A Day in Evans Notch

The Hikers · Apr 18, 2009

We have had a few tough weeks with the conclusion of some legal matters,and last week with me spending some time in the hospital with
severe dehydration. I got myself signed out just in time to make a singing commitment, and then again on Easter where I gave a zombie performance, I'm sure.
Anyway Joyce did some schedule manipulations when we saw that Friday would be a nice WARM day, and we set off for Evans notch and Speckled Mountain. We love to do this one from Brickett Place, and go over Blueberry Mountain to Speckled, and then back down the "easy way" by the Bickford
Brook Trail.

When we got to the Cold River Campground we could see that the 113 was still closed at the gate. Just then we saw Roy , who takes care of the campground, drive in, so we went over to talk to him. He told us an amusing story about leading a friend over Blueberry this winter, saying the friend found out "When Roy says it, it's true".These word were to haunt us, as you will find out. Anyway Roy advised us that there was "a lot of snow" up there.

We parked the car at the Gate and got ready to walk the 1 or 2 tenths to the Brickett Place

Joyce left before me so she could use the very adequate facilities at the trailhead. I finished up getting ready, circled the car checking the doors, and the rear right door opened setting off the alarm. Hearing the commotion, Joyce started back towards the car, thinking there was trouble. It took me a minute or two with my pack on to get to the disable.

The Brickett Place

All The Signs You Need

We headed up the Bickford Brook, hung a right at the Blueberry Ridge Trail, crossed the river and spent a few minutes trying not to make our previous mistake of going left instead of straight, and then began a fairly steep climb
up Blueberry Ridge.
It was a PERFECT day. I was already formulating in my head what a great report we would have of this wonderful day.The temperature and conditions were just great. We were soon hiking in one layer, and thinking of going to shorts soon. There are magnificent views on the Blueberry Ledges, and DO
take the extra CTA loop. Joyce says this is her favorite terrain, open ledges
and cairns. We took pictures and snacked several times, and were generally having a great day.

As we proceded we would come across some patches of snow making the trail
somewhat indistinct, but today we were very careful and didn't get side tracked.
Now we headed up towards Ames Mountain, and almost immediately conditions changed. Closed in by spruce, the snow was still deep, and NOT packed down. We could see traces of Roy's trip, but obviously NOBODY
else had been on this trail. Open areas became less frequent, and deep
snow more likely. PERFECT soon became TORMENT as , with even the most careful walking, postholing down to torso was a common occurence.
The belief that things would get better, and the memory of what we had already done, kept us moving forward. Slowly, painfully, ($%%##%^%^) forward. At this point Joyce saw some good sized bear tracks which WE WERE
FOLLOWING. The thought of being postholed in the thick spruce with a bear around was more than she could tolerate. Added to the constant work of pulling onselves out, we were not having a perfect day.

I suppose you are saying , "Why didn't you bring snowshoes?"
Just shut up,
Please

I kept us going by constantly saying we were almost to the Bickford Brook Junction, and there things would be better. My thought was that , being
an old loggin road, and wider than the usual trail, the going would be easier.
At length we reached the junction. And read the sign pointing out the summit in another.5 miles. Obviously NO ONE had been on this trail, not even the bear.And the snow depth was no better because now we were on the North
side of the mountain.

It was easy to decide to skip the summit and head on down the Bickford, saving at least another mile of Posthole Hell. But the Bickford doesn't lose much elevation at first, and we were in for another good mile of Hell before bare spots started to show up around 2200 feet. When we saw these, it was
as if we were astronauts getting our feet back on solid ground.
We put ourselves on automatic and chugged on down towards the trailhead.
We stopped for about ten minutes while I lay down on a rock , which felt like
a bed to me, and I took a rest.
When we got to the trailhead there was a large group of young hikers from Bowdoin College. They were all suited up with bedrolls and everything and heading up towards speckled. After they saw us and heard about conditions, they willingly went back to their vehicles and got their snowshoes.

So, anyway, we are healing from our torture now, and I hope the question is
finally put to rest: this time of year, BRING THE ^%$%^ SNOWSHOES

Oh yes, and ALWAYS believe Roy

1HappyHiker · Apr 18, 2009

Very entertaining, and very informative TR!

From your experience, plus my own experiences over the past week or so, I think it’s fair to say that the snow is really “hanging tough” in a lot of places!