Grafton Notch is a huge park with big mountains (this is just barely outside of the White Mountains, part of White Mountain National Forest is just south) right on the border between Maine and New Hampshire. When I googled the park to find out more about it I learned that the AT passes right through it! I was sold! I knew I wanted to see this park and I hadn’t planned out my second week of my trip yet! This is how I came to discover South Arm as it’s close to Grafton Notch. After this discovery the whole rest of my trip fell together!
Today was the day to check out Grafton Notch. I got an early start because I figured it might take me up to two hours to get there and two to get back and I needed to be back before dark. I wasn’t sure how long I’d hike.
It was bright and sunny with few clouds as I headed out! My first stop was the Andover ball field parking lot where I checked e-mail and facebook for the first time since Sat afternoon!
In Andover I had a choice, I could take Route 5 down to Route 2 and then up 26 into the park, this would keep me on main highways that were bold on my map or I could take the road with no number that was not as bold (but still paved!) that would be more scenic and possibly rough…. I was for sure returning by the “big roads” because I was planning to pick up dinner in Bethel, so as you can probably guess I took the riskier road! It was just fine, and it sure was scenic! The AT crossed this road too!
The drive through the park was awesome! The main highway goes right through the park and the mountains were pretty cool! The park wasn’t as “civilized” as I was expecting. I expected there’d be a visitor center or something where I could get a map or something, but the whole park is just land and a series of turnouts on the main highway! The first one I came to was an “informational turn out”. It was a great view and 4 signs. One of the signs had a top map of the parks hiking trails – there are really only 3! The AT, the Table Rock trail and the Eyebrow trail. If you go south you can go to Old Speck Mt and take the Eyebrow trail. If you go north you can go to Baldpate Mt and take the Table Rock Trail. Each side trail made a loop with the AT and each loop was short, each less than 3 miles. Although to get to the summits of either mountain you had to go about 3 miles from the parking area.
I knew I’d wanted to hike to Table Rock – I’d read someone else’s trip report on the internet and it looked cool. I studied the topo map and learned that the Table Rock trail was much steeper than the AT so decided to go up via that trail and down on the AT. I should have taken a picture of the map, since this is the ONLY one that was available! There was a map of sorts at the trail head, but it was simply the trails carved into a piece of wood and painted to match their blaze color. Not to be used for navigational purposes!
When I got the trail parking area I got myself together and headed off down the Table Rock trail. A sign at the beginning stated that it was 1 mile to Table Rock. Just a mile, how hard can it be? It started off pretty good, lots of stone steps that someone had spent a lot of time and energy building. Soon though I came to some huge boulders that I had to climb over and around, it still wasn’t so bad though, there was dirt between the rocks and it wasn’t that hard. Then the trail went up. Directly up. There were stone steps again, how they built them I’ll never know because they were vertical, I can to crawl on my hands and feet like going up a ladder. Then I came to an actual ladder. It was made of wood, and was very easy to climb, I didn’t think to take a picture before I climbed it.
It was about here that the herd of kids caught up with me. I’d heard them coming and once I saw them I found a wide spot in the trail (there weren’t many) to let them get in front of me). Turned out there were about 40 kids (probably 4th-8th graders) from a summer camp hiking this trail behind me! I stood there waiting for them to pass and behind them were an older couple hiking. They had been up this trail before and said we were almost there. Yeah!
As soon as we started hiking again we got stopped though because the kids had taken a break and there was no room to pass! After a few more obstacles – an iron rung ladder, a “lemon squeezer” through some rocks (none of which I got pics of because I was chatting with the older couple) we made it to the top! The view was outstanding! The older couple offered to take my picture and then they moved on to the summit of Baldpate Mt. I sat and had a cliff bar and checked my email! I had full coverage at the top of the mountain!
I overheard the leaders (college aged) of the kids discussing the return options. They had a GPS device but it wasn’t telling them what they needed to know – they were looking for another option down. It sounded like none of the adults had ever been up there before! As I was heading out I saw an adult adult with the group – I think she was someone’s mom and I started chatting with her. I told her that I’d checked the map at the overlook and the AT looked easier. I’d also asked the guy who’d been up here before and he said that the AT was much much easier.
I started down on the blue blazed trail – we’d come up the orange and there was no way I was heading down that and since there was no sign I assumed that the blue blaze lead to the AT since that’s the way it works in Shenandoah NP. I was immediately greeted with an iron rung ladder to descend. I knew this one was there because I’d seen it in the pictures from the trail report I read online. Next I cam to a spot where I had to get on my butt to crawl down, I was not happy. I was hoping to actually walk, something that hiking in Maine doesn’t seem to include much of! Luckily this was the only spot like that, the whole rest of the way down was smooth sailing. The trail was wide and gentle. Amazing considering how steeply the other trail went up! I opted not to go on to the summit of Baldpate Mt – it was another 2+ miles which would have given me a 6 mile hike and I was worried about it being steep again and about getting back to the campsite, if I’d had a car I might have gone for it.
The group of kids passed me about ½ way down! Glad their leaders decided to take them that way rather than the other trail!
After the hike it was only 12:15. I’d left the parking lot at 9:30 and it took me an hour and half to do the 1 mile to Table Rock. That’s how hard it was, I wasn’t even going 1 mph! Of course getting back was super easy! I considered going south on the AT and seeing what was that way, but I knew my legs couldn’t take any more rock scrambling and I was scared there’d be more. I passed 3 thru-hikers on the way down, I should have asked them what the other side was like, but I didn’t think of it.
I decided to head out and drive down to Screw Auger Falls – one of the big attractions in the park. I passed another turnout to the Mother Walker Falls so I pulled off there to check that out. When I got to Screw Auger Falls though there was no place for me to park! There was 1 area suitable for an RV but it already had a Chinook pulling a boat in it. So I kept going.
I drove into Bethel, my plan was to find dinner there, even though it was only 1:00 I needed to find something to bring back. Bethel is a large city by Maine standards, however there was very little there! A few gas stations with convenience stores, some little diner type places and that was it. I didn’t even see a grocery store! I saw one of the other campground options in the area and while they have wi-fi, that’s about the only thing that’s good about them. So glad I’m at South Arm! I found a gas station that had a Subwy in it so went there, I was able to get dinner and gas (without any drama this time!) and was soon on my way back to South Arm.
I again stopped at the ball field parking lot to do internet stuff before heading in – I wasn’t coming out until Wed morning. It was still only 2:30 though. I really didn’t want to head back to the campground. The AT crosses South Arm road about 5 miles from the campground and there are a few wide spots in the road close to the trail crossing where I can park my RV and lucky for me one (actually both!) of those spots was open! I parked the RV and headed out again. My plan was to hike south, I had no real reason for picking south, it just seemed like the way to go, for an hour then hike back. I had no idea what was up there so I didn’t want to go too far.
The 1st wide spot in the road to park in was about a ¼ mile from the trail head, as I was walking down the shoulder of the road I saw what looked like moose prints in the sand! I wish I’d been there to see the moose just walking down the street like in Northern Exposure! Of course it could have been a deer print too….
Just off the road was a wide stream. There were rocks but they were too far apart and I ended up just wading across, which meant that I got my feet wet – the water was up to my mid-calf! The trail was fairly steep, but there were no rocks, it was just straight up walking which was very nice! There were no views, but the forest was cool – lots of moss and big rocks. I hiked up and up and up…the trail started to level off a bit and I’d hiked for 40 mins when I decided to turn back. I knew that getting down was going to be slow going. It took me a little over an hour to get down! At the bottom, just before the river crossing, I saw a sign – it said “Moody Mt 1.4 miles” – if only I’d known that at the beginning! I was probably almost to the top and a view if there was one! Oh well. There was another sign that had more detailed information about this section – it said that the climb up Moody Mt was “gentle” – hmmm…well maybe comparatively speaking.
I got back to the RV about 5:00 and changed out of my wet boots and pants. I was 1 mile from the “scenic turnout” that has cell phone coverage. I was thinking about driving back there, but then decided I’d just walk, figuring I wouldn’t have to go the full mile to get coverage. I ended up having to go about ¾ of a mile! There was nothing in my email that worth walking that far for.
After that little walk I headed back to the campground. I got a shower and enjoyed my Subway while watching some Family Guy (I downloaded it from my TiVo before I left!) before crawling into bed!
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| Maine - Day 11 Grafton Notch State Park & AT |
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