Trip Report - Tunnel Brook Ponds- Jan 19, 2002
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Summary
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Where: NH Rte 25 to Tunnel Brook Trail to the Ponds
Who: Dave M, Bob M, Tim D, Karl H, Doug H
Temp: -2F to 10F
Trail Conditions: Fresh, deep snow

Trip Report
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The Tunnel Brook Ponds are like the Greeley Ponds, only
there are more of them (7ish, depending on beaver activity),
they are more wild, more remote, have less people, and the 
skiing is a just a tick more demanding.  If you like Greeley 
Ponds but you want just a bit more... then you might love 
Tunnel Brook Ponds.  They are definitely on my "Return To"
list.

Tim, Karl, Doug and I met at Doug's house a bit after 5 am 
for an early start and picked up Bob around 5:30 after
getting just a bit lost going through Summerville.  I got confused
due to the highway construction and got off 1 exit too early.
We made good time heading north and got to the trail head before
9 am.  My snow thermometer confirmed what our fingers and cheeks
were already telling us... It was cold.  -2 F.  We fumbled with 
boots, gaitors and last minute drinks while Bob and I waxed our skis. 
At least the wax choice was easy.  

The first few 100 yards took us down the plowed dirt North/South
Road, which had obvious signs of heavy snowmobile traffic despite
the USFS postings banning motorized traffic.  In short order,
we found the trail sign, climbed the snow berm at the side of 
road and found the hiking trail covered in fresh snow.  The trail 
started off as double track road with signs of double xc tracks.  
The tracks were maybe a week old and were covered by a good 6 or 
7 inches of new stuff.  

In a short time, we hit a double stream crossing, both of which 
were still open.  Bork, who was skiing on short skis, got across
both of them with skis on while I, wanting to protect my old 
fashion woodies, took off my skis to get across.  This routine
was to played out many times through out the day.  This trail
follows the Tunnel Brook north-ward up into the notch between
Mt. Mousiaulke and Mt. Clough.  Tunnel Brook is met by a 
good number number of feeder brooks.  Hence the large number
of crossing.  Nearly all of the banks were steep enough to
require taking the skis off.  Shorter skis and another 2 feet 
of snow cover might make things easier.

There was a good 2 to 3 feet of snow on the ground, a fact that
was made obvious when we saw the amount of snow on the roof of
an abandoned cabin about 1/2 mile in along the trail.  After the 
cabin, the trail began to climb at a steady, but fairly easy rate.  

The next signficant milestone we found was a small resevoir
pond with a concrete dam and spillway.  The pond serves as
a water supply for the local township.  It was at this point
that last week's skier had decided to turn around.  Above this,
we were to see no sign of human presence other than the trail 
and the occasional painted blazes.  

It was also at this point that the tail began to climb more
steeply.  We were getting closer to the headwaters of Tunnel
Brook which terminates in a slight bowl.  The trail proceeded
up on the west (left) side of the valley.  The steeper climb 
occured as the trail began to slab up the side of the Mt. Clough,
away from and above the brook.  The climb became steep enough 
at one point to warrant an off trail traverse.  The climb also 
required a bit of deliberate trail finding as the poorly blazed 
trail sort of disappeared into the open hardwoods.  And, just to 
make things more interesting, we crossed several more brooks and 
wet washouts as the trail skirted the upper west (left) side of 
this mini-bowl.  

The mapped showed a small ridgelet running south-west off of
Moousilauke and into the Tunnel Brook valley, just south of 
the height of land.  This ridgelet is what formed the headwall
of this pretty little mini-bowl, pushing in against the brook
from the east (right).  Soon the trail began to level out
as as we climbed even with the indefinite foot of the ridge
and we broke out into the height of land, complete with a 
a stunning view of the Moosilauke summit and several large
slides on its western side.

The woods changed in character at this point.  They tightened 
up and picked up birch and balsam fir.  The map suggested that 
the first in a series of ponds was just to our east (right), but 
we couldn't see it through the thick boreal forest.  

Lunch time urges were rumbling in our stomachs, so we decided 
to press on along the trail until we could find a suitable lunch 
spot.  We soon found the first beaver pond, and quickly the
second.  After some discussion on whether to eat near a pond
(sunny, view but windy) or on the trail (less windy but no view)
we settled on a fairly well protected pond edge with an incredible
view of Mt. Moosilauke and its western slides.  To our north, 
beaver pond morphed into beaver pond.  We could easily see
another 3 ponds to our north.  A quick ski out onto the pond gave
us a less inspiring view of Mt. Clough.  The guide book suggests
that better views of the slides on Clough are visible from
the northern ponds.  I wouldn't know.  We were happy to stay put, 
brew up tea and eat lunch.

  
Gratuituous Gear Note #1:  I brought along my recently acquired
mini-Trangia alcohol stove, just to see how it peformed in the
field in winter conditions.  It was a pain in the neck to get
lit.  My guess is that the alcohol just doesn't leap to life all
that quickly when the temp is hovering in the sub 0F range.  Using
a cheapo bic lighter didn't help either.  I really need to get a 
proper burning lighter for that, I guess.  I ended up pouring 
alcohol around the *outside* of the burning ring and was able 
to light that.  After a few moments the stove started "burning";
which is to say you could feel consistant heat and see heat
waves in the air.  You certainly couldn't see the alcohol flame
against the sunny snow.  As has been noted in several places, it
seems the secret with these stoves is to create a chimney affect
to get the flame to burn hotter.  I used a homemade windscreen
crudely fashioned out of aluminum foil and a binder clip, which
sits fairly snug around the mini-pot.  I got my 1/2 quart boiling
at about the same time as Bob's 1 quart tea pot, which he had going 
on his trust Svea.  Clearly the alcohol is no replacement for 
white gas, but man, it sure burns quiet.


I had a nice lunch of cold anchovy pizza (dinner the night 
before), ham and provalone cheese (raided from fridge) and
left over chocolate.  Tim brought the coup de grace; chocolate
covered coffee beans.  From the gods!  As an interesting side
note, I discovered that black tea mixed with Gatorade is
reminiscent of Sport Tea (tm).  

We had this beautiful spot all to ourselves.  The only signs
of other life were the beaver ponds and the large number of 
deer tracks. 

The ski down was much as expected.  Fairly fast striding through
the flat height of land (in a shuffle sort of way) and total
terror on the steep sections.  All of us, with the exception of
Bork, came to the fight armed with long traditional xc skis and
most of the party had light boots.  Bork, on the other hand, had
short wide skis and plastic boots.  I hear he did great on the
downhills.  I wouldn't know as he was far out ahead of me the
entire time.  The ugly stream crossing were particularly interesting.
Often there was a pile up of 1 or 2 skiers on the uphill side 
as folks tossed out the anchor to avoid a more dramatic demise
in the stream.  Tim earned the never-say-die award with his
valiant, amusing and ultimately successful bid to cross a
particularly tricky brook with his skis on.  

Gratuitous Gear Note #2: I decided to take my Asnes Woodies
on this trip on the somewhat mistaken impression that it
was going to be a full day of striding.  It clearly wasn't.
Some observations...   Using the beefier Futura boots with
the light ski made a very workable combination.  I only noticed
the extra weight of the boots on the flats at the very end of
the day.   But this was nothing compared to the total frustration
I would have experienced had I used lighter boots for that
down hill.  I also learned that the Woodies are tougher skis
that I had imagined.  They also hold wax and climb like 
nothing else.  A ton of fun.  That said, I would like to
go back and try this type of trail (not steep at all) with
my wide AT skis.  I am sure they would have made the ride
down a blast and I'm curious now just how *bad* they would
be on the flats.  The other skis I would like to try there
are the 80/60/70s.  Not enough time to ski!

We made it down in good time, arriving at the car just ahead
of 3 pm.  Once back in the cars we headed off to Woodstock
for dinner in a diner.  Passing the Moosilauke trail head,
we counted nearly 20 cars, 1/2 of which were Subaru station
wagons.  It is amazing that we had so much solitude on one
side of the mountain while there was such a crowd on the
other.  

The road over to Woodstock was covered by heavy wet and 
slippery snow.  Bob did his best rally car driver impression
and did a little sideways driving.  Added some spice.  
We did get a great view of the Franconia ridge though.

The diner in Woodstock was closed, which as a blessing really.
We decided to eat in Concord and were able to be met by
Jim and Michelle and their boys for pizza.  It was great to 
catch up with good friends.  A perfect ending to a perfect
day.

Copyright 2003 by David Mann