Bear Pond & Southwest Twin

[dr_wu002]

I finally hiked to West Bond on Friday and from the summit, you get a nice (but slightly obstructed) view of Bear Pond (Redrock Pond) nestled between West Bond Spur and Southwest Twin Spur in Redrock Ravine.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/395999345/396007981jsEulR
http://community.webshots.com/photo/395999345/396008064efXDQL

According to Steve Smith, people ski down the slides of Guyot into Redrock Ravine during the winter . Ok, I'm not so interested in that for now. However, A) has anyone been there and can you describe route, difficulty etc. Do you have pictures of Bear Pond? And, B) I have read that this route is also sometimes taken for those seeking to 'bag' Southwest Twin (instead of bushwhacking across the hellish, tangled ridge).

I know I've created chatter about this before -- either on PM's or posts, I can't remember. But this time I'm putting a dedicated thread up about it. No nutty timetables or anything about when I'm going... just looking for some feedback.

Thanks.

-Dr. Wu

 

[RoySwkr]

A) has anyone been there and can you describe route, difficulty etc. ... And, B) I have read that this route is also sometimes taken for those seeking to 'bag' Southwest Twin (instead of bushwhacking across the hellish, tangled ridge).

I'm not sure where "there" is, are you talking about bushwhacking from Guyot down to the pond then back up to SW Twin?. The route to Redrock Pond from the Kanc used to be described in one of the 50 Hikes books, it is birch woods with old logging roads. I have bushwhacked from there to the Guyot-Bond col & found nothing notable.

I'm not sure where the hellish ridge to SW Twin is supposed to be, all reports I've heard call it easy enough.

 

[dr_wu002]

I'm not sure where "there" is, are you talking about bushwhacking from Guyot down to the pond then back up to SW Twin?. The route to Redrock Pond from the Kanc used to be described in one of the 50 Hikes books, it is birch woods with old logging roads. I have bushwhacked from there to the Guyot-Bond col & found nothing notable.

I'm not sure where the hellish ridge to SW Twin is supposed to be, all reports I've heard call it easy enough.

By there I meant Redrock Pond. They described bushwhacks in the 50 hikes books!? Is this a current edition? I have it somewhere but can't find it at the moment.

Steve Smith described the BW from S. Twin to SW Twin as difficult.

-Dr. Wu

 

[bigmoose]

Dan Doan describes a bushwhack utilizing traces of an old logging railroad spur heading into the Redrock Brook Valley off Franconia Brook. "50 MORE Hikes In New Hampshire"...Third Edition, mine is, from 1994.

 

[SteveHiker]

I just read about it in the 1997 edition that I have. I wonder just how big the "young spruce" he mentions have gotten.

 

[dr_wu002]

Dan Doan describes a bushwhack utilizing traces of an old logging railroad spur heading into the Redrock Brook Valley off Franconia Brook. "50 MORE Hikes In New Hampshire"...Third Edition, mine is, from 1994.

A friend of mine said that this road vanishes into some pretty thick stuff. It doesn't matter... it's time to go exploring.

-Dr. Wu

 

[dr_wu002]

Well, it's not in the newest edition of 50 Hikes -- my guess is it's grown up enough that they can't justify putting it in that book. However, I assume it's followable.

If anyone is willing, could they PM me (or post here) some details about the trip from Franconia Brook Trail to Bear Pond as described in the edition of 50 Hikes that has the description. Thanks!

-Dr. Wu

 

[DougPaul]

If anyone is willing, could they PM me (or post here) some details about the trip from Franconia Brook Trail to Bear Pond as described in the edition of 50 Hikes that has the description. Thanks!

There were some reports posted on the AMC hiking BBS by mattl. He had a bear encounter when camped in or right next to the streambed below the pond. Search on the keyword "bear" and the author "mattl":
http://appalachia.outdoors.org/bbs/...3&threadid=3077&highlight_key=y&keyword1=bear
Thread "Bears or other scary thngs" (July 23, 2003). There is a link to a web page, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore. (The page used to describe his route into Redrock Pond.)

Ah--searching on Redrock Pond and author mattl yields a thread "Redrock Pond" (Jun 11, 2004) http://appalachia.outdoors.org/bbs/...id=5600&highlight_key=y&keyword1=redrock pond
Some info.

Sounds to me like it might be a good spot for hammocks rather than tents.

Mattl also had a moose encounter deep in the Pemi while camping. These encounters were written up in AMC Outdoors, April 2004. (He seems to like to camp in stream beds and then gets into nasty animal encounters...)

Doug

 

[Mattl]

Time to add my two cents

yeah I like to camp in the most dangerous places possible it seems like. I wrote an article in AMC outdoors about moose and Redrock Pond. If you would like to know more info about how to get in and about it just let me know. Its a beautiful place, just don't want anyone to wreck it. Get ready for an adventure hiking into it. The bear encounter was actually on hellgate brook its sister brook to the south. -Matt

 

[RoySwkr]

Steve Smith described the BW from S. Twin to SW Twin as difficult.

Well, it is either the 1st or 2nd most difficult bushwhack on the TW72 list

Did Steve do it himself or just hear that? I think this may be beginner syndrome, just like NEHH aspirants start with Nubble or Mendon and think it's tough because they haven't seen anything really thick yet.

If you start not from S Twin but from the obvious closest trail approach, there is almost no scrub and all but the last deadfall patch is easy to bypass, you are walking among tree trunks maybe with dead lower branches.

As for Redrock Pond, when I went there a number of years ago you didn't need a compass but just generally followed the outlet stream up which may be why it was in "50 More Hikes". Dan was a bushwhacker but I'm not sure his daughter is, did all the bushwhacks vanish from the book?

 

[dr_wu002]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

-Dr. Wu

 

[Mattl]

Make sure you make the left turn near the top where the gradient gets steep or you will end up in the Guyot ravine. It's a spectacular bushwhack.-Matt