East Mountain Loop
| Date: | 9-15-2024 |
| Location: | Waterville Valley, NH |
| Distance: | 4.98 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 942′ |
| Total Time: | 4 hr 4 min |
| Parking: | 10-15 cars |
The East Pond Loop trail is located off Tripoli Road, near Waterville Valley in New Hampshire. My buddy Jack suggested this hike. It’s about a 5-mile loop with just under a 1000’ of elevation. Perfect for a Sunday morning.
We got to the trail head and had plenty of parking. The lot could fit about 10-15 cars. The weather was supposed to get a bit warm and humid, so we were there early.
We started out on small section of trail that climbs at a very easy rate. When we got to the junction we decided to do the loop clockwise.
For the next mile and half the trail is flat with some small rolling ups and downs. There are a lot of water crossings that have bridges. Some longer than others. One bridge that carried you over a bog was super long.
We reached a water crossing and had climbed down to a little. I think this is the low point on the whole trail. We climbed out the other side and this is where most of the elevation started.
As we climbed the trail was moderate with some easy sections. There were some rocky and rooty sections but overall, the trail was in great condition.
We arrived at the top; we saw the spur path to Little Easy Pond. This trail has nice a nice secluded view of the pond and the hills in the background. We hung out a bit. Jack made some coffee, and I took some photos.
We were there for about a half hour before we saw or heard another person. We packed up we started our walk toward the other pond.
This section of trail was mostly easy. There were some small ups and downs, with a few more downs than ups. Lots of beautiful moss along this trail.
We got to the main East Pond and it was more of an alpine lake. There was a guy on the other side fly fishing. The water was very clear and clean. When we arrived there were some people but that was to be expected.
After a few pics we decided to head down back to the car. On the way down we noticed that it was starting to get humid and warmer. There were also a lot of people coming up to the lake now. One of the guys was a prospector and was going to pan for gold near the pond.
This section of trail is much steeper than any other sections. Going down was not to bad though. It was about a mile from the pond to the loop junction. And from there we were just a few hundred yards from the car.
Very fun hike and pretty easy. Next time I’ll be bringing my fishing pole.
