GRAFTON NOTCH

AT Day 116: Tuesday,  August 1, 2023

SOBO Mile 1943 – 1928

Surplus Pond Road Campsite 

Distance Hiked – 15 miles/24 km

Total Distance Hiked: 1915.8 miles/3082.5 km 

A: 6015 ft / 1835 m D:4380 ft/1336 m

What a lovely campsite. It was so silent and  still only the occasional croaking of frogs broke the silence this morning. 

The morning hiking was nice. The trail was in good condition and the climb to Surplus Mountaint was steep in parts but not bouldering steepness. For some reason I was feeling quite lethargic and just had little energy. I ate almost all my snacks hoping for a bit of bounce. Hammer powered on and I tried to keep up. 

From Surplus Mt the trail ascended towards Little Baldplate Mountain.   It was slow going with lots of bouldering and a few almost vertical rock sections. But once we reached the top it was incredible. We had 360 degree views north to Maine and south towards  New Hampshire. Mountain and lake wilderness  as far as we could see. We didn’t stay on the summit for too long as a cold wind was blowing. We went across to Boldplate Mountain summit which was not very far, the trail went down and then back up again.  Quite a stunning view from the summit here as well.  We found a spot out of the wind and stopped for lunch. Absolutely glorious, we could see down into New Hampshire and what we’ve got ahead of us over the coming weeks. 

The West Peak of Boldplate Mt was covered in trees and offered no views so we descended down to Grafton Notch and Route 26. The descent was just as slow as the ascent although the trail had well formed rock stairs. These were very steep so descending was very hard on the knees.

It was mid afternoon when we got down to Route 26 and still had 4.5 miles of steep climbing to get to Speck Pond Lean-to where we planned to camp. Just as we were about leave the trailhead notice board Hammer noticed a sign for Trail Magic. What providence, we were so hungry we didn’t think we could make the climb out of Grafton Notch. A veggie burger, homemade cake and soda and we were re-energised. It was tempting to stay longer and graze some more but we packed out a home made whoopie cake and were on our way. Hammer was almost running uphill from Grafton Notch. He reckons Trail Magic is like adrenaline to a hiker. 

Less then a mile in up from Grafton Notch we met with another northbound familiar face, Poop Spoon, who must be the happiest hiker on trail. We first met him in Hamburg,  Pennsylvania. So happy to see him and wish him well in the hike through the last state on the AT. 

We passed a nice campsite on a mountain top clearing just before the side trail to Old Spec Mountain trail and decided to stop early. A campsite with a view through the trees and sky above. We even saw the sun set.