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Mahoosuc Traverse 12-17-06 
First of all. This hike isn't for everyone, in fact, I would -discourage- anyone from doing this unless you are completely insane. I should make mention that I discourage this hike in December when its only a few days from the shortest day of the year! In the non icy snowy months it might be considerably safer, however less beautiful! This is basically the first hike of any significant length that I did with other hikers. I went with Al and Rod who I met through ViewsFromTheTop Both are trail runners and very fast! Much faster than me! We started from the "not maintained in winter" Success Pond road in NH which was in fact cleared due to logging activities. We ascended up Goose Eye trail around 6:30 or so and passed into Maine after a few miles (I didn't see the state marker, it was buried in snow). The trail went more or less normally until we got to the final grind up Goose Eye which was steep, rocky, icy, and windy. Views were nice and clear, but the wind made most of my pictures come out blurry. We proceeded to another small goose eye related peak to the east and then along the ridge line which was pretty much completely exposed. Several treacherous wooden stairs were installed along this area which were very dangerous in the snow (I got my foot stuck in one and twisted my ankle a little). We continued our trek north with the goal of bushwhacking to Fulling Mill Peak, a ME100 peak. After an initial aborted effort Al & I attempted another bushwhack while Rod went on without us. We found the summit in 17 minutes and signed the last page of the summit register which dated back to 1991. Only 4 other people had climbed the mountain this year and 4 last year as well! after the quick whack back to the AT we proceeded to descend into the DREADED MAHOOSUC NOTCH. We found Rod down there. He couldn't find the trail, and with good reason.... Mahoosuc Notch is one of the slowest, maybe THE slowest sections of the AT. it is a mile of nothing but boulders which are as big as cars and houses piled on top of each other. You cant go around them because the notch is so steep on both ends, the only option is to climb over the giant line of boulders (or under) Giant trap holes lurk everywhere some 20 feet deep or more. To make matters worse there was 6-8 inches of snow on all the rocks which made stepping treacherous! It took 1.5 hours to pass through the 1 mile notch. This was very very dangerous and should not be attempted alone, or for that matter by anyone who doesn't know what they are doing.. It really is insane. After that nightmare which had all of us soaked from the wet snow we ascended up to Mahoosuc arm. At this point the clouds rolled in and the views were completely dead. We pressed on down to Speck pond, past the shelter and up Old Speck. There was one real nasty section near the top of Old speck were you have a 200 or 300 foot icy rocky climb which is VERY windy and very exposed (fun when you are soaking wet). Amazingly it was warm enough out not to turn my pants into an icicle. After that bit was conquered it was off to old speck via a spur trail. It was now 3:40PM hence darkness was looming close. With 3.8 miles to our spot cars we dashed down the icy hill (more like slid down, literally) and made it back to the car in a brisk 1:30. This hike was a pretty significant achievement. The conditions were less than nice. The paths we took from Success Pond Rd to Old Speck summit were completely unbroken. Although most of the ridge was wind swept and therefore snow less, other parts were pretty deep and miserable. The only let down was we wanted to also bag Baldpate (other side of Grafton notch) but since we hit the notch in the darkness that wasn't going to happen! We started this hike in the dark and finished in the dark with very few breaks. Fun times! Don't do this at home kids! Click Here for the Hike Map
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