East Pond Hike

 On Sunday September 13, five of us (Bob, Jeff, Len, Joe, and myself) met for this hike.   Len met Joe and I at the Hannaford parking lot, and then we met Bob and Jeff at the trailhead at 10 am.   Rob was going to join us too but unfortunately he had car trouble that morning.    There was a nebulous 50% chance of rain forecast for that day, mostly in the afternoon, but at 10 am it was clear sky.     We proceeded up the Little East Pond trail to Little East Pond, and stopped for a few minutes to enjoy this smaller of the two ponds, and then continued to East Pond.   We ran into a bees nest on the trail and riled up some bees, but fortunately we noticed it and the rest of us were able to bushwhack around it without getting stung.    We hadn’t passed any people yet, and we thought it might stay that way until East Pond at least, when we noticed a mountain biker coming down the trail.     Over at East Pond we noticed only 2 people at the pond fishing, who were nice enough to take a group photo for us.    We found some rocks to sit on and enjoyed our lunches.     By then the clear skies had turned cloudy, and it started sprinking on us, although it lasted only for a few minutes.    After lunch we took the East Pond trail down the remaining 1.4 miles back to the cars.      Overall it was a great day for the hike (with the exception of a few rain drops), and it was nice to see Bob and Jeff again and it was nice to meet Len.       

 Join us for a hike of East Pond and Little East Pond in the beautiful scenery of the Waterville Valley area.    The hike is a moderate loop hike of about 5 miles and 1000 feet of elevation, and usually is lightly travelled.    We will head to Little East Pond first and then to East Pond, where we will stop and have lunch and enjoy the scenery and possibly walk along the shore.      After lunch, it will be 1.4 miles down to the car.      If there is interest after the hike, we can have coffee in nearby Waterville Valley.

From the south, the shortest route is to take I-93 to exit 31, Tripoli Rd.   The trailhead will be on the left 5.1 miles east of the intersection with I-93.    Alternately, you can get off at exit 28, Rt 49 for Waterville Valley, taking Rt 49 to Waterville Valley and then left onto Tripoli Rd (this is about 10 minutes longer).   If anyone is interested, we could carpool at 9:15 from the Hannaford parking lot in Plymouth (take exit 26, Rt 25, Tenney Mountain Highway a mile or two west and Hannaford is on the left).      Unless I hear that anybody is interested in this, we will just meet at the trailhead at 10 am.   We will be driving a green Honda civic.