4/5/13 Hidden Ponds

Cloudy start but we got some clearing during the hike and it turned into a nice day. Plan was to do Catherine Mountain but it's trail head is accessed via Dynamite Brook Rd. which starts from the highway with a steep hill and a sharp right turn which prevents you seeing the rest of the road until you top the hill. All we needed to see was the ice on the hill to give up on Catherine. I had anticipated this possibility and our fallback was Hidden Ponds a very short distance up the highway.

The start of our trail was wet with water in the small streams

I don't know what causes this on the trunks of trees

We were still some distance from the ponds but someone had stuck this lost bobber on a limb , much the way they do lost gloves, hats, etc.

The trail became icier in spots and then we came across surprising amounts of snow

When you come to the new Loop Trail you see this sign

but the trail beyond, which goes to Tilden Pond is in good condition ( today it had more ice than the other trails) and easily followed- which we did. It ends at the pond

but it easy to follow the shore to the end of the pond

where there are some old woods roads yet to be explored.  We backtracked to do the loop trail which took us by Salmon Pond and to Little Long Pond

 then by Salmon on the other side

We took a short detour to also get to Mud Pond which has some interesting rock formations

We had lunch and then head back. One more dip for Kelley just before the end of the hike

Turned out to be a nice hike of 2  3/4 hours. In the parking lot we met two men just starting their hike and learned about some trails we were not aware of. Info. on the way.