Old Speck, New Friends #58 -- 10/1/05

[Double Bow]

Myself, Shamie, Arghman, and a couple of new friends (Beth and Shannon) spent the weekend camping together. On Saturday, we headed up to Old Speck which would be for all of us, except Arghman, out first hike in the Mahoosucs. I was pretty happy to be doing a new 4K. The Hancocks the day before were fun but, I wanted to explore something I hadn't done before.

The day was warm and beautiful as we started up The Eyebrow. This is a very interesting trail to a ledge with good views. Along the way, there are heavy duty cables forming a handrail as well as actual handrails in the rock where water is running and ladders as well. It was a lot of fun doing this steep climb to the ledge but, I definately would NOT recommend coming down this trail or doing it is rainy or icy conditions.

We took a break at the ledge before continuing on up. The rest of the trail climbs a bit less steeply but has numerous ups and downs. Arghman jokingly referred to the numerous bumps as Old Speck "E", Old Speck "D", etc a la Wildcats. I really enjoyed the climb though it seemed a little longer than the 3.8mi the sign said.

Once at the summit, we were suprised to see that an expansive view had been cut. I had expected it to be wooded and that the view could only be obtained from the summit. I can't recall another place where this has been done. We climbed the tower and enjoyed the expansive view. Back down, we had lunch and Arghman played with the Gray Jays. While eating, someone came over and asked if one of us owned the Silver Forrester in the parking lot. My heart sunk. I wondered what had happened to my car. I replied that it was mine and the guy said he saw my VFTT sticker and said that he was Lawnsale (great meeting you)! Arghman and I introduced ourselves and we talked for a bit. The girls were talking to a woman from the Czech Republic. She was in her 30s and was wearing a beret and a cordoroy miniskirt!

We hung out for a while and Lawnsale headed back down to rejoin his slower friends. A little while after we started down the "Czech Czick" passed us. She was flying down the trail! A little later, we caught up to Lawnsale and his friends. Thet asked us if the woman was wearing a top when she left the summit because she wasn't wearing one when she passed them! We talked a little bit and then went our seperate ways.

Everything went smoothly until the last mile. We passed the juntion with the Eyebrow. We had enjoyed passing some cascades but all of a sudden, Shannon said she was fainting. She plopped down fast and dislocated one of her fingers in the process! Then, she quickly looked at it and popped it back into place!! We made sure she drank some water, took some Advil, and rested a bit before we wrapped her figure in a bandanna made cold from brook. She was able to make a fist with no problem so, we knew it wasn't broken. She also told us that fainting is nothing new to her. She kept her hand elevated and we got back to the car with no further issue and even stopped to take some pictures of the cascades (pics to come). The next day, she said her hand felt only a little sore.

Overall, the weather was great, the hike was fun, and I had the chance to hike with new and old friends. I couldn't ask for much more than that!

 

[MichaelJ]

Yikes - I hope Shannon's okay!

Sounds like you had a great time otherwise. I can't wait to see the pictures (of the cascades, of course )

 

[arghman]

This was actually the first time I'd had occasion to hike w/ Double Bow (despite meeting him a year or two ago). Thanks for leading this one, Ross!

Here's that gray jay. There were at least two of them actually. They weren't going to get any of my food, but then I remembered I had my apple core. (another few ounces I didn't have to carry down! )They also managed to beg me out of two peanut butter chips.


the "clearcut" at the summit


I have a hard time classifying Old Speck with the other Mahoosucs, though. It has the requisite ups & downs, but it's wooded and not very boggy. That, after doing some prehike research, I expected, but was rather disappointed to find out the Mahoosuc Trail just sort of stops in the middle of nowhere 0.3 miles from the summit of Old Speck. Not a particularly fitting end to an epic trail.

re: the wooded summit -- are there records of fires in the WMNF / ME western mts? I am puzzled. All of the Mahoosucs are below climatic treeline, but they have many open stretches. (Ditto for Shelburne Moriah which deserves the Mahoosucs [TM] label more than Old Speck, IMHO) I would guess a fire was involved... but there are records of plant sightings from back in the Pychowska days (1880s -- imagine hiking the Mahoosucs without any trails!!!!!) that would indicate open terrain... if the open areas were due to fire, it would have been long before that.

 

[Artex]

Great TRs and pics!

 

[Tom Rankin]

Wow, freakiest trip report I've read in along time!

 

[Double Bow]

It was a fun, INTERESTING day!

Here are some pics. Sorry, there are none of the Czech czick!

 

[Gator]

Sorry, there are none of the Czech czick!

this tr is worthless

 

[Lawn Sale]

It was also great to meet all of you, very nice chatting at the top.

I did get some pictures of the Czech chick at the top, along with everyone else (they haven't been developed yet), but she was wearing her top then.

I found it to be a nice hike and the best day so far this year. I was going to do some local hiking but my next door neighbor asked me to chaperone her and a potentially new boyfriend who she knew 30-35 years ago (she's in her mid 50's). The hike started out milder than I expected, looking at the terrain I expected something more like the south side of Moody Mountain. At about 2,500' elevation, just above the falls, there is a bald spot on the rocks where we met 2 younger lawyers who were also hiking that section. They all chatted a bit about divorce laws, accident laws, and liberal political talk (they were all extremely liberal and I was the only conservative), when this Czech girl comes hiking up the trail. She was good looking, obviously worked out, and petite..."eye candy" is a good term, but not model quality (sorry if this offends some people out there, but I am still a guy ) She hiked past us about 20', took off her pack, and sat down. I glanced over occasionally as she was behind me, and I was trying to avoid the ongoing dialog to keep my blood pressure down. Well, one of the times I glanced over I saw her just whip off her white shirt, like she was changing her socks or something else mundane, and to my amazement she wasn't wearing a bra. The woman lawyer saw it too, and couldn't believe it, and her boyfriend was arguing with her too much when she tried to say something, so he didn't notice for about 5 minutes. After a solid 10 minutes of sitting there eating a snack and resting she stood up, put on her pack, and continued hiking up the mountain, still with no shirt on.

I've been hiking a long time, but I've never seen someone do that before! I soon separated from my "children", who were behaving themselves so I could make it to the top, and pretty much jogged the last 1,200' of elevation, but I never caught up with her until the summit. It was there I heard her say she was from the Czech republic, which did explain the optional shirt. Women (and men) in other countries think nothing of removing clothes for sunbathing, doing chores, etc, so while it's commonplace for them, it's not for us.

It was a sweet hike back down, but my friends were very slow and kept taking 10 minute breaks along the way. On one of them I mentioned we should move along because we weren't going to be getting out until after dark, but she disagreed and said we had plenty of time. Sure enough, we had to use the headlights I insisted we bring for the last 1/2 mile of the trail.

That night we camped in Bethel so I could make sure my 4 season tent was up to snuff and try out some new camping gear and recipes. Around 1AM we heard a pack of coyotes kill someone's dog, I felt really bad, but they were a good 1/2 mile away and there was nothing I could do. It was awful listening to that dog yelp and howl while the coyotes were in a frenzy. The following day we drove up Mt. Washington for some great views and then headed to IME and Ragged Mountain in North Conway.

It was nice to meet all of you again, and thanks for putting the VFTT sticked on your car, I never would have thought to ask otherwise.

 

[yam]

very interesting TRs!!

 

[Nadine]

Nice TR. Sounds like everyone had a good time. I've met topless spring skiing sunbathers at ski resorts in France---never seen any at Sugarloaf though

Poor dog, how horrible to be eaten alive by coyotes

The Mahoosucs are awesome!

 

[frytz]

I have a hard time classifying Old Speck with the other Mahoosucs, though. It has the requisite ups & downs, but it's wooded and not very boggy. That, after doing some prehike research, I expected, but was rather disappointed to find out the Mahoosuc Trail just sort of stops in the middle of nowhere 0.3 miles from the summit of Old Speck. Not a particularly fitting end to an epic trail.

I think it is a very fitting end (or beginning) of the most interesting trail in the Whites! Of all the firetowers I've visited, and I've been to many (my son only hikes to firetowers!), this one was the most impressive, as was the wind - near 0 mph at the base - near gale force at the top!

Fred

 

[Klutz]

Sounds like you had quite the interesting hike, to say the least. You don't usually hear too much about that kind of hiking in the NE. No, it is not unusual for Europeans to go topless. When vacationing in the Caribbean that's pretty common place. For some of us women in the states, it takes a little getting used to ....you can either join 'em or try to ignore it. My husband says, he trys not to gauk....or wear the sunglasses.

About the coyotes...I've heard them before myself while overnighting, it's a little scary. I remember hearing them down in the valley from where we were staying thinking, I hope they stay where they are. Poor dog!

 

[marty]

Around 1AM we heard a pack of coyotes kill someone's dog, I felt really bad, but they were a good 1/2 mile away and there was nothing I could do. It was awful listening to that dog yelp and howl while the coyotes were in a frenzy.

That's interesting. On the night of October 1 and the early morning of October 2, we heard multiple coyote howlings in back of our camp on the foot of Bemis Mountain, southwest of Rangeley, ME. Hadn't heard them in about 8 years, but this was really loud and close. Must be a lot of them in Western Maine these days!!

Marty

 

[marty]

Oh, and Lawnsale, I wish I could have "Czeched" out your hiking partner!

 

[Lawn Sale]

Too funny!