Help
A friend told me about the Grafton Loop Trail earlier in the summer and we quickly planned the trip over the 4th of July Weekend. The trail runs 39 miles over some great terrain in western Maine in the area of Grafton Notch State Park off of Rt 26. There are 8 primitive campsites along the way with a water source, some with a privy. There is also Baldpate Lean to along the AT. With exception to the AT section, we saw only a few people, even on the holiday weekend. From Grafton Notch to Old Speck was the busiest stretch of trail, in part because it is a 4000’ peak and it is the AT. The trail can be broken into 3 segments.
The eastern section runs 17.1 miles from Rt 26 by Eddy Road over Puzzle Mtn.,Long Mtn., Lightning Ledge, an meets up with AT on top of East Baldpate.
The next section is from East Baldpate to Old Speck on the AT for 8 Miles.
The final section is the western segment from Old Speck to Rt 26 back at Eddy Road. On the western segment the trail passes over Sunday River White Cap's summit and Bald Mountain.
We got are start about 7pm on Saturday and hoped to get to the first campsite, Stewart Campsite, 4.9 miles from the road. The climb up Puzzle Mtn. gained over 2400'. Along the way the sun began to drop quickly but great views to the west looking over Sunday River Ski Area into the distant Presidential Range came into view as we climbed. The summit of Puzzle is open and rewarded us with more views towards the Presidentials. We began descending to into woods and the darkness quickly made following the trail challenging until we used our lights. A blowdown that blocked the trail for what seemed like 100' blocked any blazes and we ended up looking for the trail for a good 15 minutes until we realized it turned. Had it been the day, it would have probably been easier to see. We eventually stumbled onto the campsite well after dark.
The following day we made it to Baldpate Lean to. There was one section of confusion not too long after Stewart Campsite that caused confusion. The trail appeared to be in the process of relocation and was flagged but not blazed. The new trail was more obvious but not blazed. We backtracked to the last blaze and realized we may have gone the wrong way. Upon following the trail we passed the area of flagging again so I'm guessing it is a relocation that was not yet official. We saw a bull moose in this area and another running moose enroute to Puzzle Mtn. Puzzle Mtn offered few views but soon after the trail followed Wight Br. which had several small cascades and a couple of nice swimming holes on the 90 degree day.
The next big highlight is Lightning Ledge. Great views across the valley give you a good look of what the western segment of the trail has to offer. We ate a meal at East Baldpate Campsite before reaching the summit of East Baldpate. Before reaching the summit the trail goes up a steep section over an iron rung ladder up a rock face.
The summit of East Baldpate is probably the best peak on the trip. From its open summit the views are vast of endless mountains in all direction. We were also greeted by gray jays that ate from our hands. The traverse over East Baldpate to the col between the two Baldpate summits is an awesome ridge walk above treeline over exposed rock.
That night we camped near Baldpate Lean to. The area was overrun with mice that needed to be smacked from both our tents on numerous occasions.
The trail soon crossed RT 26 at Grafton Notch before the long climb up Old Speck. The trail follows a steep brook part of the way before breaking off into the woods. As an alternative one could choose the Eye Brow Trail as a brief side route from the AT. Stopping not less than a mile from Old Speck for lunch we were greeted by a never-ending flow of gray jays that enjoyed our gorp. Some would even land on our heads to eat gorp.
Before long we reached the summit of Old Speck which offers great views from the tower on the summit, particularly of the Grafton Notch and Mahoosic Range. If it wasn’t so hazy, I’m sure the view towards the Presidentials would be equally as good.
6 More miles brought us to the open alpine summit of Sunday River White Cap. I would say this was probably second only to Baldpate in scenery. Less than a mile from the summit we camped at the last campsite along the loop in this direction. We had a fairly easy 6 miles back to Rt 26 in the morning. The last few miles followed a nice brook with several small cascades. A short .6 miles down Rt 26 brought us back to the car.
Page 1 of 1
