Today's Hike: Speckled Mountain, Evans Notch, ME
Mountain: Speckled Mountain, Evans Notch, ME
Mileage: 7.6 miles
Elevation: 2,906'
Vertical gain: About 2,400 feet
Companions: Craig Bossie
Weather: This is the good part. Down low, high of about 20 today, with winds blowing 15-20mph. Gusts up to 40. Up at elevation, temps were probably in the high single digits, winds weren't any stronger, but obviously the windchill was worse! We were dressed for it though.
We ascended via the steeper, more exposed, but also more scenic Blueberry Ridge trail, which climbs 3.6 miles to the summit. This trail had a lot of ice on it, which made us walk in the woods, instead of on the trail, for fairly long stretches at times.
This was a common sight:
Nonetheless, it was rather easy to just walk aside the trail instead of on it, and these walls of ice didn't seem to slow us down much. The biggest challenge was the wind, which threatened to knock us off our feet at times in exposed areas, and which seemed to penetrate every layer of clothing I had on! I should point out, this was probably my first winter hike where I never had the urge to shed clothing, ever. Near the beginning, I did take off my outer mittens and wore merely my glove liners, and unzipped the top of my parka a bit, but that's it! And that didn't last long, the mittens went back on and my parka got zipped back up before too long.
Eventually, we encountered a young couple who we'd seen at the trailhead coming down (they did the loop in the opposite direction). They told us it was icy for the last quarter mile, but it ended up being trivial compared to what we'd seen already on our trail, and warned them to be careful during their descent accordingly.
Making to the top, it was so cold and windy we stayed up long enough to take a couple pictures of each other, and then promptly went back down. We were probably on top for 30 seconds or so, tops!
We ate lunch below the summit, in a sheltered area out of the wind. Even keeping my inner glove liners on, out of the wind, my fingers got numbingly cold during the 5 minutes it took me to eat my sandwich. I don't know what the temp was, but it had to have been single digits, tops. Brr!!!
We descended via the far more gradual and mostly ice-free Bickford Brook trail, which was a 4.1 mile descent. We made awesome time, maybe a hair over an hour and a half down, getting out of the woods at 3:15PM or so, making for a round trip time of 4 hours and 45 minutes or so.
Since we had to drive through Lovell, ME to get to this mountain, and Craig and I like to hit a pub for an Apres-Hike meal and pint, I INSISTED we check out Ebenezer's Pub. He had mentioned hitting Bray's Inn on the way home, but it took little description of Ebenezer's to convince him to check it out.
What is it? I'll make this simple. Beer Advocate has rated it the #1 Beer bar in the United States. Before the site went down, Ratebeer rated it the #1 Beer Destination in the World.
No joke. In Lovell, ME. Middle of freaking nowhere.
They claim to offer SIX HUNDRED beers, mostly in bottles, but they have an astounding and fairly large tap selection, too, all in proper glassware. As for the bottle collections, I don't even know where to start. All Stone Vertical Epic Ales, all JW Hardees Vintage Ales back 1988 (not a typo), all Bigfoot's back to 1995, etc, etc, etc. It's insane.
So what did I have? Stone Oak Aged Double Bastard (tap), De Dolle Stille Nacht Special Reserva 2005, and after describing Lambics to Craig, we each got a sampler. He got Oude Beersel Framboise, I chose Cantillon Brewery Fou' Foune (Apricot).
My burger was great, too. Carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms with Worcestershire, with a side of Belgian frites.
Our waitress was one of the coolest waitresses I've ever had, Craig agreed, she knew a ton about the product. She told us we should come back for their Belgian Beer Fest in August, as they allow people to camp out on their lawn all week. That sounds...Epic :)
What an awesome day!
Mileage: 7.6 miles
Elevation: 2,906'
Vertical gain: About 2,400 feet
Companions: Craig Bossie
Weather: This is the good part. Down low, high of about 20 today, with winds blowing 15-20mph. Gusts up to 40. Up at elevation, temps were probably in the high single digits, winds weren't any stronger, but obviously the windchill was worse! We were dressed for it though.
We ascended via the steeper, more exposed, but also more scenic Blueberry Ridge trail, which climbs 3.6 miles to the summit. This trail had a lot of ice on it, which made us walk in the woods, instead of on the trail, for fairly long stretches at times.
This was a common sight:
Nonetheless, it was rather easy to just walk aside the trail instead of on it, and these walls of ice didn't seem to slow us down much. The biggest challenge was the wind, which threatened to knock us off our feet at times in exposed areas, and which seemed to penetrate every layer of clothing I had on! I should point out, this was probably my first winter hike where I never had the urge to shed clothing, ever. Near the beginning, I did take off my outer mittens and wore merely my glove liners, and unzipped the top of my parka a bit, but that's it! And that didn't last long, the mittens went back on and my parka got zipped back up before too long.
Eventually, we encountered a young couple who we'd seen at the trailhead coming down (they did the loop in the opposite direction). They told us it was icy for the last quarter mile, but it ended up being trivial compared to what we'd seen already on our trail, and warned them to be careful during their descent accordingly.
Making to the top, it was so cold and windy we stayed up long enough to take a couple pictures of each other, and then promptly went back down. We were probably on top for 30 seconds or so, tops!
We ate lunch below the summit, in a sheltered area out of the wind. Even keeping my inner glove liners on, out of the wind, my fingers got numbingly cold during the 5 minutes it took me to eat my sandwich. I don't know what the temp was, but it had to have been single digits, tops. Brr!!!
We descended via the far more gradual and mostly ice-free Bickford Brook trail, which was a 4.1 mile descent. We made awesome time, maybe a hair over an hour and a half down, getting out of the woods at 3:15PM or so, making for a round trip time of 4 hours and 45 minutes or so.
Since we had to drive through Lovell, ME to get to this mountain, and Craig and I like to hit a pub for an Apres-Hike meal and pint, I INSISTED we check out Ebenezer's Pub. He had mentioned hitting Bray's Inn on the way home, but it took little description of Ebenezer's to convince him to check it out.
What is it? I'll make this simple. Beer Advocate has rated it the #1 Beer bar in the United States. Before the site went down, Ratebeer rated it the #1 Beer Destination in the World.
No joke. In Lovell, ME. Middle of freaking nowhere.
They claim to offer SIX HUNDRED beers, mostly in bottles, but they have an astounding and fairly large tap selection, too, all in proper glassware. As for the bottle collections, I don't even know where to start. All Stone Vertical Epic Ales, all JW Hardees Vintage Ales back 1988 (not a typo), all Bigfoot's back to 1995, etc, etc, etc. It's insane.
So what did I have? Stone Oak Aged Double Bastard (tap), De Dolle Stille Nacht Special Reserva 2005, and after describing Lambics to Craig, we each got a sampler. He got Oude Beersel Framboise, I chose Cantillon Brewery Fou' Foune (Apricot).
My burger was great, too. Carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms with Worcestershire, with a side of Belgian frites.
Our waitress was one of the coolest waitresses I've ever had, Craig agreed, she knew a ton about the product. She told us we should come back for their Belgian Beer Fest in August, as they allow people to camp out on their lawn all week. That sounds...Epic :)
What an awesome day!