Copy/Repost Hike

Day 1 (Saturday)

On Saturday, September 12th, Stephen and I met up at the trailhead parking lot off of Rt. 302 for the Nancy Pond Trail.  We left one car here and carpooled over to the parking lot on Sawyer River Road.  Here we got ourselves ready and proceeded up the Signal Ridge Trail.  It was about 9:30AM and the day was overcast but pretty warm.  We continued along the trail to the junction with the Carrigain Notch Trail and turned up into the notch.  Just before 11AM we reached the 4-foot high boulder along the trail, which denotes the start of the herd path up Vose Spur.  We covered our packs and left these here, while we started our bushwack up Vose Spur.  We took our lunches, water and GPS units along with us.   Shortly after heading into the woods we set a waypoint, so we would be able to find our way back to where we left our packs.  Heading into the woods behind the boulder, I thought we would find the herd path, but we didn't.  Still there was evidence that others had climbed up this route.  In any case it was fairly easy going through the woods.  Part way up it became more evident that we were on the right path and this led us to the base of the short slide on the mountain, where there were cairns, reassuring us that we were heading in the right direction (although our GPS units were helpful in this respect).  Climbing to the top of the slide, there was an obvious path into the woods and for the most part this was easy to follow, although we lost it periodically.  In any case we reached the summit of Vose Spur and found the labeled canister at about 12:30PM.  This summit is in the trees; however, we enjoyed a well-deserved break here by having our lunch.  On the way down we followed the herd path back down to the slide, but we ended up on it slightly to the north, which is a lengthier descent over the rocky slide.  It was after 1PM and we had hoped that we would be able to see the flag flying over Carrigain (for the Flags over the 48), but the mountain top was obscurred by clouds.  We continued down , losing the path and just ended up following a straight trek back to the waypoint that we had set.  Towards the bottom we hit the herd path, which came out on the Carrigain Notch Trail just beyond the boulder, where we started.  It was about 1:45PM, so we still made good time.  We collected our packs and continued through Carrigain Notch.  There was a decent grade up into the notch and near the top there were nice views of the cliffs on Mt. Lowell through the trees.  The descent down the other side was a little more gradual.  We were making good time, so we decided that we would just push on for Norcross Pond to spend the night.  We got to the junction with the Nancy Pond Trail and turned onto this trail for the climb up to the ponds.  We reached the ledge at the western end of Norcross Pond just before 5PM and looked for an area to set up camp for the night.  Here we also found the trailhead for Mt. Nancy, so it was a convenient spot to stop for the night.  There were a number of camping sites just up a short trail off of the Nancy Pond and Mt. Nancy Trails.  We set up camp and had dinner.  After dinner we took a short walk along the Pond, while there was still light.  Sometime after 7PM we turned in, as we were both pretty tired.

Day 2 (Sunday)

Overnight it rained for a short amount of time, but by morning it was sunny with blue skies.  We got up around 7AM, prepared our breakfasts and got ourselves together for the hike up to the summit of Mt. Nancy (leaving all our gear in the tent).  At a little after 8AM we started out.  After passing the WMNF sign noting that this was a unmaintained trail and that any maintenance could be subject to fine, we didn’t know what to expect.  Regardless of this the trail was very easy to follow although it was steep for a good part of it.  We reached the summit at around 9AM (the summit canister had been removed) and were rewarded with great views over to the Willey Range and across to the Presidential Range...Mt. Washington being visible periodically as the clouds brushed over it.  After taking in the views for awhile we headed back and returned to camp at a little before 10AM.  We broke camp, got our packs ready and then continued to head north along Norcross Pond.  On the north end there were nice views of Mt. Nancy as well as Mt. Anderson.  Continuing on, we quickly came to Nancy Pond and then started our descent towards Nancy Cascades.  At the falls we took a break and enjoyed a snack.  It was about noon and we continued down the Nancy Pond Trail to the trailhead.  We reached the car at about 1PM, drove back over to Sawyer River Road to get the other car and then we drove over to Fabyan’s in Bretton Woods for a late lunch to cap off a wonderful weekend.

Despite the threat of rain, we ended up being very lucky and it was a great backpack trip through the Pemigewasset Wilderness and Nancy Pond Protected Area.  The paths up to the trailless summits of Vose Spur and Mt. Nancy were easier than I had imagined and we were amply awarded with nice views into the surrounding wilderness.  A huge "thank you" to Stephen for joining me on this trek!

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