Gentian Pond Shelter 1907.8 to Speck Pond Shelter 1922.5 (14.7 miles, 897.1 total miles)
Everyone got up around 5:30AM this morning, and Sunshine was packed and out of camp by 6:30. I treated myself to hot coffee mixed with a breakfast essential and oatmeal, then Catchup and I headed down to Gentian Pond to collect water.
The pond was beautiful first thing in the morning, and my breath was taken away when two large herons swooped out of the forest and over the water. It felt like a good omen for the day.
Our hike started with a little hill to climb up and over, then we had a couple miles to go to the peak of Mount Success. Success was not only a lovely named mountain, but also our last one of New Hampshire, which felt very appropriate.
On the way up the mountain, we encountered an alpine bog area with boardwalks that required navigating over. We’d been warned that there were spots that the mud went waist deep, so we had to be careful traveling the boards, which were often rotted from the water.
At one such boardwalk, I managed to slip off the board with my right foot. I recovered right away, reflexively stepping back on the wood, but my whole right foot was soaked in mud.
Just past that point, we arrived at the summit of Mt Success, and ran into Bumble Beast and Rolo, two NOBOs who I hadn’t met before. We sat with them for a couple minutes, enjoying some sun and a snack.
Moving on, we caught up to Sunshine a bit further up on an exposed ridge, and she was chatting with a day hiker. He’d given her an Impossible Whopper, and we scarfed it down between the three of us. It was such a treat, and so sweet of Sunshine to share it with us.
About a mile later, we arrived at a sign in the woods proclaiming we had reached the border of Maine. It was a very emotional moment for all of us. It was Sunshine and Catchup’s last state, and the final state of my hike’s northern half.
Beast Mode, a young woman going NOBO with red hair who we’d been hiking near, was at the sign and offered to take some photos for us. Bumble Beast and Rolo arrived soon after, and we spent a few minutes enjoying the moment together.
Catchup and I had three more climbs next up and down Goose Eye East, West, and North peaks. We passed over more alpine bogs, where the boards sunk under our weight, and I managed to get both my feet and socks wet.
All three peaks involved several areas that were exposed to the elements. Not quite over tree line, but still very open areas, we were buffeted by 20-30 mph winds, and had amazing views of the ranges around us.
The day was bright but cloudy, though we could see valleys full of sunshine below. There were blueberries all over the place, bigger and bluer than I’d seen so far on trail.
At a .1 side trail to the summit of north peak, I spotted Sunshine hiking down the mountain below us. I yelled her name, the wind carrying my voice, and we all waved at each other excitedly.
The trail continued to be much more rugged than we’d seen so far, with branches and bushes scraping at our legs, and lots of rocks to bang our knees against and scrape our shins on.
A mile down the mountain from Goose Eye North, we arrived at Full Goose Shelter, right on the trail. We saw Professor, Beast Mode, Gumby, Halfway, New Shoes, and Neo all taking a break before Mahoosuc Notch.
Sunshine arrived a bit after, and we all had lunch while people hiked out here and there. Catchup made us reservations at a hostel in Andover for the next evening before we hiked out.
Catchup and I hiked up and over Fulling Mill Mountain, another exposed summit, before reaching Mahoosuc Notch. The day had been very cold, which felt appropriate for Maine.
Widely regarded as the fabled slowest mile on the trail, the guide describes the notch as a “deranged jumble of boulders” between Fulling Mill and Mahoosuc Mointains.
We had decided for all three of us to hike together through the notch. Two hours or so was the average time to complete the notch, though I knew LB had set the speed record at 24 minutes for this year.
It was lots of fun, basically an enormous boulder jungle gym. We all put our trekking poles away, and took our time rock climbing through the notch.
We cracked silly jokes and sang songs while we climbed, and I was really enjoying us all being together for it.
There were a couple rock caves we had to send our packs through and then climb after, and we’d all repacked our bags to be as compact as possible earlier.
Catchup’s long legs helped him in some spots, while Sunshine and I’s small sizes gave us a benefit in squeezing through tight spaces. There was an interesting variance in temperatures from warm to visible breath through the rocks.
Finally, two and a half hours later, we left the notch. We had one very steep climb between us and camp. I didn’t want to bail out and make up miles tomorrow, so fortunately we made the climb while our bodies were still warmed up.
It was a steep last mile up, with a 1500 foot elevation gain. Much of the climb including hiking up sheer rock faces, or up roots and rocks steps. It was the most vigorous hiking I’d done since Mt Garfield in the Whites.
We wanted to hike up Mahoosuc Arm as quick as possible to save daylight, and Catchup and I got the 1.7 from notch to the arm done in an hour, which we felt very impressed with. Many people had said the arm was worse the notch, which I’d disagree with.
We stopped at a beautiful overlook with an enormous valley below. The view was an interesting mix of the clouded summit of Old Speck ahead, a sunny valley with the faintest rainbow, and what I was almost positive was Rangeley Lakes in the distance.
We had a .6 descent to camp, which felt easy compared the rest of our day. We hiked through the rocks around Old Speck Pond, which was quite pretty with the iron gray clouds overhead, and a strong wind coming off the water.
At the campsite, which we reached around 6:30PM, we recognized Caleb the Caretaker from Nauman Tentsite back in the White Mountains. We set up camp quickly to get out of the very cold and windy weather.
We were up so high that clouds engulfed the forest around us. All the other hikers we’d been near today were in the shelter or tenting nearby, and everyone seemed like they had a great day in the notch and hitting Maine. The energy had changed, and it was a whole new chapter of our hike.