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The park sign at North Pond. I have come to this pond during the summer since I was a child. This is the first time I visited it during the winter. The day was bright, in the low 20s and the snow was clean, white and easy to ski in.
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I took the North Pond loop trail south, into a pine forest. There was a nice track, no doubt made by snowshoers, but unlike lots of places down in the valley, it had not been heavily traveled.
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After about 15 minutes on the trail, the path started to climb and the forest turned from pines to regular hardwoods.
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As I climbed higher, looking south I could see South Pond (foreground) and Bog Pond, both frozen over and both part of the State Forest.
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I skied down toward the pond before talking the North Pond Lop Trail south. Right after I took this picture and ice fisherman and his dog came into view. He was carrying a fishing rod and an ice augur. We said hi and I asked him how thick the ice was. He said he thought about 18 inches. The evidence of a vehicle or two can be seen in the snow.
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This photo captures for me what a glorious thing it was to be here on a Sunday afternoon.
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This picture was taken about 42 minutes later than the last one. Along the trail I had come across the second "Balanced Rock" in the park — which will be the subject of another page — and then kept climbing, past a second junction with the South Pond Trail. At some point after this I decided I was on the wrong trail and started bushwhacking north up the mountain.
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At 1:30 into my ski trip, North Pond came into view as I topped a ridge. But I had lost the trial, the undergrowth was thick, it was almost 4 p.m. and I had — as can be seen from this photo — a long, long way to go before I made it around the north side of North Pond. What should I do? For a while I tried to bushwhack on my skiis, but this proved to be painfully snow and inneffective. I faced a dilemma...
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