On a cold Saturday, I had bigger plans that were halted by the bitter cold winds. I decided I would not overnight once the temps dipped below 20 degrees, but I still made a day of it. There are 3 to 4 wide crossings. There are plenty of rocks, but water was still high from the October storm coupled with low temps made each crossing tricky. I made it to Nancy Cascades which are amazing.
I pressed on with hopes of eating lunch at either Nancy Pond or Norcross Pond, then hike up Mt Nancy. I decided not to press my luck when I met up with some fresh bear tracks going my way. With the cold and light snow on the ground, I was able to test out my cold tolerance(still need to work on that) and new low cost traction(Lixada microspikes). The spikes worked well but showed some weakness in one of the links. I also found I need to work on my handling of the cold as my extremities require more diligent protection.
I retreated back to Nancy Cascade for lunch and made a safe early exit. I didn’t see any other folks up there today which made for a nice solo hike.
No snow down low, but a bitter cold start.The Nancy Pond Trail kiosk is a few hundred feet into the trailThe dusting to an inch on the ground not too far into the trailOne of 3 or 4 significant brook crossings. Either wide steps or slick ice covered rocks.Entering the Nancy Brook Research Natural Area. The trail thus far is a low grade wide carriage roadDebris remains at an aging stone camp/millHardy remains of an old logging millAnother significant crossing just below cascadesThe trail turns and steepens for a very brief time to reach the cascadesThe pool at Nancy CascadeAn amazing wall of ice built up on Nancy CascadesBelow the pool, it drops down againI lingered here a bit to take in Nancy CascadesI took various photos in different sizes from similar anglesSelfie to show scale of Nancy CascadeAfter starting up trail again, this is looking down from the top of Nancy CascadesA nice lookout shows some elevation gainUp in the notch still east of Nancy Pond, this was a smaller crossing made difficult by snow and ice covering a broken bridgeAround a bend I noticed some tracks merging onto the trailThe bear tracks were fresh enough for me to decide to turn back. I was getting hungry and didn’t want to follow a bear to my lunch seatI returned to Nancy Cascade for lunch. I was sitting admiring my recent purchase. This was a cheap Amazon purchase, Lixada 12 tooth microspikes. They were grippy, fit well, but had some issue with a link opening up. I think the bracket underneath got hung up on my sole and pulled awkwardly one one side stepBack to the same logging mill on the way down, another cluster of remains. Looked like it might have been an furnace chimneyI almost blew by this fork. I stayed on the carriage road a bit too long and ended up very close to someone’s house. I double backed and was able to find the right turn. Tough to see with the leaf litter. I moved a downed branch to brush in the roadBack to one of the early narrow crossings. The Halfway Brook was flowing fast. You could make out fresh erosion from the October storm. Each crossing was tricky in a different way, whether it be ice or heavy flowReturn to the small Nancy Pond trail head. A pile of gravel in the parking area limits the amount of cars, though I didn’t have to compete with anyone on this cold dayMy lonely car at the trail head on Rt 302Stopped at the scenic view lot across from the Mt Washington Hotel. The white capped presidential range makes for a breathtaking backdrop
