Hike Towards Sandwich Dome

November 1, 2020
Emilie Phillips

One evening, Tyson and I planned a hike to Sandwich Dome. Isaac didn’t like our plan when he learned of it, so he drug his feet the whole way. We hiked up the Guinea Pond trail from the Sandwhich Notch Rd, to Black Mountain Pond Trail. Then we intended to hike 3.4 miles out and back to Sandwich Dome proper for more views, but that didn’t happen. Finally, we descended down the Algonquin trail, and hike back the road. Black Pond Trail had a water fall, views, rock scrambling, and reputedly a boulder cave. So it should have been fun. The Algonqiun Trail is on the terrifying twenty five. Given the weather, the descent had the possibility to be treacherous. There was snow on the ground and a 30% chance of precipitation after 2pm.

Strava was right that the trails were lightly traveled. We saw two groups of people. Instead we saw a porcupine, a pileated wood pecker, and a small heard of deer. We found a dropped glove frozen into the leaves on the trail. We stuffed it in Tyson’s pack to keep it from becoming trash. Then later Isaac lost one of his gloves, identical to the one we had found, except a little smaller. I hiked back a third of a mile until I found Isaac’s. Tyson and Isaac waited for me at Mary Cary’s falls. We looked for the boulder cave along Black Mountain Pond trail, but didn’t find it. Maybe it was just the tight spot on the trail? Lunch time arrived while we were still climbing Black Mountain Pond Trail. We were high enough up to get a view of Lake Winnipesaukee, but I knew at that point we would have to skip Sandwhich Dome and shortcut left down Algonquin Trail. We got more views south and west. Mount Major, Gunstock, Kearsarge, Ragged Mountain, Welch-Dickey, and more. Isaac cheered up as soon as we headed down. And the rain held off until we were unbuckling our packs at the car.