| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Garfield, Mt. Lafayette, Mt. Truman, Mt. Lincoln, Little Haystack Mountain, Mt. Liberty, Mt. Flume, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Garfield Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Osseo Trail, Lincoln Woods Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, July 24, 2016 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
No issues early in the day at Lincoln Woods and the Garfield Trail off Gale River Road. I expect the latter overflowed pretty heavily though. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All crossings on the lower Garfield Trail were relatively easy rock-hops, just watch the wet rocks. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
One multi-limbed tree down blocking part of the Garfield Trail below the switchbacks, a standard hand saw should handle it fine. The Garfield Ridge Trail has some mud pits and gradually rotting bog bridges around the pond, but otherwise not in bad shape. Franconia Ridge Trail is fine, though people still insist on hopping OVER the scree walls to tramp their own paths... sigh. The upper Osseo (above the ladders) has some mud pits that could use some attention, and one of the ladders has a pretty good "flex" to it, something that will need keeping an eye on. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Surprisingly only saw a few, nothing overly hazardish on this route aside from a pretty significant lack of water sources other than early on the Garfield Trail and at Garfield Pond. |
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 | Bugs: |
A very stiff morning wind kept them totally away, a few black flies appeared at Flume in the afternoon when the wind was pretty light, but still not too many. Hopefully they finally got the hint that they are supposed to be gone now. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
We retrieved an AMC tyvek map along the Garfield Ridge Trail. There are remnants of a broken bottle (Jack Daniels if memory serves?) in the tower foundation atop Garfield, if we didn't have a long way to go at that point we would have cleaned it up. Hopefully some good Samaritan can or has done so? |
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 | Comments: |
A perfect day for a long, pseudo-half-Pemi. Low humidity once the morning clouds burned off, plenty of sunshine, a nice cooling breeze most of the day, and far-ranging views (for summer). All trails were in good shape overall, and I finally revisited the Garfield-Lafayette stretch of the Garfield Ridge Trail for the first time since 2000. Many people lament this stretch of trail, along with its other half to Galehead Hut, yes, it is wet in places, steep at times, and occasionally slabby, but it could be far worse. I do see how Pemi-Loopers would despise it though! We saw a surprising number of people along this trail, probably over 2 dozen, many thru-hikers, a couple hut-trekkers, and somewhere around a dozen Pemi Loopers, plus a few weekend backpackers. And then of course the ridge between Lafayette and Little Haystack was mobbed, I'd say a couple hundred people in all, I've seen worse up there but it was still packed and took a while to cross with all the passing. Only a few people between Little Haystack and Liberty, then a few more on/between the peaks, but pretty quiet as expected given the mid-afternoon time we were getting there. The Osseo Trail is always a great, easy exit route after a long hike, and we made tremendous time heading down. Thanks for indulging my crazy ideas Patrick, it really was an awesome day! |
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 | Name: |
madmattd |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2016-07-26 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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