Nancy Pond: 1/4/2014

Mileage: 7.25 miles
Elevation gain: 2220 feet
Trails used:  Nancy Pond Trail.
Highlight(s): Nancy Falls, Nancy Pond.

Today was another cold and frigid start, with a temperature at the trailhead of -16 degrees. On cold days like this, you would imagine only the foolhardy would be out in these kind of conditions, yet here we were. We had made plans to climb Mount Nancy and/or Mount Bemis; climbing Nancy first and bushwhacking over to Mount Bemis, then heading down the old abandoned fire warden's trail (Mount Bemis still has the remains of a fire tower). Both Brian and I had visited these peaks before, though never in winter, and not with the prospect of good view weather. Alas, the snow would be the crux in today's plans.

Mount Nancy is located in Livermore, New Hampshire. It is bordered by Mount Bemis, Mount Anderson and Duck Pond Mountain. All of these peaks are trail-less, except Mount Bemis and Mount Nancy. Mount Nancy has a herd path from one of the camp grounds in the area, and Mount Bemis has an old fire warden's trail up that is one is still able to follow for the most part up to the old fire tower remain's. The actual summit of Mount Bemis is view-less and requires a bushwhack to reach.

We started at the Nancy Pond Trailhead off of Route 302. The Nancy Pond Trail remains steady until right around the Nancy Cascades, then it get's steep until you head up to Nancy Pond and Norcross Pond.

It looks like a good amount of snow fell recently. It ranged from two to three+ feet with some drifts. This is the picture of the first water crossing.

At times the older snowshoe track disappeared completely, especially around this larger water crossing. It was fun trying to find a route to hike across without falling in the water. This is the hardest water crossing to do, especially after heavy rains.

This section of the Nancy Pond Trail required traversing, or "side-hilling", to keep upright and not fall due to the incline.

The view of Nancy Cascades, which wasn't flowing very much today though. It is a nice place to visit on a warm summer day and relax by the water.

Soon the steep climb started, and the old track disappeared and was replaced with shin, to at times knee deep, powdery snow. Brian is trying to get a closer picture of  the Nancy Cascades.

The views looking towards Stairs Mountain and Mount Resolution from an open area just above Nancy cascades and along the Nancy Pond Trail.

We are getting close to Nancy Pond but the snow was knee deep up here, with a few drifts almost waist deep which would slow us down as there was no snowshoe track visible.

This is our first glimpse of frozen Nancy Pond (elevation: 3100 feet).

Brian taking a picture of Nancy Pond, with Mount Anderson in the background.

Despite all the tiring efforts of trying to snowshoe in these conditions, the 3.5+ miles of trail-breaking was too much for just the two of us. By this point the energy was waning, the time getting late, and the push to the Mount Nancy herd path was too far to be a realistic goal. Add to the fact that the cold weather only seemed to be getting colder and it was a safe thing for us to turn around and head back to the car. So a bit past the east end of Nancy Pond we decided we had enough and turned back the way we came. While the original plan had not been achieved it was still a good effort. 

Approximately 7.2 miles of tough snowshoeing for the start of the year, with many more hikes to come. Sometimes you accomplish what you set out to do; other times, you do what you can. In the end, as long as you are having fun, nothing else matters.