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New England Hundred Highest: Vose Spur & Mt. Nancy

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Saturday, August 11, 2018
Miles: 18.95
Elevation: 4935′ gain
MapMyRun track; Vose Spur GaiaGPS track

I headed out by 6:15am to drive the 1.5 hours to the Nancy Pond Trailhead. I parked my car and then started walking the ~1.5 miles to Sawyer River Rd. I managed to catch a hitch after maybe 10 minutes, so it saved me another 15 minutes of walking. Due to the severe storm in October 2017, Sawyer River Rd had sections washed out and so the road is closed to motorized traffic. Now there’s a ~2 mile road walk just to get to the Signal Ridge Trailhead to head towards Carrigan and Vose Spur. I quickly hiked along the dirt road and made good time to the trailhead. My plan for the day was to do a large loop, hiking Carrigan Notch Trail to the Vose Spur bushwhack, Carrigan Notch Trail to Nancy Pond Trail, Nancy Pond Trail to Mt. Nancy herdpath, and then Nancy Pond Trail back to my car. Things worked out according to plan, though the day took a bit longer than I had hoped.

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At this junction, I followed the Carrigan Notch Trail to the right
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Maybe a mile and a half after the junction, this large boulder in the middle of the trail let me know I was almost to the start of the bushwhack
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The start of the bushwhack was relatively obvious, with a cairn to help catch my attention
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While this was framed as a bushwhack, there was enough of a herdpath that I rarely needed to consult my GPS
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The talus/scree field shortly before the summit of Vose Spur; the rocks were unstable and care had to be taken
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But the views from here were quite excellent!
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As I climbed the talus field, I had nice views of Carrigan off to my left
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While it doesn’t look like it from this picture, it was fairly easy to find where the herdpath reentered the woods below; there were some stacked rocks to help too

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After my bushwhack, I returned to the Carrigan Notch Trail until it intersected with the Nancy Pond Trail, where I turned right
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The first section of the Nancy Pond Trail was very different than the standard path; it looked almost magical
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I crossed this creek, and filled up on water, yet again. I managed to drink 5 liters of water on my hike and still get dehydrated
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The view west from Norcross Pond, looking out towards the Bonds
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As the Nancy Pond Trail turned to go around Norcross Pond, the herdpath/old trail was obvious
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Shortly after following the old trail, it splits; I stayed to the left and followed it to the summit of Nancy
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Summit sign!
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Mt Nancy has a nice view of Mt Washington, though it was grey and cloudy so the view wasn’t as impressive as it could have been
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I brought along my Nancy podcast patch, for the irresistible photo op
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Ripening blueberries at the summit of Nancy
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The herdpath up and down was very clear
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Mt Nancy used to have a trail, so it wasn’t hard to follow the path
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Norcross Pond was nicer than Nancy Pond; there were some people camping nearby, though there were signs noting that camping was not allowed
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Norcross Pond
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The Nancy Cascades

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