Old Speck & Speck Pond via Eyebrow Trail, Mahoosuc Trail, & Speck Pond Trails (Grafton Notch State Park/Mashoosuc Public Lands)
Hike Type: Traverse
Distance: 9.22 miles
Elevation: 3,307 feet
Time: 7 hours, 53 minutes
Hiking Challenges: Maine 4000 Footers, Wicked Wild 25, 52 Hike Challenge 2025
Hiking Challenges: Maine 4000 Footers, Wicked Wild 25, 52 Hike Challenge 2025
The Hike
The next stop on my 4,000-Footers Farewell Tour was what some would consider the "49th" 4,000 Footer of the White Mountains - Old Speck, just off the New Hampshire-Maine Border in Grafton Notch, Maine! Sarah and I had our sights set on this one for Yom Kippur (after half jokingly talking about a single-day Pemi Loop) after hiking Goose Eye last fall. I had a brutal 1:40am wake up and was on the road at 1:55am. Sarah drove up the night before, but I had a date to go on the night before. The skies were crystal clear for the entire drive. Naturally, there were no breakfast sandwiches at 3:00am, so I opted for a brutally dry ham and cheese sandwich. I listened to techno remixes of classical music, which was actually really fun to dive into, and of course Death Becomes Her on my schlep. My tummy was feeling weird, but it is what it is!
I was excited to see that it was 32 degrees in Franconia Notch - I knew lows were expected to be in the mid-30s, but it was fun to see it hit freezing! I pulled over at Boise Rock to catch a glimpse at the stars, and I saw a shooting star! I continued onto US-3, NH-115, and US-2 to Gorham, where I stopped for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (and to christen that bathroom). I continued north to Berlin and then onto Success Pond Road, where a logging truck scared the life out of me (I was suprised to see one so early - it was still mostly dark out!). I eventually made it to the Speck Pond Trail trailhead at 5:52am. The road was in pretty good shape and it was now a CHILLY 28 degrees. Our meeting time was 6:15am, but Sarah made a wrong turn coming out of Grafton Notch, so it ended up being 6:30am, which was totally fine. I walked around a little bit until I got cold, and then back into the car I'd go! I did hear some kind of insane sound - maybe a weird frog, but I think it was too cold for frogs. Maybe a moose? I did hear some screaming loons, too, which was fun. Sarah eventually arrived and we were off to Grafton Notch!
[7:48am - Old Speck Trail]
The Old Speck Trail trailhead was a large, paved parking area with two privys and nice views. The foliage was looking good! We did another quick bathroom break before starting our journey up the Old Speck Trail (just for a second, though!). It was so delightfully quiet out - the only sound we could hear was the falling leaves (and the occasional car driving through Grafton Notch).
[7:51am - Eyebrow Trail]
Very soon into the hike, the Eyebrow Trail turned right. Now blazed in orange, the Eyebrow Trail climbed through an autumnal wonderland. There were a few series of rock steps that climbed steeply, but they were forgiven with flatter stretches after. Our outer layers soon came off in an area of really neat erratics/boulders (we wonder if the glaciers brought them, or if they fell off the Eyebrow's cliffs long ago?).
Eventually, we hit the section of trail that earned it a place on the "Wicked Wild 25" list - basically, cables, ladders, and rungs, oh my! I say "oh my," but I cannot stress how unnecessary most/all of the aides were. They were fun, though! In fairness, we caught this trail on a dry day, so maybe it is more treacherous when wet?
The first set of aides were cables up an eroded, slabby stretch with good grip. It was steep, though! We climbed up and then traversed along another slab that could have been an older slide with a few rungs to aide, and then we climbed a small iron ladder to clear this stretch. The fall colors were lovely! We caught some tree views across Grafton Notch to what we believe is Table Rock.
Later, there was a mosty dry stream crossing with ropes to aide (again, pretty unnecessary, and it was funny to be climbing this trail with many aides after doing Flume Slide a week ago, which had zero aides) above a ledge view across the notch again.
We did some more hiking, now steeply up to one of the best views of the day! We could see right down through Grafton Notch with the road winding down. On the left we could see up to a shoulder of Old Speck with an impressive drainage effectively splitting the mountain in half. Naturally, the foliage was muted (as every trail report has been saying), but it was still lovely.
From here, the trail descended for a few minutes before hitting the terminus of the Eyebrow Trail. We would now turn back onto the Old Speck Trail (which was coinciding with the Appalachian Trail) to continue our climb!
[8:58am - Old Speck Trail]
We were now back in the woods for a while! The trail traversed a medium-flat stretch that was full of unofficial campsites and MANY squirrels, one who posted for a few photos.
[9:08am - Old Speck Trail/Conservation Area Boundary]
A few minutes later we entered a conservation area boundary, which is hard to tell if it was for Grafton Notch State Park, Mahoosuc Public Lands, or something else. We started climbing again at moderate grades - never as steep as the Eyebrow Trail. The trail was full of pretty slabs lined with moss, which was really lovely. We passed our first person of the day near our first pile of moose poop of the day, and soon came to the top of an open knob that had an Appalachian Trail survey marker!
From the survey marker, we descended for a bit and then resumed our climb, which was pretty continuously moderate and pretty. We hiked over a decent amount of PUDs with a few RUDE views up to Old Speck, passed a thru hiker, and eventually rounded a steep corner that had iciles! It's always funny to me how exciting the first ice/signs of winter of the season are. We continued to round the corner to reveal a truly spectacular view of late foliage into Maine with many low mountains and lakes. We shared a solid amount of "oh my gods" before continuing on.
[10:37am - Old Speck Trail/Departs AT]
The good news was that this view was soon before the summit! Just a few minutes after the "oh my gods," we turned left to continue on the Old Speck Trail while the AT/Mahoosuc Trail turned right. From this point, we had a super easy climb to the summit along more beautiful trail, now on a ridge. Soon enough, the trail passed another survey park and then opened up to the summit area!
[10:45am - Old Speck Summit]
The summit proper was a large clearing with an observation tower accessibly by a narrow, sketchy ladder. There were limited standing views from the summit, but of course we had to climb up to see what else was there! I wanted to have our break up there, but didn't want to carry my pack up the sketchy ladder. Sarah went to climb with her pack, determined as ever, and soon froze at how sketchy it was and climbed right back down. We decided we'd carry a snack up but do our full break down low. Sarah went first again on the ladder and had quite a time getting up - the fear was real! It was actually medium sturdy, but just did not feel incredibly safe.
That being said, the climb was worth it because oh my GOD. First, the view across Grafton Notch to Table and Baldpate was stunning and surrounded by orange. We had a full view of Sunday River ski area, too. We could see into the distant Maine Mountains, notably to Saddleback and Sugarloaf. Back in New Hampshire, we could make out Success Pond and the Pilot/Pliny Ranges (and of course the Percys). The best part of the view, though, was of Mahoosuc Notch with Goose Eye and Success behind and the Presidential Range further back. It was such a dramatic, incredible, and unique view - one of the best I've seen in these mountains! We spent some time up here enjoying the view and eating our snacks, but I was getting ready for hot chocolate!
I went down first, which was significantly less scary than going up (I think it was the mental game of going closer to safety versus further away). Sarah stayed up top to continue enjoying the view (and to hype her self up for the ladder) while I started making the hot chocolate. Two Gray Jays started lingering around, but I had a firm talking-to with them, and they eventually left us alone (after I got 1,000 photos, naturally). Sarah made it down strongly and successfully and then we continued to enjoy our break. Sarah was a genius and brought a big bag of peanut M&Ms, which was an excellent choice. I ate way too fast and gave myself a tummy ache, but beside that, it was a wonderful break! We took a few photos with my silly tripod, and eventually got ready to make our long trip back.
[11:50am - Old Speck Trail]
We had a quick and easy trip backtracking on the Old Speck Trail, and then turned onto the Mahoosuc Trail.
[11:56am - Mahoosuc Trail]
The Mahoosuc Trail was... exactly what we expected. Steep, rugged, but pretty fantastic, too. It started off nice and easy on a ridge spine and then started to plummet down on super steep slabs. Thankfully, the slabs had good grip and even better views! We primarily looked into the Mahoosuc Arm compled with a hidden Speck Pond somewhere in the landmass. We continued to enjoy seeing Succcess Pond and the various dirt roads in the area, too. The Presis were still visible, but Mahoosuc Notch was expectedly hidden. We were SO GLAD we chose to come down this way versus hiking back to Grafton Notch!
We eventually made our way back into the woods where we took a potty break alongside at least 50,000 white-and-black fuzzy/spiky catepillars. The woods continued to be expectedly rugged and beautiful and once nearer the pond, we traversed a nice boardwalk section that reminded me of Ponkapoag Pond, caught one last view, and then had our final descent to Speck Pond, which included a smooth, wooden ladder.
[12:49pm - Mahoosuc Trail/Speck Pond Trail jct.]
The Mahoosuc Trail effectively comes to a T-junction at Speck Pond. The Speck Pond Trail turns right while the Mahoosuc Trail turns left - we opted to go left because the guidebook spoke of some open ledges that we wanted to check out before our grand return.
The trail around Speck Pond was wild and rugged - it reminded me of the upper Kinsman Pond Trail. We crossed the outflow of the pond, which had a great view of the pond and an absurd amount of ladybugs. We could hear some people enjoying themselves on the other side of the pond, but it was time for our final climb du jour!
We were hyping ourselves up for the climb by telling ourselves "it's just one Blue Hill..." - about 300 feet. To no surprise, it was completely fine, even if it was classic Mahoosuc rugged. We hit a truly fantastic view back to Old Speck and over to Sunday River Whitecap. Around the corner we got one final (excellent) view of the Presidentials with Carlo and Goose Eye, and a few cliffs dropping into Mahoosuc Notch.
The trail climbed easily a little bit more after this viewpoint, passing a male spruce grouse who I was swearing at, but Sarah was calling beautiful... We have differing opinions on the mountain chickens.
[1:32pm - May Cut-Off]
We reached the May Cut-Off in a boggy/meadowy area with some boardwalks and a wonderful view back to Old Speck (our actual last view of the day). The May Cut-Off was a wonderfully open and short trail. The footbed was narrow and squishy and we were glad it's been dry!
[1:43pm - Speck Pond Trail]
We quickly hit the terminus of the May Cut-Off, and took a quick side trip down the Speck Pond Trail back toward Speck Pond because the guidebook mentioned a view, but it started to descend before the view and we had no interest in continuing to climb, so we started our descent!
The descent on the upper Speck Pond Trail was moderate to steep with thin trees, lots of moss, and dirt and needles dusting rocks. I took one slip and fall on a wet rock, which didn't feel great, but I was mostly unharmed, minus a puncture wound on my hand. Fun!
[1:52pm - Speck Pond Trail/Conservation Area Boundary]
We passed just a couple peopel on the descent, which had a flat section before more steep, and some moose prints! We hit a Conservation Area Boundary sign again - the same sign we saw on the Old Speck Trail. We also had some ladders every now and then, which weren't overly helpful, but were fun! Over time, the trail got leafier and canopy turned into stick season, which provided autumnal tree views - always appreciated.
[2:46pm - Speck Pond Trail/Grafton Forest Wilderness Preserve Sign]
We finally had an answer to the conservation area signs! It was the Grafton Forest Wilderness Preserve - owned by the Northeast Wilderness Trust. With some research, they own a large tract of land east of Grafton Notch, but also this stretch of land, too. Just after leaving the preserve, the Speck Pond Trail joined a stream, which had a nice pool covered in leaves, with two brook trout in the pool? We had no idea how they got all the way up here. The happiest of possibilities is that they could have been born in this pool and the pool is all they know, the more likely possibility is that they swam up when water levels were higher and got trapped as the drought kicked in. Hopefully they're happy!
We followed the brook for the bulk of the rest of the hike out, including a dry, leafy confusing stretch. We passed a few piles of moose poop, and were DELIGHTED to eventually make our way to the trailhead! We did it!
[3:21pm - End of Hike]
After our hike, we changed at my car and had a scenic drive back to Grafton Notch to get Sarah's car before a LONG drive home. It was such a beautiful and perfect day. I also didn't realize that the US-2 that goes through Gorham is the same US-2 that goes through Bethel, ME and Rumford, ME - which is kind of cool to realize!
Step-by-Step
- Drop car at Speck Pond Trailhead & Drive to Grafton Notch Hiker Parking/AT Trailhead.
- Start hike on Old Speck Trail/AT Southbound.
- At split, turn right onto Eyebrow Trail.
- At terminus, turn right onto Old Speck Trail/AT Southbound.
- At jct., turn left to continue on Old Speck Trail to summit.
- At summit, turn around.
- At previous jct., turn left onto Mahoosuc Trail/AT Southbound.
- At Speck Pond, turn left to continue on Mahoosuc Trail/AT Southbound.
- At jct., turn right onto May Cut Off.
- At terminus, turn left onto Speck Pond Trail.
- Follow Speck Pond Trail to car.
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