Evan's Notch is truly a hidden gem in the White Mountains. This place is far less traveled, but still offers so much. I've been taking more time to explore this area this year with the idea of going for this route at some point.
With a beautiful, sunny, dry day forecasted I decided to go out for it. I started and ended touching sign in the Baldface Circle parking lot. I felt strong at the beginning heading up the Baldfaces, but as I was running across the ridge line I felt how exhausted my body was. Having already ran many miles in the past week and working some very long days it all started to catch up to me. In addition, I failed to pack enough calories and electrolytes. This is a mistake I typically don't make. I underestimated this route a bit. I figured it would take me closer to 7 hours, but with my tired body that wasn't going to happen. Luckily, once over by the Royces there were multiple water sources flowing nicely so I had plenty of water to keep me going after filtering.
The terrain on the Speckled and Blueberry side is a little more gentle. There are less ups and down. I took a brief break on Speckled to take in the view, chug the last of my ginger ale, and hype myself up for the last mountain miles. There were a few sections of very deep mud I had to trudge through though. The kind of mud that tries to take your shoes off.
The last section of road miles were super tough. I felt super hot and had side stitches coming all the way down the White Cairn Trail. I was able to hop off Shell Pond Road into the brook to cool off. I threw my pack down on some rocks and completely submerged myself. While it wasted even more time, it was how I got through those last hot miles on 113.
Even though I road the struggle bus for most of the day, I had a great time regardless. We havent had many nice days this summer so I felt lucky to be able to be out to enjoy it. I'm looking forward to coming back to this route again with more calories and fresher legs.