A week before my arrival at Cold River, I decided it was finally time for me to see where I’d be living for the summer. Ryan and I made the trip up from Bartlett to check out camp for the first time and were sure to pack in a hike along the way.
We settled on starting from the Brickett Place trailhead and starting up the Bickford Brook Trail. Though not steep by any means, the Bickford Brook Trail didn’t give any sort of warm-up in terms of gain. Once we got to the first trail junction, we took a right onto the Blueberry Ridge Trail which quickly took us to the top of Blueberry Mountain. At just 1781 feet, Blueberry Mountain provided incredible views that were unobstructed over several ranges in sight. The Baldface-Royce range and the Carter range looked magnificent from here.
Though gorgeous, it was a hot day and I didn’t know how I felt about doing another 7 miles that afternoon. I’d just done Chocura the day before and we wanted to be in good shape for the Dry River the next day, so I was hesitant. But, at the end of the day, I did what I always do to feel better and had a bunch of water and some dried mango.
Freshly refueled, we continued up Blueberry Ridge until we reached the Red Rock Trail. I was a HUGE fan of the rest of this hike, particularly after we were out of the sun. This being my first time in the Caribou-Speckled Wilderness, I was amazed by the different sights above and below me, namely the moss, that I had never seen in another wilderness. The ridge over to Speckled was inviting and soft on the feet and the views from Speckled blew both of us away, particularly because we had very low expectations. From atop the old fire tower posts, I could see so far into Maine and New Hampshire and would’ve gladly stayed up there for hours. The sudden scattered thunderstorms had other plans though, so we had to hurry down quickly to get back beneath the safety of the trees.
After summiting, we continued down Red Rock Trail until we got back to the Bickford Brook Trail where we closed our loop. The lower portion of the Bickford Brook Trail wasn’t as easy on the feet, as it mostly involved rock-to-rock foot placement, but it was still a great trail.
All in all, we hiked 8.5 miles and ascended 2,330 in a lovely four hours and twenty minutes, breaks included.
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