west side, glt 6-11+6-12-12

[natron]

Great hike, weather and company! Been wanting to check out this trail for a few years now. We decided to do the west side from south to north. It was a casual affair, on the trail @9:30a. Trail is well marked from the get go. Trail is in great shape through out, black flies low start to finish with only a couple of small swarms for the whole trip! Impressive trail work, with stone placements and wood work! We camped @ bull-run, got into camp @ 5p., we knew we had enough daylight to finish this side but wanted to camp out. The stone work down and up to the water source is very impressive, good campsite with 2 tent platforms. Hiked old speck in the morning, pretty muggy and hazy though, not great for pix. We met a couple of north bound hikers on the way down old speck, they were cruising. They slept @ full goose and they got down old speck to the lot @ noon, with us. We gave them some ramen noodles and a pbj, prior to what would surely be a quick assault on the baldpates as they planned to stay in Andover. Really looking forward to doing the whole glt, when I have a 2 night window of free time and good weather..

pix

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Seth approves

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blair moose

Seth chill'n, sunday river whitecap

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Me chill'n, sunday river whitecap

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here's to us! looking @ SR from SR..

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a cool bridge leading north off SRWC.

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me, leaving SRWC

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bull-run campsite

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me, going up old speck

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hazy view from the tower on old speck, to mahoosic notch.

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towards bottom of old speck

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[jake L.]

Nice!

Great adventure and pictures! Beautiful looking trail work on the West side. I visited the East half this past March, will have to go back! With the lack of June turns its a good excuse to do some hiking.

 

[bcborder]

Speck Pond

Really looking forward to doing the whole glt, when I have a 2 night window of free time and good weather..

I did the loop in two nights counter-clockwise from the South, staying at the Lane campsite and Speck Pond. Very nice loop! I'm glad I went to Speck Pond though, it's the nicest campsite near the loop. Most of the Grafton Notch Loop campsites are in the woods, without views It's hard to beat Speck Pond, even after paying the caretaker!