Like so many before us, we milled around the summit loop trail and marveled at the views. Unlike most of our fellow visitors this is not the first mountain we have been to the top of. So we were very suspicious when we couldn't locate the metal benchmark which is the hallmark of mountain summits and most other points of geodetic interest in the U.S. We also noticed a second summit several hundred yards away that seemed just a bit higher than where we were standing. So we set off to investigate . . .
We found a discretely marked "South Ridge Trail" that headed off in this general direction and followed it up grade. Once near the top we noticed several potential high points, one of which had a pointer benchmark indicating the direction to a small rocky outcropping a few yards away. On top of this rock we found what we had been searching for. Of the hundred plus people wandering around the area at the time, we were the only ones who truly stood atop Cadillac Mountain.
Why would the National Park Service perpetrate this deception on the public? First they never actually point out any one spot in their "summit area" as the actual summit. They just let people wander around the area and come to their own conclusions. There are also a myriad of signs indicating that the hundreds of millions of annual human foot falls are a major source of erosion on the top of the mountain. Add to this to the fact that an easily accessible and publicized summit benchmark is a target for souvenir hunters, and I suspect the Park Service is just balancing its commitment between public access and protection of our natural resources.
-- Post From Shawn's iPhone
Location:High atop Cadillac Mountain , ME
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