Deboullie Mountain Ice Caves Traditional Cache
Deboullie Mountain Ice Caves
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Deboullie Mountain gets its name from the French word for "fallen," referring to the fallen rock in the Deboullie Slide. It is the highest of a small cluster of mountains in the wilderness south of St. Francis on the New Brunswick border. This cache will take you to a series of ice caves, some of which you can enter, some containing ice year round!
Owned by the state of Maine in a 15,000-acre tract, the mountain is surrounded by (Bowater) Great Northern and International Paper Company lands, whose roads provide the lengthy approach. This area is easily accessed by unpaved roads after crossing the Fish River Checkpoint just west of Portage Lake. Use of DeLorme's Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (Map 63) and or a laptop with DeLorme's Topo is a must as you are travelling on unpaved paper company roads. There is a fee of $5.00 per person entering the North Maine Woods through Fish River Checkpoint.
If you are hiking all the way, walk northeast down to the old dam between Pushineer Pond and the Red River. Wade across the river or walk over the old dam or if you have a 4x4 vehicle, you can drive right through, careful of the rocks, skirting the NMW Pushineer Pond Campsite on your left, and continue walking the woods road (or driving). At 0.4 mile, pass on your left the NMW Thoroughfare Campsite, and at 0.5 mile, pass on your left the NMW Deboullie Campsite. The road will stop here so if you drove into this area, park here. Coordinates for this parking spot is N46 57.849 W068 50.305. From all three campsites you can see the tower on Deboullie's summit. Then start/continue your hike on the Deboullie Trail.
At 0.8 mile, look carefully on your right for the remains of a rotting, abandoned boat, and shortly on your left is a small abandoned dump with a wooden sign that says 'Tower.' The trail leaves from behind the dump, follows the shore of Deboullie Pond, and crosses the Deboullie Slide, where lichen-patched rocks are sprinkled with spears of fireweed, making a green and pink color combination in August. The trail stays near shore beyond the slide until shortly, at 2 miles, it runs into a campsite with a sign to the tower. Instead of going to the tower at the campsite's rear, keep heading straight follong the outhouse sign. If it is a hot day, you will feel the air start to cool down as you near the big moss covered boulders. The cache is located VERY close to a large cave (with a small entrance) where I climbed in with 2 friends and a large dog. Enjoy the cool down and watching your breath! The cave is located mere feet beyond a VERY LARGE _ _ _ _ _ _ _. (use hint if you want)
Return by the same trail to your vechicle.
(If interested and want to use your canoe, put in at Pushineer Pond below the dead end sign, follow the right (east) shoreline through the thoroughfare into Deboullie Pond, and canoe two-thirds of Deboullie's right (north) shoreline, past a rock slide to a break in the alders leading to a campsite. Follow the trail exiting the left of the camp towards the outhouse.)
Have fun, bring lots of water, hiking gear and bug spray, be ready for a round trip hike of 5 to 6 miles. The trails are really nice and well marked with blue blazes. Make sure you hide the cache where you found it. Most important, enjoy the North Maine Woods and leave no trace behind as to destroy the beauty of this land!! This cache can be done in conjunction with the Deboullie Mountain Summit cache and the Red River Falls cache.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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Treasures
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