Sadie
New member
My husband and I got babysitting for the 4 and 2 year old so we could get out for a day of hiking. We left Waltham at 7 AM and got to the Old Speck trailhead ~11:00. Got on the Eyebrow trail ~11:15. Steady climb right at the beginning. Gorgeous day sunny and in the 60s. Most of the trail was somewhat muddy. I struggled a bit getting into stride after that long car ride and no flat trail “warm up” before starting to climb (and slacking off with the gym for the last month didn’t help much either).
The cables/ metal rungs/ ladder on the eyebrow trail were no big deal—they didn’t really seem necessary, but did make the climbs in those areas a bit easier. It took us a full hour to get to the junction with the AT. The eyebrow section was definitely the hardest part of the trail and I felt pretty good on the AT the rest of the way up. Nice trail, good footing and some lovely occasional overlooks. We crossed paths with about a dozen people along the way.
We got to the top about 1:45 (2.5 h from starting time) with ~ 8 people at the top. Had a nice leisurely lunch at the top—though dodging a sweet muddy dog who was trying to steal our roast beef! We climbed up the fire tower for the nice views.
We headed down and took the AT down the entire way. The view going down the AT just past the junction of the eyebrow trail was gorgeous and we paused for a break to soak it in! A wonderful view of the valley –mostly still green but a few signs of the leaves just starting to change color. The stream running down the Old Speck Trail/AT was lovely, running down slabs with some potholes in the rocks and lovely cascades/waterfalls. A beautiful trail! We got back to the car ~4:20, about 5 h after we started.
On the way driving out, we stopped at roadside self service pie stand—I’ve seen plenty of veggie stands, but never a pie stand before, so we had to stop! I got an enormous delicious Whoopie pie for the ride home to fill in the calories burned on the hike
and a pie to bring home.
The drive was so long coming up from Waltham via route 3 to 93 and then east via route 2 and then into Maine, we decided to try route 16 to 95 to 128 for the ride back for comparison since online driving direction suggested that was a quicker route, but the single lane route 16 made for slow going and route 16 route was 4.25 h vs. 3.75 for 93. So our long standing conception of route 16 being a slow way up to the Whites from Boston stands! A great LONG day!!! #58/67.
The cables/ metal rungs/ ladder on the eyebrow trail were no big deal—they didn’t really seem necessary, but did make the climbs in those areas a bit easier. It took us a full hour to get to the junction with the AT. The eyebrow section was definitely the hardest part of the trail and I felt pretty good on the AT the rest of the way up. Nice trail, good footing and some lovely occasional overlooks. We crossed paths with about a dozen people along the way.
We got to the top about 1:45 (2.5 h from starting time) with ~ 8 people at the top. Had a nice leisurely lunch at the top—though dodging a sweet muddy dog who was trying to steal our roast beef! We climbed up the fire tower for the nice views.
We headed down and took the AT down the entire way. The view going down the AT just past the junction of the eyebrow trail was gorgeous and we paused for a break to soak it in! A wonderful view of the valley –mostly still green but a few signs of the leaves just starting to change color. The stream running down the Old Speck Trail/AT was lovely, running down slabs with some potholes in the rocks and lovely cascades/waterfalls. A beautiful trail! We got back to the car ~4:20, about 5 h after we started.
On the way driving out, we stopped at roadside self service pie stand—I’ve seen plenty of veggie stands, but never a pie stand before, so we had to stop! I got an enormous delicious Whoopie pie for the ride home to fill in the calories burned on the hike
and a pie to bring home. The drive was so long coming up from Waltham via route 3 to 93 and then east via route 2 and then into Maine, we decided to try route 16 to 95 to 128 for the ride back for comparison since online driving direction suggested that was a quicker route, but the single lane route 16 made for slow going and route 16 route was 4.25 h vs. 3.75 for 93. So our long standing conception of route 16 being a slow way up to the Whites from Boston stands! A great LONG day!!! #58/67.
