| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Wildcat D, Wildcat C, Wildcat B, Wildcat A, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Ski trails, Wildcat Ridge Trail, Nineteen Mile Brook Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, March 16, 2014 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Mostly full lot in the morning at 19-Mile Brook Trail, empty by 2PM. Lots of parking at Wildcat Ski Area. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow - Drifts, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All well snow bridged, but they have footbridges normally anyway. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
In pretty good shape. One spot shortly below the slide heading down to the notch from Wildcat A was tough to follow, but those ahead if us found a workable route that we followed. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
No dogs allowed on the ski trails. The rest of the route would be fine right now for experienced trail dogs. |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Spotted a car at 19-Mile Brook and headed up Stray Cat/Polecat ski trails to D peak (payed our $10 per the rules). Pretty crusty conditions overall on the ski slopes, our snowshoes barely left an imprint. The ridge trail was well broken overall, but unconsolidated, snowshoes absolutely required even with the cold temps. Some minor drifts to break back out. The trail down to Carter Notch from Wildcat A was badly postholed, 12" and deeper postholes almost the whole way down, seems to have been from Saturday. Why wouldn't you wear snowshoes after the large snowstorm??? We smoothed it out some, but the footing was awful even in snowshoes... The slide crossing was drifted in, but we broke it back out, just took some care to ensure our footing was solid. 19-Mile Brook Trail was a packed super-highway as expected, the few folks we saw were barebooting without trouble.
A fast day thanks to those before us on Saturday. We didn't see any other hikers on the ridge, just the 3 of us. Windy and chilly, but on the ridge we were mostly sheltered and fine. A great day out, and a pleasure to be present for Denise's SSW48 finish! |
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 | Name: |
madmattd |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2014-03-16 |
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 | Link: |
 https://mattshikes.blogspot.com |
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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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