Duck Pond Mtn. & Trail, 2 signs, and no cannister 12/17/06

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

After leaving a Hello, hope you had a great hike note on an unknown VFTT'ers car at the Nancy Pond Trail head, I set out at 7:30 for Duck Pond Mtn. Just beyond Halfway Brook I made a left turn at the black pipe and headed west following the pipe and the herd path upstream. After about .2 miles the pipe and the path ended and having spotted a road on the opposite side of the brook, I crossed the brook and followed the road for a bit, but it started to turn away from Duck Pond Mtn. so back across the brook I went. I climbed up the bank on the north side of the brook and followed the ridge up to about 2,500'.

Thus far the whack had been through open hardwoods, mostly beech, and though a little steep at times it was fairly easy up to this point. By 2,700' the hardwoods were gone and it was dense wet spruce. "wet" as a result of the ice and snow from the previous day's "partly cloudy" skies. Not wanting to get soaked, I decided to traverse the slope northward in search of the legendary trail which I was very relieved to find a bit later.

The trail...how do I describe it?...The Duck Pond Mtn. Trail is more like a series of short trails connected by numerous fir waves and blowdown patches. From about 2,800' to just east of the east summit bump the trail is very difficult to follow due to all the blowdowns. Beyond the east summit bump there are still lots of blowdowns, but at least you can look across them and see the trail on the other side.

The trail passes directly over the east summit bump where there is a sign. The trail then turns towards the NW and passes about 500' to the north of the main summit (NW bump). The main summit has it's own sign. I searched every tree in the area as well as checking the ground all around the summit for a canister (and I forgot to bring one), but all I found was a broken beer bottle which is still there because I had no means of packing out broken glass without risking damage to my already over stuffed pack. (besides, it may be a relic.) After making my way back to the trail I continued NW on it to see just where it went. I followed it for 10 minutes or so and arrived at a ledgy outcrop here. After taking a few pics I headed back down the trail to see where it joined the Nancy Pond Trail.

The descent through the blowdown patches was a bit slower than the ascent in part because it appears all the blazing was done while hiking up the trail. (or possibly, the descent route was blazed by someone on drugs) Going down hill sometimes the blazes were on the side of the trees facing the trail and sometimes there were 2 or 3 blazes with 50' of each other, sometimes directly across from each other, while other times there were no blazes for 500' or so. Somehow though I managed to get down to about 2,500' and into the hardwoods still with the trail. Once in the hardwoods though the trails foot bed quickly disappeared in the leaf litter and I was left with only the sporadic blazes to guide me down the mountain. I managed to stay with the trail down to about 2,000' before losing it for good.

After losing the trail I angled southward a bit and headed for the lower end of the Nancy Pond Trail. After finding a logging road it was a quick trip down hitting the Nancy Pond Trail about .1 miles north of the Wilderness boundary. After arriving back at the trail head I found a note on my car from Bigmoose (responding to the note I left him), he had been up whacking Bemis.

No Bigmoose, that wasn't me you saw on the trail. I didn't see anyone from trail head to trail head.

Note: Despite being in the woods all day, I was surprised at the views I got over the course of this hike.

Pics are here.

Edit: Links fixed.

 

[Amicus]

Your green-on-white "main summit" sign is what I remember from my '91 'whack with two seniors. At that time, there was also a peanut-butter jar there, on the same tree I think, with a couple of pages containing a handful of signatures dating back years. No paths or blazes then (at least the way we went).

I associate broken beer bottles with teen hangouts. If that holds here, the young men of Bartlett are a hardy lot.

 

[bigmoose]

NHMtman -
Nice report and good sleuthing. Lots of good beta now for those of us deranged enough to go thrashing about in stuff like that. Thanks again for the hello note. Wish we'd crossed paths.
jt

 

[Nate]

NH MTN Hiker, thanks for the trip report. Considering all the blowdowns you encountered on the illegal trail east of the signed false summit, would it have been easier to simply bushwhack through the terrain rather than struggle to keep finding the trail?

Just in general, I wonder if this route to Duck Pond is easier than departing the trail near the cascades on the NPT and seeking out the unofficial trail from there.

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

NH MTN Hiker, thanks for the trip report. Considering all the blowdowns you encountered on the illegal trail east of the signed false summit, would it have been easier to simply bushwhack through the terrain rather than struggle to keep finding the trail?

Just in general, I wonder if this route to Duck Pond is easier than departing the trail near the cascades on the NPT and seeking out the unofficial trail from there.

I think it's probably easier to hit the bootleg trail by leaving the Nancy Pond Trail somewhere above 2,700'. My route took 4 hrs to reach the summit, 2.5 hrs for the return.

I recorded a waypoint for the view area. (see topo link above) I'd probably shoot for that from the outlet of the Nancy Brook if I were going back.

 

[audrey]

One of Daniel Doan's 50 Hikes books describes a stand of virgin spruce on the flanks of Duck Pond Mt. His route departed the trail near the cascades, I believe. Did you encounter anything that looked like virgin forest?

 

[RoySwkr]

One of Daniel Doan's 50 Hikes books describes a stand of virgin spruce on the flanks of Duck Pond Mt. His route departed the trail near the cascades, I believe. Did you encounter anything that looked like virgin forest?

A couple of SubSig people you may know described this hike ~1970 as being in large trees, when I was there 10 years later the little spruce were growing up underneath and apparently have become even more problematic.

The big trees may still be there if you look up, or may have vanished in the spruce budworm epidemic of the 80s like the old spruce grove in Pittsburg owned by the Nature Conservancy.

 

[Amicus]

Did you encounter anything that looked like virgin forest?

I hiked to this summit in June 1991 with two older relatives, one of whom was working on the NE3K list and always took notes of his hikes. His notes say we left Nancy Pond Trail at 3,100 feet and followed a single bearing (as best we could) of 140 degrees magnetic to the summit, where we found a sign and a jar with signatures.

I had heard about the virgin forest and was convinced we passed through its remains - a big tangle of the biggest blowdowns I have ever seen, not far north of the summit - giant evergreens that looked pretty well-weathered. As I recall it, we were at least 10 feet above the ground at places and my legs were scratched to ribbons. For some reason, I had it in my head that they had blown down in the Hurricane of '39, but perhaps they were much later victims of the spruce infestation Roy mentions.

 

[bill bowden]

Duck Pond "trail"

I think it can be picked up by following the water line leading to one of the houses adjacent to the Nancy Pond Trail.

 

[Oncoman]

Way to go NH_Mtn_Hiker. I swear that it was not I who left that beer bottle on Duck Pond summit. Agree with you that taking bearing straight for summit from south end of Nancy Pond or Nancy Brook outlet is now the preferred approach given that the illegal trail is slowly filling in, though no picnic by any means, a solid hour to reach summit sign about 0,3m. away from trail.