Day 4: August 1, 2006

Plan: finish the ascent up Old Speck, and then climb all the way back down 2600 ft in elevation to Route 26, where we'd left my car on the first day.

The day's walk: 5.2 miles

NOTE: Elevations are marked in METERS on this map.

During the night, it poured and thundered pretty violently. Luckily, Speck Pond campsite has platforms to put the tents on, and aside from a slightly leaky rain fly in the tent I was in, we all stayed remarkably dry.

Old Speck was an interesting hike: very steep terrain, scrubby trees, and whipping wind and clouds. It felt like we were climbing Olympus or something.

At the top of Old Speck is a firetower, which is supposed to afford the best views in the notch. From the top of the tower, I could barely see the rest of the crew down below!

After coming all this way, to such a beautiful place, who in his (or her, perhaps?) right mind would carve something like "Korn"?

Eventually we all overcame our fear of the slippery ladder and made it to the top. Despite a terrible heatwave across most of New England, we were shivering a little bit up there!

For the last hour or so, it rained, which was nice because it provided a much-needed wash...

and then suddenly the sun came out as I reached the parking lot, and my car. My knee still hurt badly, but with the poles I could move a lot faster than I could the day before, so Mark and I snacked while waiting for Matt and Dan.

After everyone reached the car, we had a late lunch/early dinner at a local diner, then drove all the way back around to Berlin and up Success Pond road again...

where we finally saw a mother moose and her calf! (This is a video still frame, so the resolution is bad)