Saturday October 26th, 2024: We woke up early at Moose Brook State Campground and saw the sunrise light the sky up between the trees. The red sky 'sailor's warning' was true on this day as gale force winds were forecasted later on. We chose to hop over the State line to Maine and hike Old Speck Mountain, my last in Maine.
We drove over from Gorham and started hiking after 8AM, but we weren't the first on the trails that morning. We chose to take the Appalachian trail up as it was already raining and the forecasted winds were urging us to get up and down as quickly as possible. We climbed well manicured trail winding through the forest (with less leaves than yesterday), and followed a nice brook up the trail. Rain drizzled down on us and we donned our gore-tex rain coats. The temperatures were cold enough that we didn't mind wearing the gore-tex layer. We finally got up to a ridge and could feel the full force of the wind from the windward side and added gloves and rain pants to our outfit. We were in a cloud and there were no views in any direction. We continued over a series of bumps and false summit areas until we found the fire tower and got to the summit proper. At this point were were still in a cloud, it was hailing, and the gale force winds had begun. There was no views and the wind gusts made going up the fire tower downright scary. I went up about 1/3 of the way and came back down. We didn't linger long so after a few photos and videos we returned down the same way. We had passed a few solo and duo hikers along the way but on the way back down, we passed a few larger parties - one group of 6 women and 2 parties of what look like ill prepared college kids. We didn't stop for lunch until we were back on the leeward side, about halfway back down to the car. I had my first thermos of tea on this hike which is a sure sign winter is coming. On the descent we got a couple views as sun peaked through the clouds and we could see some wind vanes in the distance. We also got a couple of views of the peak we just climbed. We got down to the parking lot around 2PM, happy to have checked off my last Maine 4000 footer.
Hike stats:
Distance: 11.87km
Elevation: 946m or 3200ft
Time: 5hrs 13mins
Maine: 14/14
NE 111 (115): #99
We drove over from Gorham and started hiking after 8AM, but we weren't the first on the trails that morning. We chose to take the Appalachian trail up as it was already raining and the forecasted winds were urging us to get up and down as quickly as possible. We climbed well manicured trail winding through the forest (with less leaves than yesterday), and followed a nice brook up the trail. Rain drizzled down on us and we donned our gore-tex rain coats. The temperatures were cold enough that we didn't mind wearing the gore-tex layer. We finally got up to a ridge and could feel the full force of the wind from the windward side and added gloves and rain pants to our outfit. We were in a cloud and there were no views in any direction. We continued over a series of bumps and false summit areas until we found the fire tower and got to the summit proper. At this point were were still in a cloud, it was hailing, and the gale force winds had begun. There was no views and the wind gusts made going up the fire tower downright scary. I went up about 1/3 of the way and came back down. We didn't linger long so after a few photos and videos we returned down the same way. We had passed a few solo and duo hikers along the way but on the way back down, we passed a few larger parties - one group of 6 women and 2 parties of what look like ill prepared college kids. We didn't stop for lunch until we were back on the leeward side, about halfway back down to the car. I had my first thermos of tea on this hike which is a sure sign winter is coming. On the descent we got a couple views as sun peaked through the clouds and we could see some wind vanes in the distance. We also got a couple of views of the peak we just climbed. We got down to the parking lot around 2PM, happy to have checked off my last Maine 4000 footer.
Hike stats:
Distance: 11.87km
Elevation: 946m or 3200ft
Time: 5hrs 13mins
Maine: 14/14
NE 111 (115): #99
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