dr_wu002
Well-known member
Anyone that followed last weeks chatter about Redrock Ravine and Redrock Pond (Bear Pond) could've guessed that I was planning a trip there this past weekend. You were right -- Eric (Barbarossa) and Yam and I (Dr. "Amateur Bushwhacker" Wu visited Redrock Ravine on Sunday in search of this little mountain pond and we had a blast of a trip but came home without so much as a glance at the pond.
Redrock Pond, if you look at your map of the Pemi you can find it, is nestled between Southwest Twin and West Bond in the Redrock Ravine (right below the Southwest Twin headwall). The area has no trails but anyone fortunate enough to have had a bright, clear day on the Franconia Ridge may have noticed a number of old logging roads on the lower slopes of the Twin Range. In fact (this is on a map right at the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center too), a railroad spur veers off from the Franconia Brook Trail and heads south before parabolically arcing east towards Redrock Brook. When the spur ends, you can scout around and pick up the logging roads or follow the brook bed as Redrock Brook heads underground about a mile east of where it crosses the Franconia Brook Trail.
This is probably where I led us astray... I focused too hard on reading the vague description from the 50 Hikes in NH book rather than relying on instinct and probably ended up on the wrong dry brook bed. Instead of hitting the pond in the Northern most cirque of Redrock Ravine we ended up in the Northeastern cirque next door! How embarrassing! I'm now 0/3 on destinations in the bushwhacks that I've led. Dr. No Navigation Skills indeed!
Actually, I had trouble getting a good compass bearing as the stream bed tended to meander (straight line on the map) and in general I believed we were heading in the correct direction. We weren't -- and no matter, the cirque we ended up in was about as beautiful as we could have imagined!
(see Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/403921321VcDhMJ)
The nice thing about bushwhacks -- or at least the ones I've been on so far -- is that they're so much fun regardless of if you make your destination or not. Sure, it would have been great to find the pond (we will some day), but we had a wonderful walk along the lost railbed, scoped out the logging roads cut into the mountains slopes, walked along the dry and eventually very mossy brook bed, and explored a very open and impressive glacial cirque. The two massive slides on the slopes of the Guyot Headwall which opened up in 1994 were particularly impressive and one can get a fresh sense of the destructive forces with came down with.
The other thing is, especially with good friends, bushwhacking is just so damn fun. We crashed through the woods, got & laughed about scrapes and cuts, chatted about Gary Moody, ate lunch on a large talus field on Guyot's slope looking up at West Bond, Owl's Head & the Franconia Ridge and just had a fun, mellow 20 miles of hikin' together. This was my 3rd bushwhack with the Red Beard (Barbarossa) and while I'm 0/3 with destinations, I'd have to say that we've been 3/3 with great times. This was also my first hike with Amy (Yam) and she crashed her way through the nasty, thick woods (we hit some really thick stuff!) and seemed to have as much fun as we did!
Ending up in the wrong cirque made me feel like quite a moron. I thought we were close to the pond but just never saw it. When I got home and looked at pictures I just shook my head. It's worse than accidentally walking into the woman's restroom at work. I put us on the wrong stream bed and into the wrong cirque for crying out loud! However, where we did end up was gorgeous and lovely and we might not have visited it otherwise. The beauty of the trip and the continuing allure of the elusive (to people with zero navigation skills at least) pond guarantee that we'll make a return trip someday soon enough!
PS. At the end of the trip we met some veteran VFTTers: Sapblatt, Audrey, Pat, Cantdog and Littlebear! What an added bonus!
Redrock Pond, if you look at your map of the Pemi you can find it, is nestled between Southwest Twin and West Bond in the Redrock Ravine (right below the Southwest Twin headwall). The area has no trails but anyone fortunate enough to have had a bright, clear day on the Franconia Ridge may have noticed a number of old logging roads on the lower slopes of the Twin Range. In fact (this is on a map right at the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center too), a railroad spur veers off from the Franconia Brook Trail and heads south before parabolically arcing east towards Redrock Brook. When the spur ends, you can scout around and pick up the logging roads or follow the brook bed as Redrock Brook heads underground about a mile east of where it crosses the Franconia Brook Trail.
This is probably where I led us astray... I focused too hard on reading the vague description from the 50 Hikes in NH book rather than relying on instinct and probably ended up on the wrong dry brook bed. Instead of hitting the pond in the Northern most cirque of Redrock Ravine we ended up in the Northeastern cirque next door! How embarrassing! I'm now 0/3 on destinations in the bushwhacks that I've led. Dr. No Navigation Skills indeed!
Actually, I had trouble getting a good compass bearing as the stream bed tended to meander (straight line on the map) and in general I believed we were heading in the correct direction. We weren't -- and no matter, the cirque we ended up in was about as beautiful as we could have imagined!
(see Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/403921321VcDhMJ)
The nice thing about bushwhacks -- or at least the ones I've been on so far -- is that they're so much fun regardless of if you make your destination or not. Sure, it would have been great to find the pond (we will some day), but we had a wonderful walk along the lost railbed, scoped out the logging roads cut into the mountains slopes, walked along the dry and eventually very mossy brook bed, and explored a very open and impressive glacial cirque. The two massive slides on the slopes of the Guyot Headwall which opened up in 1994 were particularly impressive and one can get a fresh sense of the destructive forces with came down with.
The other thing is, especially with good friends, bushwhacking is just so damn fun. We crashed through the woods, got & laughed about scrapes and cuts, chatted about Gary Moody, ate lunch on a large talus field on Guyot's slope looking up at West Bond, Owl's Head & the Franconia Ridge and just had a fun, mellow 20 miles of hikin' together. This was my 3rd bushwhack with the Red Beard (Barbarossa) and while I'm 0/3 with destinations, I'd have to say that we've been 3/3 with great times. This was also my first hike with Amy (Yam) and she crashed her way through the nasty, thick woods (we hit some really thick stuff!) and seemed to have as much fun as we did!
Ending up in the wrong cirque made me feel like quite a moron. I thought we were close to the pond but just never saw it. When I got home and looked at pictures I just shook my head. It's worse than accidentally walking into the woman's restroom at work. I put us on the wrong stream bed and into the wrong cirque for crying out loud! However, where we did end up was gorgeous and lovely and we might not have visited it otherwise. The beauty of the trip and the continuing allure of the elusive (to people with zero navigation skills at least) pond guarantee that we'll make a return trip someday soon enough!
PS. At the end of the trip we met some veteran VFTTers: Sapblatt, Audrey, Pat, Cantdog and Littlebear! What an added bonus!
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