Cross Country Skiing to Cherry Pond and Little Cherry Pond via Mooseway at Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge
I’ve wanted to try the Mooseway trail at Pondicherry on my skis for a while now. It is only open in winter and since the conditions were just about perfect I decided to take the 2 hour drive up to the Mud Pond Trail head at the Pondicherry Wild Life Refuge.
I got to the trail head around 11am and there was plenty of parking left. The temperature was about 28 degrees. The trail looked well packed with snowshoes but there was some ski tracks in areas from others before me.
| Date: | 03-05-2022 |
| Location: | Jefferson, NH |
| Distance: | 5.1 mi |
| Fee/Pass | $0 |
| Elevation Gain: | 179′ |
| Total Time: | 3 hr 52 min |
| Parking: | 10+ cars |
| Difficultly Rating: | easy |
I started out on the Mud Pond Trail for about a quarter of a mile then got to the junction of the Mooseway Trail. This trial is only open to winter traffic when the wetland is frozen.
There was about 4 to 5 inches of powder snow along the side of the trail. So I decided to make a track. The snow was fluffy but kept sticking to my skis making it hard to get any glide. So after breaking out a long straight away I decided to ride in the snowshoe monorail.
As I continued down Mooseway I came across some fresh moose tracks and some scrapings on a tree. It was nice to know that the trail lives up to its name.
A little further down the trail I entered a hemlock forest that was beautiful to walk through. The trail has been pretty flat with some fun little hills on the skies. So far the trail has been very enjoyable.
Once I got to the junction with the Cherry Pond Trails I noticed that they were all skiable too. These trails have a loop that connects Cherry Pond with Little Cherry Pond. So I decided to go clockwise around the loop and start with Cherry Pond.
This was not a long section of the loop and soon found myself a the junction to the Cherry Pond Spur. I made my way down to the water. The pond and views were starting to open up. I eventually came to a bench with some outstanding views of the Northern Presidentials.
Here I took a break and hand a snack. The sky was blue, the sun shining and the mountains were snow covered. Life is good. So took a few photos and just enjoyed the moment for a little while.
After my break I headed back to the loop trail and continued on toward Little Cherry Pond. This trail was also well packed and a little thin in some areas. There were a few bog bridges that were a little tricky to navigate with the skis.
Once I got to the junction, I headed down the trail toward Little Cherry Pond. This trail also had a nice bridge. At the end of the trail there was a clearing. There were a few hikers there when I arrived so I talked with them a bit.
I headed back the trail junction and finished off the loop. Back to Mooseway and headed back to the car. I felt Mooseway was my favorite trail of the day. It had a number of fun hills and dips in both directions. There was nothing very technical on this trail either. It had a lot of changing scenery and I liked that.
When I got back to the car I couldn’t believe what a great day I had. Beautiful weather, almost perfect snow conditions and very few people. Pondicherry is a small gem that is worth visiting especially on skis!!
