1144. A Couple More Remote Mountain Ponds to Visit in NH
NH mystery

Looking at a map of all the interconnected trails that I had backpacked throughout the Whites on my "side trails to the Appalachian Trail project" after my multiple AT "thru-hikes" of the 80's and 90's, I happened to notice that there were a couple of trails to ponds that didn't link up to the rest of that vast mountain trail system, so they wouldn't have been well-suited to my long-distance backpacking purposes back then and I by-passed them entirely. However, we decided that they might still make a nice little day-trip or even a short overnighter for a tiny bit of much appreciated "quarantine camping" during the times of Covid-19, when NH was the only state in New England that we RI residents were still allowed to visit, so off we went up north again for a little fall foliage trip that we found to be thoroughly enjoyable!

So, if any letterboxers might want to follow in our footsteps, they wouldn't have to attend a Town Hall meeting or risk falling into a Slippery Brook, although taking related roads up to a sizable trailhead parking lot several miles up on the right might be helpful. From that trailhead, a mere stroll of less than a third of a mile would get you to a junction with a wooden sign denoting a loop of less than two miles around the pond, with a shelter ahead on the north side of the pond and a great view of a double-headed mountain or two from along the south side. To find the travelin' light stone, however, with a quick-carve image of the double headed mountain incorporated into the "M" of the name of the pond on its back, simply backtrack 20 steps toward your car to the east side nook of a large hemlock, now trailside left, that has a slender root loop tree growing on a rock to its south.

For the second pond we visited, just take the name of our state capital and drop the "de" in it, then, keeping in mind the possibility of Hurricanes and Nor'easters, go towards the pond of that name on that same named road, At the road's end trailhead, find the sign saying it is about a mile and a half north to the pond-side shelter. However, if you don't want to go that far, you could always just go as far as the south side of the pond, or even just go a few minutes up the wide snowmobile trail to a distinctive large half dead old tree spreading itself out across the top of a chest high layered rock on the left, and then check out the nook midway across on the top of that rock shelf for another tiny "travelin' light", a dark triangular stone with pond name on back, tucked in under a slightly larger speckled stone. Hope you enjoy your travels!

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