Sunday, June 23 2019
Bull Branch Campsite to Grafton Notch
7 miles
First thing we faced was Mahoosuc
Arm. It was a long steep one a half mile up, I’m so glad it didn’t rain to
make it slippery. We stopped at Speck
Pond Shelter for an early lunch. Speck Pond is a beautiful fishing pond.
Then came Old Speck Mountain, the
south side of which is a lot of rock face walking. Wait-up fell twice in the same spot. His feet slipped out from under him and down
he went on the same hip both times. He
had a pretty back bruise from it.
Above treeline on Old Speck it
was very windy and hard to walk upright.
We were hanging on to trees on the sides of the rockface, when along
came a mother and daughter duo walking right up the middle of the steep, bare
rockface. They were use to it obviously
and knew where they could step or how to step on it.
On the top of Old Speck at 12:30,
we called for a shuttle to meet us at the bottom at 3:30. Right on the dot, we came out at Grafton Notch. The walk down was long but pretty
normal. It was a well-used trail,
obviously popular with local day hikers.
We were picked up by a lady shuttle
driver from Pine Ellis Hostel and she had cold lemonade! So good!
When we pulled in to Pine Ellis
Hostel, Brenda (trail name Daisy, from Indiana) was sitting at a table outside
enjoying the sunshine. They had been
picked up a short time before we were.
Her husband was gone to buy a new camera after having broken theirs when
he fell. We met Lee (Blue Feather) later and made plans to slackpack with them
tomorrow out of Pine Ellis. It’s always a good idea to share a shuttle
ride with others if you can to share the expense.
We had a short walk across of a
few blocks one street over to find a couple of restaurants to choose from. The food was good and very reasonable.
Pine Ellis Hostel is a
multi-bedroom home used as a hostel. The
home is an older one, but comfortable enough, with the hostel bedrooms upstairs.
No air conditioning so we slept with the screened window open and were just
right. Breakfast of muffins and coffee was
provided.
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