Flat Mountain Pond - 8/14

[dr_wu002]

In the 11th hour last night, Eric and I finally decided on an impromptu trip to Flat Mountain Pond in the Sandwich Region for Sunday morning. Flat Mountain Pond is one of those things that's been on my list for quite sometime now and I just needed an excuse to go do it. Friday had been a tough day for me and I was wiped out on Saturday (plus the heat finally got to me) so Flat Mountain seemed like a rather easy diversion & a chance to visit a region that I've not spent enough time in.

A great thing also happened -- Jess came for the hike too! I mean, this is the person that got me back into hiking a few years ago but recently, scheduling problems, responsibilities (me = none, Jess = several) etc. kept us love birds from getting a hike in for New Hampshire recently. She was happy to finally meet Eric as well -- she'd heard so much about my various hiking buddies and finally she was able to meet one!

Unfortunately for Eric though, having Jess along doesn't mean Dr. Wu will be on time. I was probably an hour late. I felt horrible and was pissed for miscalculating how long it'd take me to get to the trailhead. Sorry Eric.

For Jess's first hike in NH for a while it had a rather auspicious beginning. It rained, hard. Also, Eric suddenly veered off trail, leading us on an unexpected bushwhack "shortcut" somewhere between the Bennet Street Trial and The Flat Mountain Pond Trail. We ended up finding some pretty interesting little ridges in the forest and having a good time -- I had just worried that Jess wasn't up for whackin' after not hiking for a while but she crashed through the woods even better than I did! She loved it right until we got back to the trail and she fell and bumped her upper shin pretty good. Nice, big bruise there.

It really rained too... I mean poured. Rain is fine on the trail though, it's like getting bug bites which are as far as I'm concerned, all part of the fun (I got about 10 black fly bites on my face the other day on NW Hancock!! ). But for your own factual evidence file: we got F'ing soaked!

We made it to the shelter though, thankfully in one piece and decided to stop, enjoy the views (the sun was starting to peak) and have some lunch. Eric contemplated swimming the pond but after catching glimpses of a few leeches, decided not to despite my continuing encouragement. He had his padlock with him, there wouldn't be a problem, right? No go. I liked looking at the leeches but I guess I wouldn't want them stealing my blood, and eating my flesh (or whatever they like to do). Jess wouldn't go in either.

After some lunch we quickly found out just how spoiled we'd been hiking along the wet but nice and wide railroad grade. The trail across the pond turned out to be thick and filled with nice, wet sticker bushes!! Ok, we found some nice berries to eat (I got some blackberries, my favorite!) but sticker bushes!? We trudged through this stuff for a while, alternating with enjoying the views and then some more rain. We poked around an old railroad spur going out to Camp 12 and then started heading out.

The walk out was fun... we talked about our hero, Gary Moody, took some more pictures of the million or so efts (is the plural "eft" or "efts"?) and had some more good laughs! Eric wanted to booshwhack up Flat Mountain (2940') but it just wasn't the right day for it -- all of us had to be out kinda early and we were soaked so we just called it a day at that.

Jess had a good time. I think Eric did too! Hiking in the rain is an experience -- wouldn't want to do it every day I suppose but we had a good time pretending like we were hiking in the Belize Rainforest, searching for Eric's trainable diet-managing howler monkeys. I doubt you want to know what we train them to do so I'll finish off by posting a picture link and getting out of here. Great Hike Jess and Eric!

Pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/422810532ofAINe
(webshots has been having issues. If you get an error, refresh once or twice. It should solve the problem)

-Dr. Wu

 

[MichaelJ]

Nice! Flat Mountain Pond was my first solo overnight backpack. Seeing it again brings back great memories.

I believe what you're looking at across the pond is Sandwich Dome, but I'd have to find my ancient trip report to say for sure.

 

[alpinista]

Great shots, Wu! The pond looks really eery in that mist and rain, and I can't say I've ever seen an eft in the Whites. Cool!

 

[Jay H]

Nice

Nice pictures Dr Wu... Looks like it rainied pretty good up there yesteday. I met Snowshoe yesterday morning for a kayak on the Delaware River and we managed to kayak the 10 miles, get back to his place, just before a huge t-storm came blowing by his place. Took out a tree that fell into his neighbor's property but managed to miss his house and his propane tank.

Anyway, Looks like a pretty pond and certainly Flat

Jay

 

[dr_wu002]

Anyway, Looks like a pretty pond and certainly Flat

Jay

What's weird is that there are two discrete mountains called 'Flat Mountain' one to the North of the pond (3331') and one to the south (2940'). The "south" Flat Mountain (2940') does not look flat to me but rounded.

We had big rains but no thunder! It's so humid out still that it's going to take forever for my shoes and undies to dry!!

-Dr. Wu

 

[dms]

Dr. Wu, the 2940 peak is a NH 200 Highest, with some really interesting and unique views. A little scrubby at the top and at the start, but overall not too bad. There is a false summit with a cairn, but the nearby and obvious"true" summit has a sign and a register with a little open area for a nice lunch spot.

 

[Outtabreath]

Crashing Sound?

Dr Wu
Did you ever find out what the "crashing sound and groaning" in the woods was? Bigfoot?

 

[dr_wu002]

Dr Wu
Did you ever find out what the "crashing sound and groaning" in the woods was? Bigfoot?

Ask Eric (Barbarossa). He's the one who went looking for it.

-Dr. Wu

 

[sapblatt]

Nice report...cool hike. Rain is an experience that I have had a lot of this year!

 

[mtnpa]

Many years ago mtnmama and I did an overnight at Flat Mtn Pond. We knew very little about the area. It was a "pin the tail on the trail map" trip. As we started up the trail we met a small group of hikers coming out. They seemed a little freaked and asked us if there was another way in. They said the bridge was gone. I got out my map, helped them find an alternate route and wished them well. Mtnmama asked me how we would get across, but there was no bridge on the map or in the AMC trail description When we reached the stream we saw remnants of a bridge that looked like it had been gone for decades...The hike in was much harder than we expected due to numerous blowdowns and broken branches. There had been a terrible ice storm the previous winter. At many points great care was needed to get back on the trail...

Did you ever find out what the "crashing sound and groaning" in the woods was?

When we arrived at the pond we found a beautiful campsite right on the pond. Shortly after dark we were sitting at the edge of the pond stargazing when we heard what sounded like an army coming up the trail. We looked toward it and saw the silhouette of the army; an army of moose I counted 5 of them, Big Daddy and his harem. They continued up the trail and paused right outside of our campsite. I was a bit nervous. Mtnmama tried to tell me how scared she was but no words came out. We stood up on a tree root and tried to look as big as possible. The moose just stood there for an eternity (probably about a minute) then seemed to scatter. The next morning we checked out the tracks, and they all went into the woods. As we were cleaning up from breakfast mtnmama saw Big Daddy strolling down the trail from the far end of the pond. She asked what to do. I said just go about your business, don't get to close to the trail and don't stare at him. When Big Daddy reached our campsite he paused briefly and let out a big squirt to remind us that we were in his territory. He stopped at the end of the pond for breakfast and a bath then he was gone. Our eyes and ears were wide open on the hike out...

 

[PhillyGeo]

... an army of moose I counted 5 of them, Big Daddy and his harem.

Nice trip report. I am embarrassed how afraid of moose I am. This coming from a girl who's been bluff charged by grizzly. But moose, damn, they're just ornery ...

 

[MichaelJ]

Moose have only ever made me nervous twice. Once was when one decided to run alongside the car while I was passing it - I didn't know if it would swerve or charge.

The other, of course, was just crossing the road. Directly in front of my 50mph moving car.