Start: Wright Trail
End: Grafton Notch
Photos here
I am incredibly tired. What a long day. We were up at 6am and didn't get home until 10:45pm.
I wanted to get an early start, as we were unsure what condition Success Pond Road, a logging road outside of Berlin that would lead us to the Goose Eye Trail, would be in and how long it would take us to reach the trailhead. I also knew we were in for a rather difficult day of hiking. So the plan was to start hiking by 7am. After our last experience with the Wright Trail, we decided we needed to find another way to ascend to the AT this time around. Looking at the maps, we realized we could cut off 0.9 miles of hiking if we took the Goose Eye Trail up. It was only 3.2 miles long, and put us back on the AT 0.3 miles south of the Wright Trail. Mileage that didn't "count," but still what seemed like a good plan to get us back up to the trail. We started hiking at 7:30am, a bit later than hoped but not too bad. And actually, the Goose Eye Trail was quite nice, with some mellow walking through the lower woods and then some stiff climbing up to the summit cone. We were able to power right on up. It was gorgeous out when we reached the top, with great views in all directions, a bit of sun and a good breeze.
We hit the junction with the Wright Trail, our "official" start to the day, at 9am. The trail wandered up and down several of the Goose Eye peaks, with nice stretches of high alpine bog in between. Beautiful. This is a stretch of trail I would go back to, especially on a nice day like this one where you can really enjoy the openness and all the views the peaks afford. After descending to Full Goose Shelter, the trail went up Fulling Mountain. More bogs and more bog bridges. I was walking along, chatting with Snowman. I put my right leg on a solid looking patch of grass and set my left leg down onto what I thought was the edge of it. Nope. My leg plunged down knee-deep into the muck. Thrown off balance, I lurched forward, but luckily was able to twist a bit so that I could put my hands down on the grass, and didn't go full force into the bog. I tugged at my leg. It wouldn't move! I was stuck! Sh*t! I tugged again. Nothing. I started to laugh. I was actually stuck in the mud! Luckily, after a few more tugs I was able to extricate my leg with my shoe still attached. I couldn't stop laughing. I had a mud line up to my knee. We continued on.
After a stiff descent off Fulling Mountain, we reached the southern end of the dreaded Mahoosuc Notch. This has been called the toughest mile on the AT by many. It is essentially a boulder field, where you have to go up, over, and under lots of big rocks to get through to the other side. It is then followed by a very steep ascent up the Mahooscus Arm. Snowman and I have been avoiding this section, but it had to be done. So here we were...
It was part trail and part maze. There are some huge rocks jumbled together in this section, and although there are blazes and a few directional arrows throughout, essentially you have to assess what's in front of you and figure out, do I go up and over? Around? Under? Can I go up and over? Can I get around? Is it easier to go under? Can I fit? I had a tough time on a few of the "up and overs", several times having to use all my strength to pull myself up onto the rocks, and several times needed Snowman's help to get up. At least one time, I could not get over, and had to go under, very carefully, through a rather thin and low opening in two rocks. Snowman watched, rather anxiously, from the other side. However, as I am small, I did have the advantage of not having to take my pack off on one of the other "unders" as we slithered our way through. Towards the northern end of the notch, there were several streams running between and beneath the rocks to add to the excitement. It was fun to a certain extent, but taxing, and it just went on and on and on. We finally came out on the other side an hour and a half later. We had conquered the Notch!
Then it was up the Arm, which frankly, although a steep climb and rather treacherous higher up as it ascended some wet rock ledges, was not the toughest climb we've had. However, combined with the Notch, it made for a formidable 2.6 miles, and I was starting to feel the effects of the long day. We passed Speck Pond, a very pretty spot, and from there climbed up, up, up to the junction of the AT with the Old Speck summit trail. Once again, gorgeous views. We've done Old Speck before, and by now, it was 4pm, and we still had 3.5 miles to go, down, down, down to Grafton Notch. So, we skipped the extra mileage to the summit, and continued on the AT. Although the map showed this stretch was a long, steep downhill, it lied. The trail meandered, going up and over various little bumps many more times than we would have liked, as I felt more and more tired. However, it was a pretty trail, and finally we started to make some downward progress, following a flowing stream down through the woods. We hit the parking lot at 5:45pm, after 10 hours and 15 minutes on the trail.
This was a serious day of hiking, and definitely one of the harder day hikes we've ever done. Although beautiful, hiking in Maine is rugged and rough, and well, just plain hard. However, we really lucked out with the weather, as the sun was out, it was dry, and the late day thunderstorms and hail never materialized, which made this stretch much easier and more pleasant!
We stretched a bit, changed clothes and took off down the northern end of Success Pond Road, back toward the car at the Goose Eye trailhead. Although well graded for the logging roads, and wide, it still took us about 1 hour to go the 20 miles on the road, and we were both starved by the time we stopped in Gorham at Mr. Pizza. After what seemed like a very long dinner, we were on our way home around 8:45pm. I wasn't sure I would be able to keep my eyes open. I had the window down and the radio up pretty loud. I was singing along to keep myself awake. Finally, at 10:45pm we pulled into the parking lot. Home sweet home, and bed sweet bed.
Flora and fauna notes: Mushrooms everywhere! White, red, yellow, orange, purple, brown, oh my! Lots of Indian pipe and bunchberries. Many juncos and chickadees twittering in the woods, as well as three friendly Gray Jays at Full Goose Shelter and one at Speck Pond Shelter.
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