Backpack Series Hike #1 - Three Ponds - June 5-7, 2015

TRIP DATE:      June 5-7, 2015
                 
TRIP LOCATION      Ellsworth, NH, Three Ponds
  
MEETING TIME: Friday evening
 
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS (INCLUDING LEADERS):  9
      
TOTAL HIKING TIME (IN HOURS):    7
 
LENGTH IN MILES:   7.0 mi.

TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN (IN FEET): 600

DIFFICULTY:      B        (A=very strenuous; B=strenuous; C=average; D=easy)

LEADER NAME(S):            Barry Young, Leslie Carson, Bob Vogel

CO-LEADER NAME(S):     
 
TRAILHEAD PARKING LOCATION & DESCRIPTION: Three Ponds Trailhead
 
CAR SPOTTING REQUIRED?:    N                      TIME REQUIRED TO SPOT CARS:
 
WAS TRIP WITHING WHITE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST? Yes
 
IF YES TO ABOVE, DESCRIBE SPECIFIC TRAILS HIKED AND TRAIL CONDITIONS ENCOUNTERED: Three Ponds Trail, Donkey Hill Cutoff (and new snowmobile bypass trail)

WEATHER CONDITIONS FOR HIKE:  A bit of rain overnight Friday night, Sunny Saturday and Sunday.
 
OTHER COMMENTS (problems, views, terrain, etc.)  We spent Friday ‘back country camping’ in the WMNF behind Bob Vogel's property (the "Ellsworth Hilton"). Saturday we hiked up to Three Ponds. We camped off trail in the woods near the back side of the second pond. Saturday afternoon we attempted, unsuccessfully, to follow Three Ponds Trail toward Warren. Then some of us hiked across Donkey Hill Cutoff, and back via the new snowmobile trail which was recently cut. Saturday eve. some of us walked back to the beaver dam, and got to watch (from  as close as 15’ away) as the beaver worked on the dam. Couldn’t have asked for a better show if we had had cable and 200 channels J

Only ‘problem’ was that the beaver dam, which the trail uses to cross the stream, was ‘interesting’… No one fell in, but we did have a couple slips on our way out Sunday AM. (The week before, when Bob scouted places to camp, it was much drier, but the rain the previous week, combined with the industrious beaver, filed the dam to the brim.)