Old Speck (2/12/22)

On this weekend, I had an obligation at work on Sunday, so I knew that I would only be able to do a one day hike. That was tricky, because most of the winter hikes that I still have to do are going to involve multi-day excursions. I still had to get Garfield in New Hampshire, but I was planning on that as a backpacking trip. I needed to get all the peaks in Vermont, but that's a long drive. Even most of the Maine peaks I have left require some difficult logistics at this point. However, I still had Old Speck on my list, and that's a one-off, so it seemed like a good choice.

I have hiked Old Speck twice before. The first time I hiked it was to finish my New England 67 (every four thousand footers in New England), and my friend Sylvia came with me for that hike. That was a beautiful fall day, and kind of a perfect hike. The second time I hiked it was when I was finishing up Maine on the Appalachian Trail last summer. By that point in the hike I was hot and exhausted, and the experience wasn't nearly as good as the first time. I didn't even summit. I wasn't sure what this hike would bring.

The highlight of the drive out was when a bright red fox ran across the road in front of me. Apparently foxes are smarter than squirrels, because the fox wasn't hesitating in the middle of the road. It was booking it. Still, for as fast as it was going, I was still able to get a good look at it, and it was a gorgeous creature.

I got to the parking lot in good time, and was able to find a parking spot fairly easily. I love the Grafton Notch area where Old Speck is located. It feels very natural and undeveloped, maybe because there's no cell signal in most of it. Dragonfly and I stopped there on our way back from Mt. Magalloway a couple years ago and explored some. The highlight was Screw Auger Falls, but the entire area is worth seeing.

Even though I have hiked Old Speck twice before, I had forgotten how hard the initial climb is. Much like the Wildcat Ridge Trail, it hits you with hard climbing right out of the gate. This was made more difficult by two factors. First, I haven't hiked enough this winter, and so I am not in prime hiking shape, or even good shape at all. Second, I am carrying lots of emergency gear for winter hikes in case I get into trouble, and so the weight of my pack is heavier than it has been in the past.

When I looked back, I saw the Baldpates looming above Grafton Notch. I couldn't help but recall hiking over them on the Appalachian Trail the previous summer. I was so glad that I checked East Baldpate off my New England Hundred Highest list (NEHH) so that I never have to do it again (unless I lose my mind and decide to do the winter NEHH at some point).

As I climbed, I saw something dark laying in the snow. I picked it up, and it was a cell phone. "Someone's going to be missing this," I thought to myself. I figured it had to belong to someone on trail ahead of me, so I stuck it in my pocket to return when I found the owner.

Maybe ten minutes later, I ran into my first people of the day, a younger couple hiking up the mountain. They were stopped by the side of the trail. I called out to them and asked if either of them had lost a phone. They both checked their pockets, and sure enough her phone was missing. She started to panic, like she thought she was going to have to hike back down the trail to go retrieve her phone. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and said, "Don't worry, it's right here." She was extremely relieved and thankful. They let me pass them and I hiked on.

It was a relatively warm day, and so I needed to de-layer fairly quickly and hike in just my base layer shirt with no jacket. Unfortunately, not long after that it started to rain. I needed to make a choice as to whether to put the jacket back on and overheat, or keep just the base layer on and get wet. I decided not to put the jacket back on, and I think it was the right call. If I had put the jacket on, I would have gotten wet from sweat anyway, so I might as well be more comfortable.

As I continued upwards, I ran into a group of six people hiking together. They were older than me, but keeping a real good pace. They stood aside and let me pass, and I thanked them.

Mountains get colder the higher up you go in elevation, and so eventually I was forced to put my jacket back on. Still, I was happy with how things were going. The elevation became less severe after the first section, and I was keeping a better pace. I had found my hiking rhythm, and I was listening to an audiobook on my headphones as I climbed.

There were some nice views as I made my way up. Old Speck has an open ridge that you cross not too far before the summit, and it can lead to some beautiful views on the right day. By this time the rain had cleared off, and so the views were quite pretty. It definitely seemed like the clouds were clustered around the mountain, and so there were brighter areas down in the valley.

Sometimes I don't appreciate enough how lucky I am to be able to see some of the things that I see. I have seen some of the most spectacular sights of my entire life just by being high up in the mountains. It's a lot of work to get there, but there's also a lot of reward. There's a lot of people that aren't in good enough shape to be able to go up there and see those views, and I should consider myself fortunate that I am amongst that small group that can do it.

That's not to say that people can't push themselves to greater heights, though, as the next woman that I passed proved. She was clearly not in great shape, and she was struggling and going slow, but she was putting one foot in front of the other and working her way up the mountain. When I passed her, she was a little less than a mile from the summit, which is really impressive. I love to see people out there pushing their limits and getting stronger, as long as they don't get themselves into dangerous situations.

There was one more group that I encountered along the way, a mother and her young son, and I passed them a few hundred feet before the summit. I was proud of my accomplishment. Of everyone on the mountain that day, I was the last person to start, and the first person to summit. I had passed eleven people on the way up, which was pretty good considering how out of shape I was.

The summit was beautiful, too. The skies turned blue up there, the wind died down, and it warmed up. I could have stayed up there for an hour with how nice it was, but I knew that eventually I would start to get cold. I watched the mother and her son. The son wanted to climb the fire tower, but he got about halfway up the ladder and got scared. I didn't think climbing the fire tower sounded very pleasant, as the tower went over tree line, and I suspected that the wind would be fierce up there.

I spent maybe ten minutes at the summit, and then started on my way back down. I ran into the group of six first. As I said, they were keeping a good pace, and it didn't surprise me that they weren't too far behind me. Right after them was the woman who was hiking by herself. After that, I didn't see anyone for a while.

A lot of people think that there are no bugs in the winter, but that's not true. On this hike, I saw spiders in the snow, and I also saw a lot of snow fleas. Look at the picture below. All those little black dots are snow fleas. I have no idea if they are anything like normal fleas, but I wasn't exactly going to rub them in my hair to find out.

On the way down, I ran into the couple with the phone again. After that, I didn't see anyone. I kept a good pace on the way down. I find descending in wintertime to be much easier than descending in summertime thanks to the lack of rocks and roots. I was a little tired when I made it back to the car because of wearing the snowshoes all day, but overall I was feeling fine.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring my lunch with me. I packed it and had it in the pile of things to bring, but somehow forgot to pick it up. I tried to stop in Bethel for food on the way home, but I didn't see anything, so I decided to let it be and I just ate when I got home.

Always remember, you can't take flight until you spread your wings!