Mahoosuc Notch advice

[billski]

Looking at doing the Notch as a day trip. Given that I'm a slow but very persistent hiker, what's the best route for a round-trip day trip? Speck pond trail (do the vertical up first) , through the notch and then back out through the notch trail?
According to Magic's report, maybe it's too much for a singe day.
http://forums.alpinezone.com/1792-mahoosuc-notch-speck-pond-old-speck-10-2-3-2004-a.html
Maybe just go up through the notch and back out again? Or am I crazy?
I'm really just interested in seeing the notch and not in a position to summit and do an overnighter.

Thanks!

 

[madman]

I would do it in and out it is a realy cool place and if I had to do it in a day this is how I would do it. If you are going soon I would try to find out the conditions it is probably still snow filled.

 

[Mike P.]

It can be done as a day hike by very fit hikers.

Depending on how my plans next week go, I may be doing Goose Eye + a couple of others & descending the Notch trail back to the road. I could poke my head in & see how much snow there is.

On a good day though I'll be in the Presidentials though.

 

[kingdom-tele]

don't know how you hike but I would recommend an overnight, you could hike into speck pond, drop your gear and head for the notch for the day, there's a great little stream, especially early in summer to play in and goofing in the notch is a blast

yes there will be snow, likely unitl end of june

speck pond is one of the best places on earth (to me), why rush by

 

[billski]

I am going mid July. It's definitely on my to-do list, I appreciate all the input!

 

[Beetlenut]

You can take a dirt logging road out of Gorham, to a trailhead within about 2 1/2 miles of the notch. An easy day hike to the notch past a nice swimming hole. I hit it in July and going into the notch was like hitting air conditioning. There was still trapped snow down in some of the bolder caves!

 

[billski]

You can take a dirt logging road out of Gorham, to a trailhead within about 2 1/2 miles of the notch. An easy day hike to the notch past a nice swimming hole. I hit it in July and going into the notch was like hitting air conditioning. There was still trapped snow down in some of the bolder caves!

I was planning approach from Success Pond Road. Is that the same thing you are thinking of?

Trolling viewsfromthetop leads to a story and photos about a moose that perished in there. Ugh.