August 3, 2017: Hiking Day Five. Cabot Cabin to Stark, NH

August 3, 2017.  Hiking Day Five.  Cabot Cabin to Stark, NH

16.3 miles with about 700 feet of elevation gain

We slept reasonably well for three people who were really thirsty.  Cabot Cabin is insulated, so we barely needed our sleeping bags; the temperature in the cabin is comfortable and not cold during New Hampshire's mountain summer nights.  I remember waking up and seeing flashes of lightning through the windows but hearing no thunder, so if storms came through the general area they were either super quick or far away.

We roused ourselves soon after dawn and packed up.  I check my Nalgene outside -- dry dry dry.  :(   The girls and I had a liter and a half of water left.  We split the half liter between the three of us and decided we would wait until we reached Unknown Pond to eat breakfast so we could simultaneously eat and drink to our heart's content.

We visited Cabot's true summit before snapping a photo with the not-so-true summit.

The girls by Cabot's true summit

The girls by Cabot's not-so-true summit

 From there, it was down and then up a bit again over the Bulge.  We were weak from being thirsty, and we were glad we had saved that last liter for our three mile journey to the Unknown Pond.  We took turns taking swigs from it as we traveled from Cabot up to Bulge.

Bulge's summit is in the woods and is currently marked with a cairn.

From here, it was all downhill to the pond.  We opted not to do the spur path up the Horn since we had been there and done that three years ago....and we wanted to get to the pond and eat breakfast already.

To the pond...

There it was!  The girls and I still had half a liter of water, so we chugged it and then set right to work filling everything we had and filtering it.  We sat down and ate a ton of food, making sure we had a nice balance of salt and carbs and protein.  We then admired the Unknown Pond for a while, feeling a thousand times stronger than we had a half hour before.

The Unknown Pond with The Horn rising behind it

 Eventually, we said our goodbyes to the pond and began the journey to Roger's Ledge.

Kilkenny Ridge Trail between the Unknown Pond and Rogers Ledge is a mixture of head-high, overgrown vegetation, bog bridges over scenic little ponds, and trail that looks perfectly maintained.  It's an odd but fun mix.  Our spirits were high and the heat and bugs felt minimal, so we enjoyed the variety of conditions.

Blueberries!  Lots of blueberries in this section.

TONS of blueberries here.  Blueberries everywhere!  Our pace slowed a bit as we ate our way through the area.

We reached the Rogers Ledge Tentsite area and cooled our arms in the brook.  We still had tons of water from our refill at Unknown Pond, so this was a pause of enjoyment rather than necessity.

Past the tentsite area...

Climbing about 500 feet of elevation...

Rogers Ledge --

I could see thick and heavy clouds forming in the distance, and this was a day that was supposed to bring strong thunderstorms, so we descended the ledge and went on our way.

The trail got wider as we neared South Pond, and we ended up at a lovely day use beach with a great area for swimming.  I don't know why I didn't take a photo of that, but you can Google "South Pond Recreation Area Stark NH" and find plenty of images.  The girls and I had time before we were supposed to meet Nancy Spaulding for our ride to Lancaster, and the heavy clouds in the distance were not yet producing thunder, so the girls changed into their bathing suits and we spent an hour and a half or so enjoying the water.  I had us leave when those clouds decided to start rumbling in the distance, and we went on our way down South Pond Road.

After reaching the end of South Pond Road, you take a left onto Route 110.

A short while later (just two tenths of a mile), cross the busy street and turn right onto Bell Hill Road.

Cross the railroad tracks in the photo below and turn left at that street, Percy Road.

Walk Percy Road for three tenths of a mile and look for the Bell Mountain Notch Trail on your right.

There it is, peeking out of the trees up there...

Where we'll pick up the trail in a couple of days, after the forecasted storms blow through.

For this day, however, we were continuing on to the Stark Village Inn, which was another three miles down the road.  As we walked, the thunder sounded distantly, then closer and closer...we looked back in the direction of South Pond and verrry dark clouds had settled over the area.  It never rained on us this day, though. 

We made it to Nancy's B&B far earlier than we had planned.  Luckily, Nancy had arrived from her day's appointments earlier than she had planned, so we got our ride into Lancaster late in the afternoon instead of late in the evening.

I'll post again tomorrow night with a description of our previously unplanned days off (during which it poured rained and stormed only on one of those days, but oh well, better safe than sorry).  After that, I'll move on to the second half of our Cohos Trail journey -- the trails north of Stark, which we had never previously hiked.