| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
South Crocker Mountain, Crocker Mountain, Mt. Redingtion, ME |
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 | Trails: |
Golf Cart Path, bushwack, Caribou Valley Road, Appalachian Trail, South Crocker Spur, bushwack, ATV road, Logging roads |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, February 18, 2012 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
plenty of plowed parking at the sugarloaf golf club lot. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
the one major crossing of the carabasset was on a golf cart bridge. some other minor crossings on the a.t. were all easily stepped across. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
parked at the sugarloaf golf club lot and picked up the cart road behind the club building. was initially plowed until crossing the carabasset on the cart bridge then it was roughly packed up to the tee for hole 11 at which point i bushwacked w/sw along a previously beaten track that led right where i would have hoped popping out on the caribou valley just before the 3 mile marker.
the road was snowmobile packed and there were even motor vehicle tracks up to the parking shortly before the a.t. crossing which was marked with flagging tape.
the a.t. had one older set of snowshoe tracks and initially some ski tracks over an unconsolidated base making for some trail breaking right from the start. at times i only sunk in a few inches and at others up to knee deep. depths increased and the trail was completely filled in by the steeps up south crocker with the previous trough becoming visible again higher up.
pretty much the same over to north crocker with deeper snow near its summit all mostly unconsolidated under the older track. 3 of us have travelled the route as of today and rumor is another group may be going up tomorrow so it's pretty well broken now, but not packed out.
joined forces with steve and lee up high on south crocker and hiked with them the rest of the day. this was great as from south crocker to redington it was a straight bushwack as the herd path was indiscernible and the snow deep and unbroken. we briefly saw some snowshoe tracks high on south crocker which quickly disappeared and we eventually found a pretty good line hitting the clear cut just below the col. lots of spuce traps in the clear cut areas. we had a couple false starts before eventually picking a route up redington leaving the snowmobile packed logging road just below the col. some deep thick going in places, but generally we did pretty well hitting the atv trail maybe a quarter mile from the summit and following that to the top. the atv road had a good consolidated snowshoe track most of which was torn up from moose tracks.
the logging roads back to cvr were all snowmobile packed.
wore snowshoes the whole hike and went with extra flotation tails (msr) a short ways up the a.t. and used them until back on the snowmobile packed logging roads. definitely be prepared with the navigational tools of your choice if planning on redington from this route as the herd path is currently non-existent.
nice day. the most unbroken and the deepest snow i've seen this winter though still relatively light by maine standards as i understand it. was happy to meet steve and lee in the parking lot and team up with them for most of the day. thanks also to jeremy for all the good information about winter access to these peaks. was hoping the weather might improve, there were some views and sun early, but clouds and snow prevailed later on. great to be out. |
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 | Name: |
bryan |
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 | E-Mail: |
bryancuddihee@yahoo.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2012-02-18 |
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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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