Lowell / Anderson / Duck Pond Mtn - 04-07-07

[Motabobo]

LOTS of snow in our warm-up bushwhacks (Dartmouth/Deception) so we ended up doing the Middle & South Hitchcocks instead (is this easier ?!) . For some strange reasons we seemed to be able to go over every blowdown without punching through the snow or falling in treacherous spruce traps. Hope it'll be the same to you guys and sorry for not breaking any trails for you as I said we would. Tracks would have been covered anyway with this week-end snow and this morning wind ! I'm still up for it this week-end. Keep us updated !

 

[onestep]

So far the weather forecast for Saturday looks good.
Unless things change drastically the hike is a go!

Here is a GPS Track of our route. (Thanks Docross!)

Meet at the Nancy Pond Trailhead ready to go for 7:30am.
We'll leave cars behind and shuttle down to the Sawyer River Rd to begin our hike.

If you email, PM, or post that your going we'll wait for you. Otherwise just show up!

Onestep

 

[albee]

I'll be there. If you don't see me (I'm notoriously late) just start without me and I'll catch up. I'll try to meet you guys at the Nancy Pond trailhead at 7:30 so I can spot my car there.

I have a feeling that I might be getting out at a different time than the rest of you... either because I'll be late after making a solo attempt at Duck Pond, or because I'm "off the front" in a rush to get to the FTFC awards. Either way, if I'm there on time I'll catch a ride. If not... I'll catch up to you on Sawyer River Road. Can't wait for Saturday... let the 'whackin begin!

 

[onestep]

I forgot to mention... the GPS track does not show an attempt of Duck Pond Mtn. I'm still looking forward to doing that peak too. My thought is we'll make that decision when we reach the outlet of Nancy Pond...

Onestep

 

[Pamola]

I'm going to wuss out this time around. I'm going to hit gunstock with SK to make sure I get to the meeting in exeter on time. Looking forward to some whackin though.

 

[Motabobo]

Hi everyone, just wanted to confirm that I'll be there Sat. morning unless I catch the flu again.

I'm still confused about the planned route :Are you guys planning to :

• go UP using the Nancy Pond Trail (in that case are you hitting Duck Pond first or Anderson/Lowell) ?
• go UP using the Signal Ridge/Carrigain Notch Trail (probably doing Lowell-Anderson-Duck Pond in that order) ?
• aim for the Duck Pond "trail" by bushwhacking straight from Anderson or from the Nancy Pond Trail ?

About the Duck Pond Trail (gathered here and there, if you have any corrections, you are more than welcome) :
It is supposedly a yellow blazed trail. It goes directly over the false summit of Duck Pond and a couple of feet north of the true summit. Some say it goes towards Anderson some others towards Nancy Pond. It is still unclear if it really starts from the Nancy Pond Trail and if so, where. It is also unclear to me if both have summit signs although there are no canisters on either bumps.

Here are some suggestions on how to find it;

Either way, if I was headed up there again I would not be looking to access it from Nancy pond but rather from the east. Either by finding the old trail by slabbing the 1800 ft contour from the N side on Halfway brook going north till I found it OR by Heading south just after the top of the cascades climb.

I think it's probably easier to hit the bootleg trail by leaving the Nancy Pond Trail somewhere above 2,700'.

If my fading memory is still accurate, we followed the hose (water line) that crosses Nancy Pond Trail and ran into the now notorious yellow-blazed trail which gradually climbed by the lower of the two summits (causing a substantial delay while we looked for a register) and then seemed to wander aimlessly on the side of the mountain.

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.

I'm up for the 3 summits having Anderson/Lowell in priority. I'm not going to the FTFC award dinner and just a reminder that it took oncoman 12h45 to bag all 3 summits in a single day although it was in summer, solo and although he used the Nancy Pond Trail up and down.

Personally, I would go up using the Signal Ridge/Carrigain Notch Trail to do Lowell/Anderson first, connect with the Nancy Pond Trail (north of Norcross Pond), use it until the end of Nancy Pond (unless you want to whack straight from Anderson), bushwhack from there to Duck Pond, backtrack or follow the trail back to Nancy Pond Trail again, go down to the trailhead, sit down & have a beer (or two). But that's just me.

Waiting for your comments,

Thanks

 

[onestep]

our Route!

Our route will take us up the Sawyer River Rd to the Signal Ridge/Carrigain Notch Trail to do Lowell first and then Anderson. From there we will drop down to the N end of Norcross Pond and then make our way over to the outlet of Nancy Pond. From there we will begin our bushwhack of Duck Pond Mtn.

Here's some recent info I received about Duck Pond Mtn;

"head over to Nancy pond. Head in at the outlet of it. It's not that thick in there. It's mostly stick forest...<there is> a jar on duck pond mtn's peak <snip> you'll cross the bootleg trail on the way to
the summit. If you like, although I think you'll have had enough by then, head
east on the bootleg trail through all the blowdown patches to the other
sub-summit with the sign and head down from there but me and ****** went down that way and I wouldn't recommend it."

I see us backtracking down to the outlet of Nancy Pond and following the Nancy Pond Trail back down to our car(s).

We'll figure out Duck Pond Mtn when we get there!

Onestep

 

[albee]

I agree with Kurt on route choice, although I'm interested in the rocky viewpoint on Duck Pond Mtn that NH_Mtn_Hiker mentioned in his trip report.

If we can find Duck Pond before sunset, would anyone be interested in heading over to Bemis, too? I'm surprised nobody has considered this yet... (Kidding!)

But seriously, this thread has turned into one of the more informative resources for hiking these three mountains that I have read. This is looking like a strong group.

 

[michael]

Bemis?

...geez...I do need Bemis...if it were June 21 I might be down with that!...
I like the route choice. It was not what I expected but I like it. We 3 or 4 are not going to the FTFC so will be going for Duck Pond...trying to adopt that 'No Stragglers' mentality!
if we use 12:45hrs as one measure, that puts us back at the cars around 8:15...could be less, could be more...but last chunk is on Nancy Pd trail...

 

[marchowes]

I am still interested, but I am still concerned about the timing related to FTFC esp with the given 12:45 time table! anyone interested in starting earlier?

 

[albee]

So far the weather forecast for Saturday looks good.
Unless things change drastically the hike is a go!

You had to jinx us, didn't you? Anyone else having second thoughts with another 10" of wet snow predicted?

 

[marchowes]

You had to jinx us, didn't you? Anyone else having second thoughts with another 10" of wet snow predicted?

Yep! But just seconds thoughts, I'm not out of it yet -- but its time to start looking for a plan B

 

[nebcskier]

Here's a plan b - Join myself and two others for BC ski trip up Mount Hale.

 

[Motabobo]

With a decent group (like originally planned) with everyone doing their part at "opening" the path, who cares about 10" of snow ?

I'm still up for this and we may have to ditch Duck Pond at worst...

 

[onestep]

Lowell & Anderson or bust!

 

[Motabobo]

That's the spirit !
How many are we now by the way ?

 

[onestep]

How many are we now by the way ?

The way I see it, there could be 8 of us...

Motaoboo,
albee,
michael & 2 or 3 others,
marchowes,
and me!

With 8 people taking turns breaking trail we should make good time.
Let's do a roll call Friday afternoon to see if the weather changes any minds.

Onestep

 

[michael]

oh yeah, its on!

We three or four are still on and will be at Nancy Pd at 7:30am.
Anderson and Lowell for sure Duck Pd optional.

 

[Motabobo]

Same here, although I'll be alone for this one.

 

[marchowes]

I am still in, My plan B is Shaw (Ossipee), Gunstock then Pawtuckaways (all three of NH's mighty ring Dikes (Geological oddity)).

Are we still planning an approach starting at Sawyer River Rd, and looping up through Carrigan notch, then ultimately back down Nancy Pond Tr? Or are we thinking of Nancypd out and back?

I bring this up for two reasons:

1) quick glance at the map makes starting sawyer river rd LOOK longer
2) If we are breaking trail, doesn't it make more sense to out and back it to reduce the effort by exiting on the already packed trail?

Just a few thoughts