Hancock Pond?

I'm very busy at work. See the Google Earth Attachment below. It appears to me like there's a pond (or some kind of body of water) nestled in between the southern ridges of Mt. Hancock. This "pond" - I believe - would be the headwaters of the Sawyer River.

The "pond" isn't on any maps that I've seen. I'm doing South Hancock for Flags-on-the-48 so that before the 12 noon showing time I can bushwhack over to this area of Hancock. Maybe I could go looking.

I don't think many view points of this area would exist. Maybe somewhere on Tripyramid? Mt. Huntington probably blocks most of this area. I was not able to see this location when I was on Tremont a few weeks ago.

Anybody aware of this?

-Dr. Wu

I saw a pond from Hancock a few weeks ago, but I'm ignorant as to if it was that pond or Carrigain pond I saw. Whatever pond it was was right next to the Captain.

hockeycrew said:

I saw a pond from Hancock a few weeks ago, but I'm ignorant as to if it was that pond or Carrigain pond I saw. Whatever pond it was was right next to the Captain.

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Where were you on Hancock that you saw The Captain? You can't really see it from the usual viewpoints on North and South Peak. Were you bushwhacking? You can see it from the East Side of Hancock.

To answer your question though... the pond near The Captain is Carrigan Pond!

Edit: I just looked at the map... I don't think that, even if you could see over the trees, you could see The Captain from either North or South Hancock Summits. Perhaps you confused it with Sawyer Pond which is near Tremont. There is a spur ridge coming from Tremont called Owl's Cliff which maybe you confused with The Captain? I could be wrong!

Another Edit: I don't think this "body of water" would be viewable from the various summits on Hancock (North, South, Northwest, East, North of Northwest etc.) as it appears to just be too close to the body of the mountain.

Sorry for being so nerdy!

-Dr. Wu

dr_wu002 said:

I don't think many view points of this area would exist. Maybe somewhere on Tripyramid? Mt. Huntington probably blocks most of this area. I was not able to see this location when I was on Tremont a few weeks ago.

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That area is viewable from the north slide on N. Tripyramid, and also from the small break in the trees just below the summit. You can see the Hancocks clearly. I'm not sure if the view areas are high enough to see the pond though. It was too hazy for me to tell from my pictures.

^MtnMike^

^MtnMike^ said:

That area is viewable from the north slide on N. Tripyramid, and also from the small break in the trees just below the summit. You can see the Hancocks clearly. I'm not sure if the view areas are high enough to see the pond though. It was too hazy for me to tell from my pictures.

^MtnMike^

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I never did the Slide Trail on North Tripyramid. Huntington might block out the view though to this area but I'm not sure. You can also see Hancock from Chocorua (black spot above green's cliff area... hmmmm) but since I wasn't looking for a "pond" I didn't try to photograph one.

I seriously doubt that there is anything other than a boggy section in this area. I'm just curious though since Google Earth shows "something"

-Dr. Wu

dr_wu002 said:

I never did the Slide Trail on North Tripyramid. Huntington might block out the view though to this area but I'm not sure. You can also see Hancock from Chocorua (black spot above green's cliff area... hmmmm) but since I wasn't looking for a "pond" I didn't try to photograph one.

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I have almost the same exact shot from Chocorua, with more of the Hancocks visible and less haze. I can't see anything though:
http://home.maine.rr.com/mcschell/IMG_9246.jpg

And my Tripyramid shot is un-zoomed and too hazy :
http://home.maine.rr.com/mcschell/IMG_9435.jpg

^MtnMike^

I believe that I too saw both this pond and the captain from a few points along the ridge between the two hancocks (closer to south hancock). I kept checking my map over and over to see what pond it might have been but there was nothing in the area at all on the map. I am only guessing it was the captain that I saw as well while looking over towards carrigan - I knew captain was on the map and the peak lay well below the vantage point of carrigan that i got.

There were a few places on the ridge between both hancocks were it was fairly easy to go 5 feet off the trail and get a decent view.

patrickbrusil said:

I believe that I too saw both this pond and the captain from a few points along the ridge between the two hancocks (closer to south hancock). I kept checking my map over and over to see what pond it might have been but there was nothing in the area at all on the map. I am only guessing it was the captain that I saw as well while looking over towards carrigan - I knew captain was on the map and the peak lay well below the vantage point of carrigan that i got.

There were a few places on the ridge between both hancocks were it was fairly easy to go 5 feet off the trail and get a decent view.

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Do you have any pictures? I think I know what section of the ridge you're talking about... the best I've ever gotten of Carragain was in winter with a deep snow pack. Even then the East Ridge completely blocks The Captain. Postrboy got this shot from The East Ledges of Hancock. If there's a view of The Captain, let me know! I love views out to it... most of the ones (like the one from Chocorua) are kind of crappy. I've always thought The East Flank of Hancock blocks out all views from the interior Hancock, for the most part.

^MtnMike^ said:

I have almost the same exact shot from Chocorua, with more of the Hancocks visible and less haze. I can't see anything though:
http://home.maine.rr.com/mcschell/IMG_9246.jpg

And my Tripyramid shot is un-zoomed and too hazy :
http://home.maine.rr.com/mcschell/IMG_9435.jpg

^MtnMike^

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No Pond

-Dr. Wu

Wu, I know you like GoogleEarth, but I like USAPhotoMaps (which browses Terraserver data). Both the 24k topo quads and the orthophotos show a pond (actually, the orthophotos show two disjoint "string of pearls" ponds) around 3000' at N44.073 W71.471. What looks like open water in the orthophoto is about 400' in length by about 100' in width, though the pictures are from late spring so it might just be emergent vegetation (or by now, might have gone the way of Desolation Pond).

el-bagr said:

Wu, I know you like GoogleEarth, but I like USAPhotoMaps (which browses Terraserver data). Both the 24k topo quads and the orthophotos show a pond (actually, the orthophotos show two disjoint "string of pearls" ponds) around 3000' at N44.073 W71.471. What looks like open water in the orthophoto is about 400' in length by about 100' in width, though the pictures are from late spring so it might just be emergent vegetation (or by now, might have gone the way of Desolation Pond).

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Time to go exploring. Got your padlock??

-Dr. Wu

I may have some answers about this "pond." Many years ago I tried to bushwack the ridge from Hancock to Carrigan but bailed halfway across. I headed south, around the ridge, then dropped to the Hancock Notch trail. I spotted some water from the ridge, got down to it, then followed the outlet downstream until I got to a trail. Here's a link to my write-up of the trip:

http://home.comcast.net/~hikeritz/overnight_hikes/h14-hancock.htm

And here's a link to a map on Topozone that shows the area I think we're discussing:

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat...s=50&size=l&symshow=n&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

It was really just a shallow boggy area. All water in wet times and just soggy when it's drier.

BTW, on my trip I was trying to get to Carrigain Pond. Postrboy's account (and pictures) of his one-day, full backpack bushwack through the area (a year ago?) just amazed me.

hikeritz said:

I may have some answers about this "pond." Many years ago I tried to bushwack the ridge from Hancock to Carrigan but bailed halfway across. I headed south, around the ridge, then dropped to the Hancock Notch trail. I spotted some water from the ridge, got down to it, then followed the outlet downstream until I got to a trail. Here's a link to my write-up of the trip:

http://home.comcast.net/~hikeritz/overnight_hikes/h14-hancock.htm

And here's a link to a map on Topozone that shows the area I think we're discussing:

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat...s=50&size=l&symshow=n&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

It was really just a shallow boggy area. All water in wet times and just soggy when it's drier.

BTW, on my trip I was trying to get to Carrigain Pond. Postrboy's account (and pictures) of his one-day, full backpack bushwack through the area (a year ago?) just amazed me.

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Ahhhhhh.... your account of this is on the Lost Trails website, I believe. I read this a while ago but forgot about this part. And indeed, your topozone link shows that kind of boggy area. Maybe I'll poke around in the area but I don't know how badly I want to walk through a bog. I guess it'd be cool to see how many bug bites I could get at one time though if I go during the late spring! Thanks for the reply!

-Dr. Wu

pond?

Dr. Wu

I took this picture of what I think is your mystery pond. The picture is taken from the S. Hankcock outlook down the side path from the summit. It is looking in the same SSE to E direction where the pond looks to be located in your google earth map.

I also was wondering about that pond because it wasnt on my AMC map.

Oh, and this was taken 7/10 ands looks to be an actual body of water rather than just a bog.

Hope this helps.

TDawg said:

Dr. Wu

I took this picture of what I think is your mystery pond. The picture is taken from the S. Hankcock outlook down the side path from the summit. It is looking in the same SSE to E direction where the pond looks to be located in your google earth map.

I also was wondering about that pond because it wasnt on my AMC map.

Oh, and this was taken 7/10 ands looks to be an actual body of water rather than just a bog.

Hope this helps.

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Difficult to say: http://community.webshots.com/photo/270049715/287010694XuStAI#
The pond, from the South Hancock lookout, would be between you and Tremont. Here is that picture. In the lower center-left of that photo appears to be a snow-covered body of water. The features in that area look similar to the features in your more close-up photo. Were you looking towards Tremont when you saw this.

From South Hancock, the "pond" is approximately 0.8mi away and 1300' below you. I guess that could be it.

Thanks for the photo! When I go to South Hancock for Flags-on-the-48 I'll be sure to poke around and try to catch a look-out.

-Dr. Wu

Yea, in your picture the area where mine focuses on is in the lower left of yours I think. So that white area at the bottom could be it.

Tdawg's picture of the pond is definetly the same pond I saw while hiking towards South Hancock.

Unfortunetly I do not have enough money to develop my pictures yet.

The pond TDawg showed in his picture is the same pond I saw from S. Hancock.

Might THIS also be it? From the South Hancock outlook.

Bob

HikerBob said:

Might THIS also be it? From the South Hancock outlook.

Bob

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Good question... I have a similiar picture (2nd to last one).

FWIW, Artex and HB both show the same pond. That's my bet for the mystery puddle.