September 22, 2007
Today, I'll be bagging another of New England's Hundred Highest. My friend Mike is joining me today. Mike is an AMC hike leader who I met last month up at Baxter State Park. Here's today's track.
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We left the trailhead a few minutes after 7:00.
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The trail started off gradual, but got steeper as we went.
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Our first scenic spot was Nancy Cascades. We haven't had much rain the last couple of weeks, so the flow of water was a little weak.
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The trail remained steep for a while before levelling off.
Here's Mike on some bog bridging.
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This was the last day of summer, and the leaves were beginning to change.
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Nancy Pond
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Nancy Pond was nice, but the best scenic spot of the day was Norcross Pond.
There aren't a lot of ponds in the Whites, so it's rare to get two ponds in one day.
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Looking across to Mount Anderson, a New Hampshire 100 highest.
(I'm still not committed to hike the New Hampshire 100 highest, yet.)
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Looking up to Mount Nancy.
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The trail followed the edge of the pond and was flooded in places. I thought this was odd since we hadn't had much rain. We danced around a few pools of water until we reached the end of Norcross Pond. We found the trail to Mount Nancy. The trail is actually listed as a 'herd path' and not an official trail. We found this sign posted by the White Mountains National Forest.
"Well, at least we can hike it," I said.
"Yes," said Mike, "for $1."
You'll have to check out a couple of my Baxter hikes from last month. With Mike, everything is a dollar.
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The trail up Nancy was very, very steep.
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It levelled off for a couple minutes at the top. This herd path was in better shape than a lot of the trails in the Whites and was very easy to follow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We made it to the 3,926' summit, my 79th New England 100 highest.
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Behind me was Stairs Mountain. Here's a zoomed in shot. I'm sure you can guess how it got its' name.
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The view from Mount Nancy is man-made. About a dozen or so small trees have been cut down to provide the view. We got a good view today, but not a great one, the weather was just to hazy. On a clear day, this summit would provide a great view of Crawford Notch, the southern Presidentials, Stairs Mountain, and Mount Crawford. It was time to head back, so we made the steep climb down the mountain.
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Looking over to Mount Anderson with Carrigain and Vose Spur behind it.
Vose Spur is one of my 21 remaining unconquered New England 100 highest.
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We reached the end of the herd path and decided to get a close up view of the pond. We were at the outlet for the pond when Mike took this picture of me.
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Apparently beavers had built a small dam at the outlet. This brought the level of the pond up about a foot or two, so now we knew why the trail was partially flooded in spots. We turned around and had a great view into the Pemigewasset Wilderness. This would be a truly awesome view on a clearer day and about two weeks later in the year when all the leaves have changed.
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Mike and I made the trip back down Nancy Pond trail passing several small groups of hikers on their way up. We reached the trailhead about 1:15. It worked out great, both Mike and I needed to finish at an early time today. Mike, thanks for helping me bag my 79th N.E. peak.
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