Old Speck
TL;DR
Summited Maine's Old Speck in late August and early January. Went up the Eyebrow Trail in summer, otherwise used Old Speck Trail.
Goals Incremented:
First Solo 4k Footer
1/14 Maine 4k Footers
1/14 Winter Maine 4k Footers
49/67 New England 4k Footers
7/67 Winter New England 4k Footers
9/12 Months of the year summited a 4k Footer
22/52 Weeks of the year summited a 4k Footer
34/365 Days of the year summited a 4k Footer
Old Speck - 2024-08-24
This was the first time I've hiked a 4k footer without any partners. Going up the eyebrow trail is a real treat, with handholds, rails, and cables to pull. I started at 7:15am, almost immediately overexerted myself, and had to stop and rest. This was peak AT season, and once off the eyebrow trail, I was constantly passing through hikers heading north. One said he really needed some sugar, so he got a large bag of cut fresh strawberries from my pack. He was very moved by the gesture. By 9:45am I was at the summit, and got to enjoy the 360 degree view from the top of the view tower.
Lessons learned on this hike:
- Go slow at the parking lot, it's easy to forget something in the car.
- Go slow on the trail. If no one else is slowing me down, I'll need to pace myself.
- Solo hikes can still have a lot of other people. If I want to be alone, I'll have to plan for days, times, and locations that avoid people.
Old Speck - 2024-12-21 - Failed to Summit
I met Zoë and Regina through the AMCSEM winter hiking series. Both are more experienced winter hikers than me, but were on board with allowing me to plan this hike and kick it off the first day of winter.
I was pleased that other bloggers had already written about this hike in winter and could be easily found.
Having already done the hike recently, having good notes from other hikers, and experience partners, the real worry here was cold.
Base Start: 16F, 10MPH wind, 3F wind chill
Expected Peak: 5F, 25MPH wind, -18F wind chill
Base End: 14F, 15MPH wind, -2F wind chill
The three of us came with more layers than needed, extra gear, extra food, and emergency supplies.
The hike failed because some traction gear was slipping, and we weren't able to substitute it with traction gear that wouldn't slip. This has since been remedied. Regardless of the outcome, we had a really great time, and I was surprised how well we were able to handle the cold. Hearing the rush of the wind above the trees was exhilarating, and it was great to be out in true winter.
Lessons learned on this hike:
- Practice putting on equipment regularly. My strap crampons are easy to use, if I know where the straps go, but difficult if I forget.
- Snow shoes for 4k footers should have teeth, rather than tubes, on the outside.
- Rain covers (the kind every good pack comes with) can and should also be used to protect against blowing snow, otherwise you're going to get your backup mittens wet, depending on where they are stowed.
- Pack mittens for cold hikes.
Old Speck - 2025-01-01
Regina decided to join me for another go at this mountain. We were really looking forward to a forecast of several inches of snow, during the hike, but with mild wind and temperatures.
Base Start: 34F, 20MPH wind, light snow, 23F wind chill
Expected Peak: 30F, 20MPH wind, 18F wind chill
Base End: 36F, 5MPH wind, 30F wind chill
I didn't take in to account the extra hour required to navigate messy roads (and almost went off the road twice from rough patches, even at a very slow speed on good winter tires with AWD), so we got a late start of 9am. We (wisely) kept our turn-around time unchanged at 1pm.
We were the only ones on the mountain that morning and had to use rain gear to keep the snow from melting all over us and our gear. The climb was very challenging, with lots of fresh snow we had to break ourselves. At higher elevations, I'd have to momentarily stop to figure out where the trail continued. Snow drifts several feet high made the path very difficult to judge. The final 0.6 miles to the summit took us almost an hour, but we beat our turn-around by just a few minutes.
1pm was a great time to be at the peak, though. No visibility, but the wind had died down enough to scale the view tower (something which would not have been possible on our failed summit in December)
The first half of the hike back down went incredibly fast, sped up by our excitement and hot miso soup. However the second half became an agonizing crawl through mush, as the temperatures were too high to sustain the snow and it was not getting replaced. If the morning was peak winter, the afternoon was peak spring, and it hurt.
Lessons learned on this hike:
- Plan for the drive as much as the hike. I should have either rescheduled the hike or stayed at a motel the night before. My father-in-law tried to get this point in my head a few days earlier, and it didn't stick.
- Pack mittens for any hike. I delayed after the last hike, and again regretted it.
- I need a rain jacket that fits better, I couldn't keep my current's hood out of my eyes.