Moose's Hoof, WLWF, 24 Oct, 2019

[Tick Magnet]

I last visited the Moose's Hoof in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest four and a half years ago and have been looking for an excuse to revisit the area. Today, Tredhed and I had a chance to work the hike into our busy schedules. After spending the night at the Hamilton County Mosquito Preserve, we hit the Rt. 8 trailhead in Wells at a reasonable hour.


As we signed into the woods, I was surprised to see that 33 entries were in the trail register before ours. It's good to see people checking out this neat area.


The blue disked trail heads uphill, away from the noise of Rt. 8.


Wednesday morning's rain really made Georgia Brook howl.


The Algonquin Snowblazers have done some recent work to clear some of the blowdown along the trail. Thanks folks!


In .5 miles or so, we came to the junction with the Georgia Brook trail and began our bushwhack. We soon crested the wooded peak of the lesser "hoof".


Dropping into the saddle between the two hooves, we noticed some really neat erratics. This one kind of has a Halloween face in it?


Heading up out of the saddle, we soon started to see open rock.


In no time, we crested the 1645' peak of the "Hoof" and the scenery was pretty neat.


I really enjoyed some of the fragile mosses that were on the large expanse of open rock.


The views of Buckhorn Mt. were spectacular.




After a while on top of the "Hoof", we headed down to the saddle and went downhill to the hunter's trail. The informal hunter's trail took us near the trail junction. It was a short walk back to the trailhead and a hot cup of coffee.


We spent about a couple hours in the woods this morning on a short hike up this small hill. The views were great and the weather was even better. Not a bad way to spend a fantastic fall morning.

[Justin]

Oh man what a nice day to be out in the woods!
Nice photos.
I’m hoping Saturday will be nice before the rain moves in.

[Tick Magnet]

Thanks Justin!

It was beautiful.. A little frosty at the start, but it warmed up nice.

Saturday should be good! Can't wait to see your adventures.

[JohnnyVirgil]

I'm jealous. I sat at my desk all day...thanks for the report!

[Tick Magnet]

Thanks JV! Don't worry, while you're exploring the wilderness this weekend, I'll be stuck behind my desk at "work".

[JohnnyVirgil]

I hate you a little bit right now.

[snapper]

Wow...nice hike. Sure beats time in the office. Thanks for sharing. Always appreciated.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

[Schultzz]

Nice rock! Thanks for the pics.

[Justin]

I’ve heard there is a nice view near the Moose Knuckle also.

[Tick Magnet]

Originally Posted by Justin

I’ve heard there is a nice view near the Moose Knuckle also.

[Zach]

I'd never heard of the Moose's Hoof before. Thanks for posting, that peak area is really beautiful and the close-up of whatever that white stuff is in the moss is great. I don't even know if it's a lichen or something else. I don't know much of anything about lichens and fungi and mosses, but I find them endlessly interesting to look at and someday I'd like to learn more about them.
Zach

[Tick Magnet]

Originally Posted by Zach

I'd never heard of the Moose's Hoof before. Thanks for posting, that peak area is really beautiful and the close-up of whatever that white stuff is in the moss is great. I don't even know if it's a lichen or something else. I don't know much of anything about lichens and fungi and mosses, but I find them endlessly interesting to look at and someday I'd like to learn more about them.
Zach

Thanks Zach.

The "hoof" is actually the SW part of Moose Mt. (the one near Griffin and Rt. 8). There are some more prominent ledges near the twin summits of Moose Mt. with spectacular views. Unfortunately, we didn't hit them up on Thursday as it's a little longer walk than we had time for.

The moss/lichen was all over the place up there and we had to walk carefully so as not to step on it. When we accidentally did, it crunched under foot. I felt bad; LNT and all that.