Ascent of Speckled Mountain on 2012-09-13Date: | Thursday, September 13, 2012 | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | Peak: | Speckled Mountain | Location: | USA-Maine | Elevation: | 2906 ft / 885 m |
Ascent Trip ReportA moderate trail hike over 3 peaks ..... 7.0 miles, 3h40 hours RT.
This is the first day of a 9 day Maine Hiking Trip, the goal being a number of lesser known Maine Peaks in different PB Lists. Today the prize is Speckled Mountain in the List "Northeastern Wilderness High Points".
I decided to approach it from the west, bagging 2 other Peaks (Spruce Hill and Ames) on the way, the TH was the Royce Mountain TH Parking in Evans Notch on Hwy 113 .... 7.5 miles south of Hwy intersection 2/113 (2.2 miles east of the NH/ME State Line).
0.0 miles .... I left the Evans Notch TH eastbound on the Spruce Hill Trail. 1.4 miles .... At the highest point of the Trail is the summit area of SPRUCE HILL, the actual rocky HP is on a spur trail left at 25 yards with partial views, GPS 44.29263,-70.98057. This Peak is not in the PB data base, so I added it as a provisional peak for Greg's approval. I continued eastbound on the trail. 1.9 miles .... arrived at trail junction with Bickford Brook Trail coming in from the right, I stayed left, eastbound. 2.7 miles .... arrived at trail junction with Blueberry Trail coming in from the right, again I stayed left. 3.2 miles .... SPECKLED MOUNTAIN, an open all rock summit with outstanding views in all directions, old tower foundations and "USC&G Survey Marker, Speckled 1958". With this climb I know have 2 peaks outstanding in the List "Northeastern Wilderness High Points", both near the New Brunswick, Canada border. I backtracked to the TH after taking a short detour to Ames Mountain .... I walked westbound back to the Blueberry Trail junction and stayed left 4.0 miles .... AMES MOUNTAIN(failed attempt). I followed the Blueberry Trail westbound for 200 yards to where the trail turns/descends left. I entered the woods on the right directly to a moss covered rocky bump, thinking this was the HP of Ames Mountain, GPS 44.28977,-70.96526, elev. 2640'. I bushwacked west 25 yards and found the ground descending, so I thought I had the HP. As I write up this report I discovered that the actual HP is a good 300 Yards further west (from what I saw it will be a dense wack) .... c'est la vie. 5.6 miles .... I backtracked/revisited SPRUCE HILL for the second time. 7.0 miles .... out at the TH.
I overnighted at the National Forest Cold River Campground in NH, just south on Hwy 113, 16$ fee.
"I'D RATHER LOOSE MYSELF IN PASSION, THAN LOOSE MY PASSION."
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Summary Total Data | Total Elevation Gain: | 586 ft / 178 m | Route Conditions: | Maintained Trail | Ascent Statistics | Gain on way in: | 586 ft / 178 m | Distance: | 1.8 mi / 2.9 km | Route: | bickford/blueberry brook trail eb from spruce hill | Start Trailhead: | spruce hill 2320 ft / 707 m | Descent Statistics | Route: | bickford/blueberry trails to ames mtn | End Trailhead: | ames mountain | Ascent Part of Trip: speck1
Complete Trip Sequence: Total Trip Gain: 1926 ft / 587 m Total Trip Loss: 1100 ft / 335 m |
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