A beautiful couple days in western Maine with very little bugs and managable mud. A friend and I hiked the western side of the Grafton Notch Loop Trail from South to North, stashing bikes at the A.T. parking lot on the northern end.
Day 1:
After dropping off bikes and parking the car, a short walk brought us to the trailhead around 8am. Hiking through the woods was cool and comfortable winding along the riverside. There was a fair bit of mud but at least the bugs weren't bad, soon passing Bald Mountain Campsite and then climbing over the peak itself. Shortly after dropping down the backside of Bald Mt. we were quickly on our way up Stowe Mountain. The trail here was dry but the recent rains had done plenty off good for the plant life, especially the ferns.
I was curious to check out Sargent Brook Campsite and made a quick pit stop there to have a snack. The tent pads and latrine were in good shape but if you stayed here I would recommend hanging your food, the bear box was kind of icky.. Towards Sunday River White Cap (SRWC) the woods started to open up and moss was abundent, covering just about everything! There was also a snake sighting.
The views from SRWC are awesome! We were on top by 12:30PM and took a seat on one of the wooden footpath planks for a well deserved lunch; a delicious hummus, olive, veggie, sprout sandwich. This was a perfect place to relax and soak in some Sun before eventually heading down into Miles Notch. The notch was VERY overgrown and reminded me of a jungle in places. A little fighting with the flora brought us around to the back of Slide Mountain and our campsite for the evening. We reached Slide Mountain Campsite at 2:45PM, pitched the tent and lounged for a good long while just chatting, playing cards and just generally enjoying the area. We hadn't seen anyone all day but a little bird did pay us a quick visit at our camp just before dinner. We enjoyed a hearty meal of trailmade creamy peanut Thai noodles followed by a little game of Rummy accompanied by some tasty vodka beverages. Soon after it was time to turn in for the night.
Day:2
After breaking camp we had a quick breakfeast and we were on the trail again just after 7AM. Hiking past Bull Run Campsite the trail got to be about as muddy as it could. We welcomed the steeper slopes of Old Speck as the trail was much drier and the views back towards SRWC began to open up. We arrived at the summit of Old Spec just past 9AM, climbing the fire tower to take in the incredible views. The bugs were very bad and we could barely finish a snack before being forced off the summit by the swarms of black flies.
Not long after leaving the top we were met by the day and thru hikers climbing up from the valley below. The waterfalls and flumes on the lower half of the trail are always a welcome site and we made sure to stop at all the little spots. We were back at the A.T. parking lot by 11AM where we grabbed our bikes for a fast and fun 25 minute ride though Grafton Notch back to our car.
