| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Lafayette, Mt. Truman, Mt. Lincoln, Little Haystack Mountain, Mt. Liberty, Mt. Flume, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Old Bridle Path, Greenleaf Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Liberty Spring Trail, herd path, bike path |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Plowed and easily accessible. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
A few tributaries along Liberty Spring trail have open water but are bridged and easy to cross. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
No difficulties for Cinnilla anywhere. Really good trail conditions for the K9s.
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Great trail-breaking efforts by Tim Lucia's group this past Sunday made this hike a lot easier for Georg, Cinnilla and me. Thank you!
We snowshoed all the way and that is by far the best option for most of the trails. Old Bridle Path, Liberty Springs and Franconia Ridge from the Liberty Spring Junction to Mt. Flume are all well-packed.
Greenleaf (from the hut until breaking out in the open) had deeper snow and a lot of drifting. From breaking out in the open, to Lafayette summit and across to Little Haystack is a mix of deep drifts, bare rocks, snow-crust and ice covered rocks. There is no perfect foot-wear for this section. Pick your "poison" - we stayed with snowshoes.
Franconica Ridge from Little Haystack to the Liberty Spring junction had probably not had any travel since Sunday. Heavily drifted and covered with a few inches of new snow.
We had poor visibility from the hut all the way across to Little Haystack. No real problems as we could see 1 to 2 cairns ahead.
A mild day generally but some wind on Lafayette combined with temps in low teens meant windchill below zero.
Other notes:
We passed a couple of bare-booters on the Old Bridle Path 1/3 of the way to the hut. They didn't even carry snowshoes - not smart but they acknowledged their mistake. I later learned that they turned around 1/4 of a mile from Lafayette summit because of poor visibility (that was a smart decision!). However, it means that some post-holing around the hut should be expected.
We met a Canadian back-packing couple between Liberty and Flume in process of doing a Pemi-loop (clockwise). They broke out the Osseo trail yesterday and plan to finish Saturday.
Nice to meet and chat with Sleeveless and Frank. |
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 | Name: |
LongMark |
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 | E-Mail: |
perfrost@yahoo.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2013-02-13 |
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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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