amstony
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- Apr 24, 2004
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SteveHiker and I trekked to Maine on a absolutely gorgeous Saturday and climbed to the summit of Old Speck.
As I drove along route 2 in Maine I rolled down my window,expecting some nice cool early morning air, and instead I was met with a blast of warm, humid air. This promised a very warm and humid day ahead for us. We had set up a meeting time of 8:30-9:00 AM, and I rolled into the trailhead at 8:45, SteveHiker beating me by 10 minutes.
We left the trailhead in Grafton Notch State Park at exactly 8:55 AM, heading up the Old Speck Trail. Quickly feeling the effects of the warm air, we stopped several times and took pictures of the waterfalls, and drank some water. As we converged on the junction of the Eyebrow Trail and Old Speck Trails (1.1 miles) we popped out on some nice ledges, took some pics, and drank more water. I started to wonder
if my new 2 liter EMS Camelback hydration backpack had enough water, but I still had a somewhat still frozen liter of water in the pack as a reserve, so was not too concerned. At this point we also met the only 2 hikers on the trail (until 1:30 PM), coming down from an early morning trip up Old Speck.
As we headed up, the trail remained relentless heading up, with a few ridge walks to catch our breath We rested at some nice ledges looking out into northern NH and the Mahoosucs..... and just more ups and ups. The trail was totally wet, some spots nearly had mud past our ankles, so we had to move carefully through or around those areas. We continued to comment on the humidity and warm temps, which did not seem to abate at all the higher we went! Although I personally, was grateful for the heat - but tirid of the cold wet month of May . And continued to drink water.......
At about 3500 feet we ran into yes- ICE AND SNOW!l As we traversed the first snowfield I did a perfect 4.0 flip right up into the air and onto my back!! Happily undamaged, I was all wet, dirty and laughing. So we continued to slog up through the intermittent ice and snow, and came out at a view point that showed what had to be Old Speck summit- way up there..............
We continued up the trail, carefully treading our way through the intermittent snow, some up nearly to the knee, and the ice. And then finally we were at the junction to the trail to the Old Speck summit, and popped up the onto the summit at 1155 AM!!
Then it was lunch time.......time to feed the grey jays, one of which attempted to get tinto SteveHikers backpack.....and then a climb up to the top of the tower. The views from the summit tower were great. The Northern Presi's were easily visible, despite the haze, and to the north we could see lots of snow on the summits of the 4K's. The Androscoggin River looked like a mirror from where we were. And then at 1225 we were heading down.
The trip down seemd much faster than the trip up, and we finally met our first 2 hikers at 1:30 who were heading up to the summit. As we descended we coninued to meet small groups of 2 hikers going to thesummit. We met maybe 10 people all day. The most interesting was the guy in white knee socks, nice street shoes, shorts, nice shirt- and a single bottle of water- ascending to the summit..... In contrast to our hiker attire, packs, first aid kits, lots of water...... As we reached the Eyebrow Trail /Old Speck junction SteveHiker made his 4.0 fall for the day on nice dry rocks, affording him the opportunity to use his first aid kit and liquid bandaid.....
At 2:45 we were at the trailhead, drinking water, changing clothes, laughing and discussing the next hikes! All in all a great and awesome day in Maine.
Few things: Parts of Rt 2 in Maine are under serious repair, starting as soon as you cross the border. The road is "gone", watch for the flying rocks, thick dust, and all as you drive. paving should start "soon".....
Total distance was 7.8 miles and 2,800 feet elevation gain.
Total round trip driving distance was 366 miles door to door.....gotta love it!!
I drank 2liters of water, and cracked open the reserve 3rd liter before the Eyebrow trail/Old Speck trail jundction on the descent.
It was #53 on my NE 67 list, and #49 on SteveHikers NE 67 list.
I hope to have some pictures up tomorrow, when I have access to my 21st century computer at work.
As I drove along route 2 in Maine I rolled down my window,expecting some nice cool early morning air, and instead I was met with a blast of warm, humid air. This promised a very warm and humid day ahead for us. We had set up a meeting time of 8:30-9:00 AM, and I rolled into the trailhead at 8:45, SteveHiker beating me by 10 minutes.
We left the trailhead in Grafton Notch State Park at exactly 8:55 AM, heading up the Old Speck Trail. Quickly feeling the effects of the warm air, we stopped several times and took pictures of the waterfalls, and drank some water. As we converged on the junction of the Eyebrow Trail and Old Speck Trails (1.1 miles) we popped out on some nice ledges, took some pics, and drank more water. I started to wonder
if my new 2 liter EMS Camelback hydration backpack had enough water, but I still had a somewhat still frozen liter of water in the pack as a reserve, so was not too concerned. At this point we also met the only 2 hikers on the trail (until 1:30 PM), coming down from an early morning trip up Old Speck.As we headed up, the trail remained relentless heading up, with a few ridge walks to catch our breath We rested at some nice ledges looking out into northern NH and the Mahoosucs..... and just more ups and ups. The trail was totally wet, some spots nearly had mud past our ankles, so we had to move carefully through or around those areas. We continued to comment on the humidity and warm temps, which did not seem to abate at all the higher we went!
Although I personally, was grateful for the heat - but tirid of the cold wet month of May . And continued to drink water.......At about 3500 feet we ran into yes- ICE AND SNOW!l
As we traversed the first snowfield I did a perfect 4.0 flip right up into the air and onto my back!! Happily undamaged, I was all wet, dirty and laughing. So we continued to slog up through the intermittent ice and snow, and came out at a view point that showed what had to be Old Speck summit- way up there.............. We continued up the trail, carefully treading our way through the intermittent snow, some up nearly to the knee, and the ice. And then finally we were at the junction to the trail to the Old Speck summit, and popped up the onto the summit at 1155 AM!!
Then it was lunch time.......time to feed the grey jays, one of which attempted to get tinto SteveHikers backpack.....and then a climb up to the top of the tower. The views from the summit tower were great. The Northern Presi's were easily visible, despite the haze, and to the north we could see lots of snow on the summits of the 4K's. The Androscoggin River looked like a mirror from where we were. And then at 1225 we were heading down.
The trip down seemd much faster than the trip up, and we finally met our first 2 hikers at 1:30 who were heading up to the summit. As we descended we coninued to meet small groups of 2 hikers going to thesummit. We met maybe 10 people all day. The most interesting was the guy in white knee socks, nice street shoes, shorts, nice shirt- and a single bottle of water- ascending to the summit..... In contrast to our hiker attire, packs, first aid kits, lots of water...... As we reached the Eyebrow Trail /Old Speck junction SteveHiker made his 4.0 fall
for the day on nice dry rocks, affording him the opportunity to use his first aid kit and liquid bandaid..... At 2:45 we were at the trailhead, drinking water, changing clothes, laughing and discussing the next hikes! All in all a great and awesome day in Maine.
Few things: Parts of Rt 2 in Maine are under serious repair, starting as soon as you cross the border. The road is "gone", watch for the flying rocks, thick dust, and all as you drive. paving should start "soon".....
Total distance was 7.8 miles and 2,800 feet elevation gain.
Total round trip driving distance was 366 miles door to door.....gotta love it!!
I drank 2liters of water, and cracked open the reserve 3rd liter before the Eyebrow trail/Old Speck trail jundction on the descent.
It was #53 on my NE 67 list, and #49 on SteveHikers NE 67 list.
I hope to have some pictures up tomorrow, when I have access to my 21st century computer at work.
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