Sawyer Ponds Paddle

PHOTO: Becca twirling her paddle to make her boat spin near the Sawyer Pond shelter. Sawyer Pond is a popular hiking and camping destination because there is a shelter and tent sites right on the beautiful 80 feet deep, 40 acre pond. It is not a difficult hike, only 1.5 miles from the end of Sawyer River Road to Sawyer Pond. There is a longer approach from the Kancamagus Highway that is 4.5 miles

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

Brr..it’s June but it was only 46 degrees and cloudy! But at least it wasn’t raining. Weather is fickle, we still had hope it would warm up.
At the bottom of Crawford Notch we drove up Sawyer River Road about 4 miles to the parking area next to the yellow gate that blocks the rest of the forest road. Becca and I were early but not the first to arrive, there were a couple cars parked there.
Mosquitoes! Millions of them attacked as soon as we stepped out of the car. Well, it felt like a million of them as we hurriedly sprayed Deet on ourselves and hauled our backpacks out of the car in the parking lot. As we hiked up the Sawyer Pond Trail we seemed to lose them. I guess they hang out in the parking lot knowing folks haven’t applied bug spray yet when they step out of their car.
The trailhead to Sawyer Pond is just a few steps after the gate and begins at a nice foot bridge crossing over the Sawyer River. We weren’t on the trail very long before we met a man coming down the trail carrying a fishing pole. We asked if the fish were biting but he told us no and that he tried his luck at the little upper pond but it was too windy. That interested us because that was where we were headed first.
There is no trail to Upper Sawyer Pond but there are fisherman paths that get easier to follow once you start to get near the pond. We cut into the woods just before reaching the spur to the shelter. The brush and trees were wet. Just after crossing its outlet Becca followed a path to the shore and found a place for us to launch our pack rafts.
Using our battery operated fan-in-the-box we blew up our rafts and snapped our paddles together. We both were able to step into our rafts from a rock that allowed us to keep our feet dry. The fisherman was right, it was windy. And cold.

The clouds swirled and the wind made white caps on the water. We paddled all around the pond along the shore and once across the middle. There was a large patch of destroyed trees along a steep section of the shore that looked like the result from a fire, lightning maybe and then followed by a microburst. The pond is shallow and paddled over big rocks that were just barely still underwater. The clouds hid the view of Mount Tremont but we did get a peek at Owl’s Cliff’s ledgy face.
Getting out of the boat without getting our feet wet is always a challenge but this rock was agood place to beach the boat and step out. We deflated our rafts and stuffed them back into our pack. We followed a grown-in path and found ourselves following the outlet down to Sawyer Pond.
This time we launched our rafts from a log along the shore. The temperature was a little warmer and the clouds still swirled but it wasn’t nearly as windy. We paddled in front of the shelter and then across the pond and around the island on the far side. As we paddled back we the clouds revealed a fine view of Green’s Cliff.

We didn’t spend much time relaxing, we paddled to keep warm. We decided to put Sawyer Pond back on our short list of places to paddle again but next time on a sunny warm day.
We took our rafts out near the campsites. No one had set any tents up yet it wasn’t even noon yet. The ground was covered with brown spruce needles and by the time we rolled up our deflated rafts we were covered with spruce needles.
The hike back was quick. We met a couple of people backpacking up to the pond to enjoy camping the rest of the weekend.
At the car the mosquitoes were still waiting and too many of them jumped inside to join us for the drive down Sawyer River Road.
Becca and I like visiting and paddling ponds where the only access is by foot and sometimes by bushwhacking.
We’re planning more adventures.
Have Summer Fun.