Alumni Moonshiner online

Willsboro, NY                                         July 1, 2009                                           since 1905

     Former Pok-O-MacCready camper, counselor, section head and wilderness director Jim Kobak reached a personal milestone on Monday, June 29 when he reached the summit of North Brother mountain in Baxter State Park, Maine. 

     North Brother was the last summit on Kobak’s list as he worked towards finishing the Northeast 111 peaks.  Incidentally, North Brother was not Jim’s 111th peak, rather, due to a strange bit of New England math, there are actually 115 mountains on the NE111 list of 4000′ peaks.  There are 48 in NY, including all of the Adirondack 46rers and Slide and Hunter Mts in the Catskills.  There are 48 4000′ers in NH, 14 in ME and 5 in VT.

     Kobak had needed North Brother peak ever since August, 2007 when he finished the NH 48 on Mt. Isolation, giving him 114 of the 111.  ”I had previously been to Baxter State Park in February of 2006 for a winter assault on Katahdin’s Baxter and Hamlin peaks.  Because of work commitments, and my competitive skiing schedule, I was unable to climb North Brother on that trip.”

     This trip involved a ten hour drive from Peru, NY to Millinocket, ME.  North Brother is in Baxter State Park, in the great north woods of Maine, “AKA the middle of  nowhere.”  Accompanying Jim on this trip was his wife Amy Kobak. “Luckily for us, the state of Maine had been enjoying the wettest June on record, with almost nine inches of rain.  Most of that water was flowing right down the North Brother Trail as we waded up towards the summit.  The weather was rainy and socked in, although there was a  brief peek of sunshine on the descent.”

     Kobak, a winter 46er and five-time Patch Sprint world champion, is believed to be the second camp alumnus to have completed the Northeast’s highest mountains, following in the footsteps of fellow counselor Dan Herbert, who completed his quest in 2006.6