Day 2: July 15, 2009
The day's walk: ~ 9 miles, and two mountains
During the night there were a few very gentle and brief rain showers, but we stayed nice and dry. I slept in until 8:30, which is more than two hours later than the kids let me sleep at home, so it was pretty luxurious. Thinking that we hadn't planned a strenuous pace for this trip, I wasn't in a hurry to get going. So I spent some time photographing this large toad instead.
It was a nice cozy tent site, actually. There are four tent sites at Sargent Brook, a communal cooking area with a bear box, and an outhouse. Not bad at all.
When Tom got out of his tent (he'd been awake for a while, waiting for us to get up) he told me that we actually had about nine miles to hike that day, which, somehow, I'd either forgotten or never fully processed as we were planning the trip. Jon was definitely surprised, since I'd apparently been misleading him about the strenuousness of the hike—sorry Jon. It was fine with me, but it did make me sort of regret sleeping in so long. With that in mind, we got to work packing up and having breakfast, but still didn't hit the trail until about 11am.
After quickly finishing our ascent up Sunday River Whitecap, we saw the first views of the trip.
Looking northwest toward Old Speck, where we were headed before the end of the day. It looked pretty daunting from here, especially considering it was already almost noon...
At the top, Tom was waiting for me and Jon, and being with the peaceful beauty of the mountain top. Moments like that are the reason I come out here. When I was younger I used to be opposed to taking photographs when I traveled, mainly because I didn't want to look like a tourist, but also for fear that it took away from the depth of experience of actually being there. Later—sort of ironically—I got interested in photography as a hobby and, when I'm conscious of it, sometimes an expression of those very feelings. It can certainly be easy to cloud the mind with thoughts about exposure, depth of field, shutter speed, and other details of capturing the moment, and forget to be fully present in the actual place and time, which is one of the main things I'm looking for in these trips. As a result, I'm often ambivalent about even bringing a camera with me at all, and am still trying to find a happy balance between capturing the moment in a photo, and making sure I don't let that process take away from the actual moment itself. I still don't take very many photos; instead, I try to capture just the highlights, and to make the ones I do take very good ones.
Looking across Grafton Notch to East and West Baldpate, where I hiked a few years ago.
Another view of Old Speck, as the trail begins to descend from Sunday River Whitecap.
Tom waiting for Jon. We hiked together or just a few minutes apart most of the trip. It seemed like a nice pace: enough solitary time, but not a lot of prolonged waiting in front or struggling in back.
Starting the climb up Old Speck.
We had actually briefly discussed staying the night at Slide Mtn Campsite (see map) rather than climbing all the way up Old Speck, considering our level of fatigue and the fact that we got a late start. But reason fortunately won out over the desire to rest, and we made it up Old Speck in pretty good time. We got to the top well before dinner and were able to celebrate, relax, and take in the views... at least until every black fly on the entire mountain caught up with us.
Jon demonstrating his coolness for the camera.
Jon on top of the fire tower, and Tom on his way up the ladder.
And then Tom looking down at me, as I stopped to record the perspective mid-way up.
Next are some of the views from the top.
Across Grafton Notch, toward Baldpate. You can see a glimpse of Route 26 on the far right.
Baldpate again.
One more of Baldpate.
Back toward Sunday River Whitecap, where we had been earlier in the day. On the left you can see Route 26 coming up through the valley.
Mahoosuc Notch—a major highlight of the trip—where we would pass through tomorrow. I'm pretty sure the Presidential Range are the large mountains in the background, with Washington as the highest.
Success Pond—the namesake of the long, dirt road that we parked our second car along.
Umbagog Lake way to the North, straddling the Maine/NH border.
Jon and Tom at the bottom of the tower.
We also saw some good views coming down the mountain.
Looking down the trail to Mahoosuc Arm (not on above map). Nestled in that little bowl is Speck Pond, were we would be camping for the night. Just behind the bowl to the left is Mahoosuc Notch, and I think you can again see the Presidential Range and Mt. Washington in the background. Of the relatively few places I've visited, Speck Pond is among of my favorites in the world; it's a beautiful little pond, just barely perched, by itself, up in the mountains, miles from any road. The campsite has tent platforms, a lean-to, an outhouse, and drinking water from a pretty clean mountain spring. During the summer there is a caretaker who lives there and collects a small fee of eight dollars per person, which is a pretty excellent deal.
Tom and Jon stopped to chat while I snapped a photo mid way down one of Old Speck's steep, rocky sections.
We set up the tents at Speck Pond, cooked dinner, got settled at a nice, relaxed pace, and wrapped up just as it was getting dark—perfect timing. Though we had many fewer miles to hike the next day, we knew they'd be much slower ones and we didn't want to feel rushed, so we decided to try to get up a bit earlier and try to get going at a reasonable hour.