are the sources only find the valley by steep plunges over the great walls of granitic rock. Mr. E. B. Cook (A.M.C.)1. and the ladies of his family, often accompanied by other friends, made this mountain an object of exploration during several seasons, namely, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, and 1877. In the following sketch, the pronoun we will be frequently used, but any considerable result from the explorations must always be referred to the superior knowledge of woodcraft, and the almost unerring divination of the best route to reach an end, possessed by Mr. Cook.
The central mass of the mountain rises from the river, in four rocky terraces or knobs, each one to the northward higher than the preceding. The heights of these points were approximately ascertained by Mr. Cook with a Casella aneroid, using the Smithsonian tables of Prof. Arnold Guyot. The knob nearest the river is known as "Mt. Joe" 2., and is about 1,670 feet in height (above the sea level); the next elevation, having no proper name, was called by us temporarily "Middle Mountain" an attains an altitude of about 2,000 feet; next follows the bare, ledgy front from which the mountain takes its name, and which is the part usually visited; this measures 2,736 feet 3.. The view from this point scarcely equals that from Mt. Hayes, and, like that view, is cut off toward the north or northeast by the long back of the mountain. Descending from this crest toward the north, a little west, for a mile or more, a shallow pond is reached, known to many as Dream Lake, the elevation of which is 2,600 feet.
Our usual mode of ascent from the valley was over Joe and Middle Mountains, to the ledgy font top; and, in the summer of 1877, Mr. R.S. Chase 4. (A.M.C.), of Haverhill, Mass., and his sons cut a path over this route as far as Dream Lake. In climbing the main front of the mountain, it is better to keep well to the right, as the ledges are very steep.
From the northeastern end of Dream Lake, a unique view is obtained of Mts. Washington, Adams, and Madison.1 The upper half of these blue peaks is framed in by the pretty sheet of water and its wild, spruce-grown shore, the whole intervening country being hidden. About midway of the mossy southeastern shore is an excellent spring, most acceptable at dinner-time.
1 The Club owns a picture of this view, painted and presented by Miss Edith W. Cook, of Hoboken, N.J.
At the end of three seasons spent near its foot, our knowledge of this part of Baldcap was bound by this lake. Our resolution to find the true summit was formed by observing the mountain, first from Mt. Moriah, and afterwards from the Gorham road, the attractive point being a dark, dome-like mass, evidently overtopping all about it. This summit was finally reached (July 27, 1876) by Mr. Cook, another gentleman, and three ladies. This highest peak of Baldcap 5. measures about 3,080 feet above the sea level. The route to be followed from the lake is west of north, over a gentle rise, across a small stream, and then up the dome. The birch and spruce woods are readily passed through, and the distance from this point to the front ledge, usually visited, is about two miles. The entire distance from the "Gates Cottage" 6. to the highest summit of baldcap, by the route here described, is between four and five miles, as roughly guessed, no measurement having been made.
As to the top itself, fire once swept the great trees, whose bleached stumps remain, and the young spruces, growing between the ledges, do not materially obstruct the view, which is clear in every direction. In addition to the White Mountains proper, the Carter and Moriah ranges, Royce, Caribou, Baldface, and other heights on the Maine border, are well seen; then come the hills about Bethel, and the long ridge of which Robinson's Peak is part; and then an old friend, known to us as "Success" (being in that town), but named on Mr. Walling's map as Mt. Ingalls.7. Just beyond are "Carlo" (so called by us after our faithful walking companion of Mr. Cook's), the remarkable peaks of Goose-Eye, and the elephant-like Speckled Mountain (Old Speck) of the Bear River Notch.
Thus far, the broad flanks of Baldcap have shut us off from all intervening valleys, but now, toward the north, the dome on which we stand slopes rapidly away into the wild Success wilderness, beyond whose velvety folds and waves rise the blue mountains about Lake Umbagog and the Dixville Notch. Again, to the left, we look down on Berlin, just below us, and away up the Androscoggin, to the wild country beyond Dummer. Among the lesser hills to the west, the inevitable Percy peaks are conspicuous, seen up the Dead River Valley. Then the Pilots, Randolph Mountains, and Cherry Mountain, would bring you to the great peaks once more; but, if you will look critically at the sharp edge of Jefferson or Adams, you will observe a distant serrated line and slope. This line can be no other than that of Mt. Lafayette. This fact was verified in 1878, from the top of the latter peak.
One way of descending Baldcap is by following down the outlet of Dream Lake. This stream is known as the Peabody Brook, and on it are the Giant Falls. These falls lie on the western flank of the central portion of the mountain. After a heavy rain, these truly magnificent cascades are visible from the high road near Lead-mine Bridge, and it is at such a season that they should be visited. From their head, a charming view is obtained of the long ravine in which they lie, with the great peaks far away over the Androscoggin valley. The stream shoots and slides for several hundred feet over successive ledges of solid rock, and, when the water is high, the effect is imposing. The Giant Falls are well known in the neighborhood, the distance to them being only from one and a half to two miles from the Peabody farm, and the way very easy. In 1878, a path was cut to them, following the western bank of the brook.
The only one of Baldcap's ponds on the Walling map is Page's pond, which we saw for the first time from the mountain summit, lying far below us. We visited soon after, by way of Lead-mine Brook, making acquaintance with three more of our mountain's westernmost knobs on the route.
Let us now pass to the treasures on the eastern slopes. At different times the late Mr. Harvey Philbrook and Mr. Lary (of Shelburne) spoke to us of a remarkable "flume", which they had seen years before on a logging expedition, and whose situation was somewhere between Baldcap and "Success" (Mt. Ingalls); where, exactly, Mr. Lary could not tell us. This information was the key-note of our explorations in that quarter, for every new water-fall we came across was conjectured to be the flume. During the summer of 1873, we frequently observed from the high-road, or the hill west of Mr. Philbrook's boarding house, a bare rock on the southeast wall of the mountain, over which sparkled a stream, said stream becoming a torrent of foam in wet weather. Two of our ladies (one now a member of the club) made a preliminary investigation of a route to this fall, by following one of the Mill Brook wood-roads as far as the logging camp, about two and a half to three miles from the high-road. This camp is built upon the branch of Mill Brook on which the fall was afterward found. Sept. 28, 1875, Mr. Cook and party ascended the branch and climbed the cascade, a very beautiful one in wet weather. The name, Dry-ad Falls, given by Mr. Cook, alludes to its aspect in any but a rainy season. Under the proper conditions, it is nearly as fine as the Giant Falls. The water descends over steep ledges several hundred feet, and the climb to the top is rewarded by fine views down the Mill Brook ravine towards Mt. Success 8.. The stream above leads back into the high, wild hollow of the central mountain mass, and the adjoining eminences command some peculiar views of the surrounding heights.
Not yet satisfied that we had found the "flume" spoken of, and always attracted by the chain of heads leading off toward Mt. Success, on Sept. 12, 1876, we followed our usual route to Dryad Falls, and then, scaling the more northerly heights and keeping along the edge of the steep eastern slope, we gained a summit whose cliffs barred farther progress to the north. Turning westward, down an incline, we soon came upon a small sheet of water, partially filled with lily-pads, and surrounded by beds of moss. This was an explanation of the deer tracks which had so often helped us through a stiff place in the spruces, and here (as at the other ponds) we found quite recent prints of hoofs on the soft shore. The outlet led us to the north, by lovely cascades to a lower terrace, where another surprise awaited us. This was an exquisite pond, larger than the other, occupying a hollow, cliff-surrounded on three sides, and from whose eastern end there is a picturesque view toward Success, and over the Androscoggin valley to the Royce and Caribou group of mountains. Having gathered some bottle-gentian by the shore, we ventured to bestow the name of Gentian Pond.
The upper sheet of water we named "Caribou Pond" but finding later that "Mt. Calabo" in Maine was rightly "Mt. Caribou," we though that name liable to occasion confusion, and now suggest "Moss Pond" 9. as a more appropriate appellation.
The waters from Gentian Pond find the Mill Brook valley by a succession of falls, beginning at the very mouth of the lake. The rocks are overgrown with dark, green moss, from whose trailing ends the water descends in threads, in dry weather, suggesting to "our artist" (Miss Cook) the idea of calling them the "Dripping Wells." Not far from the foot of these falls, we struck the head of an old wood-road, which, through a rather rough guide, conducted us past an upper logging-camp to the well-known one on the Dryad Falls Branch.
Again we had seen many treasures, but not the "flume," although, as we afterwards discovered, we had passed within 200 yards of it. Four days later (Sept 16), Mr. Cook, with two ladies, made a final search, rewarded with success. At the point where the wood-road to the lower logging-camp crosses to the west bank of Mill Brook, and diverges from it, we took to the stream, determined to see its whole course. Above the junction of the Dryad Falls branch the brook has no important fork until just below the wood-road head which we had struck on our previous excursion. Here we found the long sought object, exactly as described by Mr. Lary. The branch coming in from the right (looking up the stream) passes between perpendicular walls of rock, to join that from Gentian Pond, and offers a sort of miniature likeness of the great Franconia Flume.
Curious as the place is, and glad as we were to have found it, we would not give in exchange for it our other Baldcap knowledge. "Lary's Flume" is about four and a half to five miles from the high-road, and may be reached by an old logging road, but the latter has too many forks to make it possible to give a satisfactory description of this route. Below the Flume, on Mill Brook, are several beautiful cascades, only to be seen by following the stream, and on the same brook, about a mile from the high-road, are the well known "Bowls and Pitchers," curious falls and pot-holes worn in the solid granite.
The same day we climbed the height beyond Gentian Pond, in the hope of obtaining a view into the Success wilderness, but could find no bare ledges looking northward. This knob is, I believe, Baldcap's last outlier 10. in the direction of Mt. Ingalls (Success).
Aug. 17, 1877, Mr. Cook and party, with Mr. Chase and his sons, made the whole round of Dryad Falls, Moss Pond, Gentian Pond, Dripping-Wells, and Lary's Flume in one day.
1. Eugene B. Cook was AMC Councillor of Explorations and the brother of Lucia Pychowska.
2. Mt. Joe is known and identified today as First Mountain. Elevation has been confirmed at 1685' .
3. First of tripart Baldcap summits, now identified as Bald Cap Peak , elevation 2,795'.
4. R. Stuart Chase was a founding member of the Appalachian Mountain Club.
5. Second of tripart Baldcap summits, now identified as Bald Cap , elevation 3,065'.
6. Gates Cottage was burned by the town of Shelburne in 1994. Only remnants of the foundation remain.
7. Referred to summit is in fact Mt. Success in Success township near the Maine border.
8. In this paragraph, the author appears to be referring to the summit now identified as Mt. Ingalls, directly north of the Philbrook Farm and not Mt. Success.
9. This pond is identified as Upper Gentian Pond on USGS topographic maps, but still bears a sign along the Appalachian Trail identifying it as Moss Pond.
10. Third of the tripart Baldcap summits is North Bald Cap, elevation 2,893'.
Additional Notes: M.F. Sweetser's 1918 "A Guide to the White Mountains" used the Pychowska description of their hike to the summit of Bald Cap in the guide and adopted the name of Mt. Joe for First Mountain. At the same time, the official 1917 AMC "A Guide to Paths in the White Mountains and Adjacent Regions" also described Pychowska's hike to Bald Cap, but identified First Mountain by that name. All subsequent recorded maps for the region identify the peak as First Mountain.
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