Mount Bemis, at 3,725 feet, rises above the eastern edge of Crawford Notch in the White Mountain National Forest, taking its name from Dr. Samuel Bemis, a 19th-century dentist and daguerreotypist who built a stone house at its base. The peak appears on the NH 100 Highest list and sees minimal traffic.
Reaching the summit requires off-trail navigation throughout. The standard approach follows the Nancy Pond Trail from US 302 for 1.6 miles to the first major crossing of Nancy Brook, where an abandoned fire warden's trail branches right. This path once served a wooden fire tower that operated on a sub-peak from 1940 to 1948; remnants of the demolished structure still scatter the site. The old trail is followable from around 1,800 feet to near 2,900 feet, though blowdowns and dense spruce make portions slow going. At roughly 3,150 feet, an open shrubby meadow delivers outstanding views of the Presidential Range, the Presidential Range-Dry River Wilderness, Kearsarge North, and peaks as far south as Chocorua. The fire tower sub-peak offers a narrower Presidential outlook through tree gaps; the true summit, about 400 feet further west, is wooded. The complete out-and-back covers about 7.3 miles with close to 2,900 feet of gain.
Map and GPS are essential. The river crossing and the start of the abandoned trail tread can be difficult to locate, and dense conifers combined with blowdowns slow travel considerably in the upper section. Snow lingers well into spring.
