Grafton Loop 5/23/09 - 5/25/09

[Gillian]

Great report Kim! Although a challenging hike at times, the "moose poop loop" was definintely worth it. The hike up Old Speck is always enjoyable and have to agree with Adventurous that the views from Sunday River Whitecap were awesome. The smooth pine covered trail up Puzzle felt so good on the feet after stumbling on the rocks hidden by dead leaves of the previous trail...probably just a problem for me as it bothered my old sprain injury. It was a lovely hike up the backside of E. Baldpate and of course, the views were amazing from there. Seeing Old Speck in the distance and getting closer...knowing we were closing the 38 mile loop; that was cool...

Nice job Glen! You kept up a great pace - of course that had nothing to do with "metallica" now did it?

Good times as always with great company, camping under the stars, delicous food (yes including Jason's wraps ) and libations to wash it down... sigh...now it's back to reality until next weekend!

 

[HuiYeng]

Great report! It was an awesome trip. Sunday River Whitecap, Puzzle Mtn and Lightning ledge are all amazing. Don't have any love for Long mountain at all, sorry. It was really demoralized when we though we've come this far only to find out that we have another 1000' to go and as Rebecca described, another 10,000 black flies and mosquitoes awaiting us, SUCKS! Too bad it was too windy on East Baldpate, that looks like another great peak to soak in views.

Glen, you rock! (or heavy metal?) Hope to see you on the trail more often! Thanks Jason and all of you for a great trip.

Here are my pictures for day 1, day 2 and day 3.

 

[MichaelJ]

Bee-yoo-ti-ful! I'm so glad you had such a great time, despite what sounds like non-optimal conditions.

If you were doing it again, is there anything you would change about your route?

I noticed the MATC map on the site you linked to does not show the western portion of the loop, but fortunately 7summits photo album does.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Very nice TR and photos. Having been to Old Speck and East Baldpate last Thursday, it was neat to see your photos. I know exactly where Gillian was postholing in May. I'm sure you could see my (one very bad) posthole.

I picked a guy up at the parking area and took him back to the Grafton Loop trailhead - he'd come up the west side of the loop from there over Old Speck and was looking to get back to his truck. I got a 10-minute verbal description of the trek from him and I can see things in this TR and photos.

Tim

 

[HuiYeng]

I finally downloaded the GPS track from this trip. Here is the elevation profile, and I photoshopped the waypoints onto it. I'm new to GPS world , there probably is a checkbox to enable the waypoints automatically.



Somehow the altimeter was off by about 30'-100', I did calibrate the altimeter at the AT parking lot (1500'), and turned on the Auto calibration. Anyway, email me if you want the whole track log.

 

[giggy]

very nice - maybe later this summer..for me

 

[Dave Bear]

Very awesome backpack and pictures folks! Especially yours Huiyeng, really liked the 127th picture on the second day. Just Kidding!!! How could you not be a shutterbug on such a terrific trip with those companions! Very nice hike all, glad you had fun and brought some memories home to share with us!

 

[vegematic]

I love that elevation profile, thanks for posting!
-vegematic

 

[Sasquatch]

Here are my pics from the first half of the loop Sat/Sun.

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=928811014/a=127545968_127545968

 

[hikes-with-him]

Sasquatch...says the album is no longer available?

 

[Sasquatch]

I uploaded the album this morning and it seemsw to be gone,blasted away into cyberspace.I'll have to re-do it