Cohos Trail Continued

A Section Hiking Adventure 
Section #4, September 2013

Roger's Ledge

After missing two section hikes over the summer, I was back on track and happy to be on the path northward. The last time we were on the Cohos, we were hiking through the well traveled the White Mountain National Forest. On this trip we finished the Whites while the Nash Stream State Forest waited just ahead.

Our weekend started at the Cedar Pond Campground, an excellent place to stay north of Berlin, in Milan, NH. At this time of year we campers had the place to ourselves. The sites are large, lightly wooded between sites, and if you stay at site 11, you'll be convenient to the tiny bath house with a hot shower, water and flush toilets and electricity. Luxury! We were serenaded by loons from the namesake pond across the road and by the owls in the woods all around us.

We decided to start the hike at Unknown Pond trail west entrance, and spotted a car at the South Pond Rec Area. Our hike took us through lovely, easy walking woods to Unknown Pond, a quiet pond and campsite with view of the Horn. We continued on the trail through more gentle trail, including some boggy sections, to Rogers Ledge, an outstanding, large ledge with distant but lovely views of the Northern Presis.

Mike crosses the bog

Michele and Mike

Continuing on, we ventured into the Devil's Hopyard, a narrow notch between rocky cliffs. The air along this trail was cool and damp, the moss grew thick and everything we stepped on was slippery. A large wall of shingled rock loomed above us just before we reached the end of the trail, as marked by a wooden trail sign. We turned back at this point and headed to our final stop, South Pond Recreations area - a lovely spot with a large pond, picnic tables, parking lot, bathrooms and shoreline to walk around. We searched a while for the Cohos which was supposed to be on a tail in the woods to the right of the road. We never did find it, so we walked the road instead and then took the trail that did exist to the end. Laura had decided not to walk the road and helped us out by picking us up. The other car was retrieved and we all met up at the campground for a filling pot luck meal of tacos, fresh pasta, beans, veggies, chicken and various teas and desserts. The night finished with a amazing full moonset.

Devil's Hopyard Wall

The End

Taco at the Potluck

After we nestled in our tents, stuffed of good food, the rains came down until 7:30am. The wet weather had deflated our interest in hiking, especially since the peaks ahead, The Percys, are composed of slick, slabby rock faces at the summits, which can prove to be very dangerous when wet. We decided to fold this section into the next hike, and hopefully the rescheduled date will be a dry day for safe summitting.