| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Bemis, Mt. Nancy, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Nancy Pond Trail, abandoned Mt. Bemis Trail, bushwhack, herd path |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, November 7, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
We parked at the Nancy Pond trailhead on 302. It’s a small gravel lot with room for probably about a dozen cars. There were our cars and just a few others throughout the day. Only one other person there around 7am. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Ice - Black, Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Wet/Slippery Rock, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Leaves - Significant/Slippery |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All were rock hopable; sometimes just took a second to find the route. The crossings, even at the end of the day and down low, had some rocks that had black ice on them to use caution. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Nancy Pond Trail is blazed in yellow outside of the wilderness boundary. Most of the blaze is old and can be hard to see. In general, I think the blazes aren’t too close together either. I don’t recall if there were any blowbdowns on it. None of the other herd paths/abandoned trails had blazed that we noted. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
I wouldn’t necessarily advise bringing a dog on a bushwhack like this. None seen. Many dogs could probably handle Nancy Pond Trail though. |
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 | Bugs: |
None |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Day 7, Peaks 7&8. 358 more days and 357 more peaks to go. First time ever on Nancy and Bemis. Started off colder than it was supposed to with temps only in the mid 20s at 7am. We started up the trail at 7:15am. We quickly warmed up and made our way up at easy-moderate grades to the start of the abandoned Mt Bemis Trail. I believe this point is about 1.5mi up Nancy Pond Trail. The abandoned trail turns right after the trail’s first crossing of Nancy Brook (the trail has two other crossings earlier but this is the first crossing of Nancy Brook) where Nancy Pond Trail turns left. This point is at 1800ft.
Mt Bemis Trail was an old fire road to the fire tower and you can certainly identify it as such. A lot like the old logging roads that Brutus uses down low on Owls Head. The old road either contours or ascends at gentle grades to the East, then southeast. In other words, away from the peak 😂 Though I loved this trail, it certainly is roundabout! Anyway, the old road is very followable until it reaches just shy of 2000ft about 1/3mi from Nancy Pond Trail. Here, it reaches a southeastern ridge of a eastern shoulder of Bemis. The trail turns here and ascends northwest, still in the hardwoods. Though the turn may be a bit obscure in the sense that the old road seems to just disappear, it shouldn’t be hard at all to stay on the trail if you know what you’re doing as it’s pretty obvious that you’ve just gained a ridge.
The trail/road follows this ridge all the way up to the eastern shoulder of Bemis. First, it ascends at easy-moderate grades. As it goes on the grade becomes more moderate/moderate-steep at worst. Down low, it generally stays to slightly on the northeast (right) side of the ridge. I’d say that shortly before the grade steepens some, the woods begin to transition from hardwoods to softwoods. Soon after, the road narrows to a footpath. We were worried this meant that we’d soon lose the path and it would become a thick, blowdown mess but it did not! The abandoned trail has clearly been cut and still receives maintenance. There was the occasional blowdown but nothing bad and still very followable.
We eventually attained the eastern shoulder of Bemis, turned left and headed generally just south of west toward Bemis. To be detailed, the trail actually skirts around to the north side of this shoulder and descends a bit which threw us slightly but no worries. We made excellent time through all of this as it was basically a trail and at a grade which we could maintain a very good pace. As you head from the shoulder to the summit, at one point, you come into low scrub (rhododra??) and have some very cool views. Such a unique section of trail. I really LOVED this part. We continued along past this part, back into the woods until 3200ft where we lost the path.
Now, based upon the old maps posted to Franklinsites, the old trail swung north, shortly before (east of) where we lost the path. Then swung south again. I had a waypoint at the northernmost point of the “swing†and we were almost 0.1mi south of that point where we lost the path. I am curious if 1) the old map was accurate (they were often a mere approximatation of where a trail was), and 2) if the path was actually further north and followable had we stuck off he old route according to the map (I doubt it, but still curious). Anyway, from here, we just began to honest to God bushwhack. I took a bearing to my next waypoint which was where the old trail gained what might be called the “summit ridge†at about 3500ft and turned northwest. This was west and just slightly south of where we were. The woods were thick.
Between where we were and thus waypoint was about 0.1-0.2mi and gained 300ft. We got off my bearing very quickly as I came to a small cliff barn. We could either contour around it to the left (more or less sticking to the bearing but losing a bit of gain) but through very thick woods, or go right, away from our bearing, and try to find a better place to scramble up the steep grade. We did the latter, turning right only very briefly, the scrambling steeply up the grade, getting a little more on bearing. We continued steeply west, then dropping southwest at the end toward my waypoint at 3500ft around the “summit ridgeâ€. This was all steep and thick. We then turned right (northwest) toward the summit. The woods were still thick here though a bit better if I recall correctly. We favored the northeast side of the “summit ridge†slightly. Perhaps to our detriment as we eventually ran into a clear herd path again to our left. We wondered how long it would last if we followed it backward or if it would quickly peeter out but didn’t check. We followed this the rest of the way to the fire tower remains which are just east and all of maybe 300ft from the summit. Not much of a view there but cool remains and relics. Be careful.
We then turned left and whacked west to the true summit of Bemis. Not much or any of a herd path here. We signed into the jar and took a look at the cool canteen tied just beneath it. Though from 3200ft to the summit of Bemis was a bit nasty, I’ve got to emphasis how much I enjoyed this abandoned trail!! The grade on it was just perfect to “boogy upâ€, you passed through that beautiful open area with scrub, had views through the trees along the ridge, and it was very easy follow. I hope to do it again someday!
From the summit, I took a bearing toward the southeastern pond in the col and basically went in a straight line toward it, coming out just below it and having to follow the drainage toward it for a very short distance. Coming off the summit was steep and thick but doable. No crazy blowdowns. Once you get past the steeps, just below 3600ft though, the woods became very thick and the going got tough. We felt as if we were going the wrong way at times as we were going uphill briefly. Truth be told, be actually stuck to my bearing pretty well though. We should’ve just stayed a bit higher to come out at the ponds; I wonder if the woods would’ve been any better had we done this. Some real thick stuff no matter why though.
The ponds seemed very low and small. Partially iced and the ground was mostly frozen which allowed us to walk on the south side of the southeast pond without getting our feet wet. We noted many pitcher plants :) We then walked to the left of the northwest pond, continuing northwest, about 0.1mi beyond it, to avoid what looked on Gaia like it could be a cliff band before turning left and attacking the steep grade up Nancy. We roughly followed the boundary (unmarked) of the Nancy Pond Research Area. The grade was steep at first, we negotiated up one little boulder scramble, then the grade moderated. Unfortunately, the more the grade lessened, the worse the woods became such that by the time things flattened out, I was in some of the worst woods I’ve ever been in. Not only was it terribly thick but there were also some nasty blowdowns. Very slow going. We eventually made it to the summit (no canister?!) and took a break, enjoying the views.
The herd path down Nancy was even steeper than I imagined at times. It contoured a wee bit here and there but was very steep at times, particularly when it first comes off the summit bump. The footing, though dry, was quite slippery/gravelly. A couple small slabs/scrambles. Some of these had some ice that needed to be carefully negotiated. Loved looking down at the ponds from here even though the view wasn’t terribly clear to them. Crazy to think that we were about to lose that much elevation! We made it back to Nancy Pond Trail, and took a nice break at Norcross Pond before heading out. Such a special spot!
The trail out had more ice than we would’ve guessed given that we’d hardly seen any ice/snow (MUCH to my relief!) on the bushwhack. The bog bridges were mostly dry but some had black ice and/or a trace of snow on them thus requiring some care. Nice to revisit this trail and see the ponds and cascades again :) All the leaves down low on the trail combined with the rocky footing made for a lot of ankle twisting and felt like it slowed me down. Why can’t it always be summer?!
Thank you Low, Low, Na, Z, and Rick for a fantastic day! :D |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-11-07 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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