HikerDoc
New member
Neighbor Dave (aka Post'rboy) and I decided to do a NH 100 highest trip last weekend. He is working on that list all season and I am working on my second winter round. I suggested we do a clockwise traverse starting at Sawyer Road and finishing at Nancy Pond trail. I checked out Docross's gps track and trip report from when they did that trip last winte season and figured with better conditions, the 2 of us could do it even faster. We met at 7 am and spotted a vehicle at the Nancy Pond trailhead and went on down to Sawyer road. Gate was locked of course and there were 2 cars in the lot. We were out of there by 7:09. "Leave the snowshoes in the car. Better bring crampons though..". Neighbor looked at me skeptically. "No snowshoes on a bushwack???" "Trust me". I had done Fool Killer 2 days previously and knew the snow had a frozen hard crust that wouldn't punch thru. We boggied up to the Carrigan trailhead and very quickly were at the junction of Signal Ridge and Carrigan notch trails. We decided to go about 10 min. on the notch trail and then take off for the Lowell ridge. We had wonderful views of Carrigan, Vose Spur, Lowell and even the tip of Anderson at times. Water crossings not a problem for the most part thanks to several days of hard frost. This was for the most part an open woods BW but the ridge is steep and takes you up to the summit of Lowell fast. Excellent views of the slides on Vose Spur and we remembered how we had done that peak at different times with different people but roughly the same route. We topped out about noon, signed in and didn't linger because it was surprisinly windy. I asked Neighbor if he could name the dozen or so peaks to the south and he quickly named about 12 of them without hesitation. There was a brief discussion about Tremont, Bear and Bartlett Haystack which the 2 of us had to ponder for a minute or 2 to settle. We had a good view of Anderson, picked out a route which ran down the ridge and quickly plunged into the thick again. Soon it was clear we were dropping off too quicky to the east and we made a correction. Down to the col and then scoped out a route to the summit of Anderson. Again some steep and minor adjustments to avoid an ice cliff and some ledge. Topped out at about 1 pm. We need the cigarette lighter to thaw out the plug in the base of the PVC pipe cannister and check out the names. This register had been replaced in 2000 so none of my previous signages were there. Neighbor says lets go on a northwest course that Paul Richards had posted on his website and called "an open park". Neighbor says it right over there. I checked the map, got a bearing which corresponded exactly to his 'visual'. Down we went thru open woods until about 2300' at which point things thickened up and we headed north and come out on Norcross Pond. After skating across the pond and finding the trail it was time for a snack and nip of St. Patrick's fluid before we attacked the cascades. The only other hikers we saw were of couple of leather clad dudes who Neighbor said were probably checking out the cascade to see if they could get their Harley's up there during Laconia Motorcycle week. They had to put on their stabilicers to get up and at that point Neighbor put on his 8 points so he wouldn' end up like the lady who broke her leg on that trail a couple of years ago. We were down to his vehicle in about 1 1/2 hours after that for a total RT time of 8 1/2 hours. By the time we got back to Sawyer Road the parking lot was packed and someone was talking about a couple of vehicles that had driven up the road when it was briefly unlocked to let the loggers go in that morning. Well the gate was locked now... Was it worth it to cut 4 miles off your hike to have to wait until Monday am when the loggers came back to unlock the gate?
