Tuesday June 18, 16.9mi/27.2km

NH/Maine border (1910.2) to Baldpate shelter (1927.1) (ME)

I got an early 7am start hiking, since I knew there would be a couple of extremely slow sections today. The first climb was up to the Goose peaks.

Some of the sections were steep enough to require ladders. It was fun, but I don’t understand how this trail is accessible to dogs.

Between the West Goose peak and East goose peak, there were boardwalks. For added excitement, some of the planks would sink into the mud when stepped on.

I took a break for second breakfast at a shelter. Full Goose shelter! What a great name.

Each shelter has a logbook for hikers to sign in. Someone made an entertaining cover for this book.

After the break, I descended into Mahoosuc notch, which is a mile of scrambling thru a large boulder field. It took almost an hour to cover a mile!

It was a very deep notch, so not much sunlight gets in, and it felt much colder. There was a surprising amount of snow remaining from the winter.

Some of the boulders had to be navigated by squeezing in between .

Or going underneath.

Or crawling thru…

I finally emerged on the other side of the notch, and after a very steep climb up to the Mahoosuc Arm, I stopped for lunch at a shelter on Speck pond.

The meal was good, but the mosquitoes were not. So, I got moving again, and took a 0.3mi side trail to Old Speck mountain. There is a fire tower to get a view.

On the descent from Old Speck, there was an option to take an alternate trail. Eyebrow!

I stayed on the main trail, and it was nice walking by all the waterfalls on the descent to the road.

The trailhead parking lot was empty, so I took a break and sat in the middle of it – no mosquitoes there! It also had some signs about the history and location.

After leaving the trailhead and crossing the road, there was a cool AT sign. It was huuuge, like fuccillo-sized.

The last few miles up to the shelter were a nice easy uphill, on trail that was surprisingly not rocky. Often there will be short side trails labeled “View”. This side trail was a little different, I think it was bragging.

I arrived to the shelter early, just before 5pm. I had planned to continue to the next shelter in 3mi/5km, but Bob hasn’t caught up yet. So I setup camp and had a nice relaxing afternoon and evening chatting with a couple Maine locals doing a Mahoosuc loop hike.