Black Mountain Pond
Where: Black Mountain
When: May, 1988
With: Stupid Society
A Stupid hike! We wanted to go somewhere a bit closer than the Kancamaugus, so we went up 93, took the Waterville Valley exit, and then turned onto Sandwich Notch road. I'd asked a fellow hiker at work about the road and he assured me it was passable. The road was a somewhat narrow bumpy dirt road, with plenty of dips and hills, but for the most part wasn't too bad. My little Honda Civic sedan did just fine. The weather was good and soon the rest of the crew was up and sitting in the windows. Someone even got up on the roof! I scrapped bottom a couple of times and forced everyone to get off to lighten the load a bit, but we made it to the Guinea Pond trail without any major incidents.
As we set up to go, Seth asked if we were wearing shorts or long pants. The vote was mostly longs, but I opted for shorts. Soon two others followed suit and Seth was left the sole long pants hiker. A good move, it turned out.
There were 4-5 other cars there, but we only ran into one other group as we hiked in. Two guys hauling a canoe into Guinea Pond. We left them and the Guinea Pond trail to head north on the Black Mountain Pond trail. As we headed into the woods, the bugs started to get bad. Black fly season. We were okay while we moved, but they swarmed when we stopped.
We took a break at a stream a ways in and most of the crew (not me) dipped in the water. "I'm pure!" cried Seth. It was fun, but the bugs set in and we had to decide what to do. We considered setting up camp there, with the water supply, but also wanted to explore on ahead. We decided to drop the packs and come back for them if we found a better spot.
We did find a better spot. A waterfall cascading down rocks. We retrieved the packs and climbed to the top of the waterfall to found a nice, though small campsite. It was perfect. Isolated, water at hand, pretty, and a view over the cliff to the south. We set up camp, had dinner and a water pistol fight, and got nicely toasted out on the cliff.
The next morning, Dave and I climbed into hammocks, enjoyed a bit of mountain mouthwash (vodka?), and greeted the dawn. Chip made us coffee when he got up and then I tried my hand at reflector oven cooking, sans reflector oven. The attempt was to make Egg McMuffins. They were close, but no cigar. Edible for the most part though.
We packed up and then made one last trip to the cliff. We sat there, got very altered, and created the concept of the Reality Posse, who were coming to get us and drag us back into the real world. It all started with Chip, who hedged on participating because of the implications once he got back home. We accused him of endangering us all by allowing Reality to take hold of him, causing him to stand out like a beacon to the Reality Posse and giving away our position. We managed to convince him to take adequate protective measures.
We got back on the trail soon after and headed toward and past Black Mountain Pond. A pretty little pond nestled in the arms of a mountain. The trail ascended that mountain pretty steeply after the pond, almost sheer in places. We stopped at overlooks a few times for the view and a rest. At one, I took a picture of Chip and left a nice pipe. Some day I'll go back to find it. Once on top, it was time to head back down again, going back to the road. As steep going down as up, then an easy walk out to the dirt road and back to the car.
When: May, 1988
With: Stupid Society
A Stupid hike! We wanted to go somewhere a bit closer than the Kancamaugus, so we went up 93, took the Waterville Valley exit, and then turned onto Sandwich Notch road. I'd asked a fellow hiker at work about the road and he assured me it was passable. The road was a somewhat narrow bumpy dirt road, with plenty of dips and hills, but for the most part wasn't too bad. My little Honda Civic sedan did just fine. The weather was good and soon the rest of the crew was up and sitting in the windows. Someone even got up on the roof! I scrapped bottom a couple of times and forced everyone to get off to lighten the load a bit, but we made it to the Guinea Pond trail without any major incidents.
As we set up to go, Seth asked if we were wearing shorts or long pants. The vote was mostly longs, but I opted for shorts. Soon two others followed suit and Seth was left the sole long pants hiker. A good move, it turned out.
There were 4-5 other cars there, but we only ran into one other group as we hiked in. Two guys hauling a canoe into Guinea Pond. We left them and the Guinea Pond trail to head north on the Black Mountain Pond trail. As we headed into the woods, the bugs started to get bad. Black fly season. We were okay while we moved, but they swarmed when we stopped.
We took a break at a stream a ways in and most of the crew (not me) dipped in the water. "I'm pure!" cried Seth. It was fun, but the bugs set in and we had to decide what to do. We considered setting up camp there, with the water supply, but also wanted to explore on ahead. We decided to drop the packs and come back for them if we found a better spot.
We did find a better spot. A waterfall cascading down rocks. We retrieved the packs and climbed to the top of the waterfall to found a nice, though small campsite. It was perfect. Isolated, water at hand, pretty, and a view over the cliff to the south. We set up camp, had dinner and a water pistol fight, and got nicely toasted out on the cliff.
The next morning, Dave and I climbed into hammocks, enjoyed a bit of mountain mouthwash (vodka?), and greeted the dawn. Chip made us coffee when he got up and then I tried my hand at reflector oven cooking, sans reflector oven. The attempt was to make Egg McMuffins. They were close, but no cigar. Edible for the most part though.
We packed up and then made one last trip to the cliff. We sat there, got very altered, and created the concept of the Reality Posse, who were coming to get us and drag us back into the real world. It all started with Chip, who hedged on participating because of the implications once he got back home. We accused him of endangering us all by allowing Reality to take hold of him, causing him to stand out like a beacon to the Reality Posse and giving away our position. We managed to convince him to take adequate protective measures.
We got back on the trail soon after and headed toward and past Black Mountain Pond. A pretty little pond nestled in the arms of a mountain. The trail ascended that mountain pretty steeply after the pond, almost sheer in places. We stopped at overlooks a few times for the view and a rest. At one, I took a picture of Chip and left a nice pipe. Some day I'll go back to find it. Once on top, it was time to head back down again, going back to the road. As steep going down as up, then an easy walk out to the dirt road and back to the car.
