PASSACONAWAY BEAVER POND: 3/29/18

A fine spring morning for a snowshoe trek to a favorite off-trail old beaver pond in the Oliverian Brook valley with an imposing view up to Mt. Passaconaway.

A sign of spring along the Oliverian Brook Trail.

For a short distance I snowshoed along a spur logging railroad bed that parallels the trail.

The snow depth at this junction was about the same as a week earlier.

Good bushwhacking woods off the Passaconaway Cutoff.

Making tracks in soft wet snow.

Wild spruce forest surrounds the old beaver pond. A Brown Creeper was singing in these woods - one of the earliest sounds of spring.

 Mt. Passaconaway is in view where a small inlet brook trickles into the abandoned pond off the slope of Hedgehog Mountain.

Mt. Passaconaway front and center. The top of the East Slide (1938) can be seen on the left. The great north outlook is out on the bump to the right.

Nanamocomuck Peak and its 1938 slide.

The old beaver lodge.

Side view of Square Ledge. The summit is the nubble on the right.

Only a small pool of water remains. Firm sunbaked snow made it easy to explore around the pond. A history book for the town of Albany has a photo of a logging camp named "St. Clair's Camp," located "on a small pond between Passaconaway and Hedgehog Mts." I've done a little searching in summer, but have not found the site. Need to come back and look some more.
 

Looking back across the opening.

 The old beaver dam, buried in snow.

Hedgehog Mountain and the East Ledges to the north.

Zoom on the East Ledges, where AMC rock climbers explored routes as early as 1928.

Lounging in veiled but balmy spring sun.

The upper cone of Mt. Passaconaway is speckled with crags.

Departing the pond.

Elbow tree.

Fine hemlock forest along Passaconaway Cutoff.

On the way home I stopped at a Kanc overlook and with binoculars saw ski tracks on all four forks of these slides on the western end of Mt. Osceola.