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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks North Twin Mountain, South Twin Mountain, Galehead Mountain, NH
Trails
Trails: Herd path, Haystack Road, North Twin Trail, North Twin Spur, Twinway, Frost Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Gale River Trail, Gale River Road, Beaver Brook XC ski trail
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: Well we were the only one to park on little river road and the car spotted at beaver brook rec area had tractor trailers in for the night when we returned. So no issues 
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable) 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Snowshoes, Light Traction 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Well we crossed the 3rd crossing on north twin trail over a solid snowbridge (there were two of them to choose from) then there is a wooden bridge with the middle broken om gale river trail, the 2 river crossings on gale river trail were solid snow bridges as well. 
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: Gale river trail has numerous blowdowns that need to be cleared. You can walk around or through a lot of them. Some do need a saw and one large tree trunk would need a chainsaw. 
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: Could have if they can do the distance.  
Bugs
Bugs:  
Lost and Found
Lost and Found: Saw none and lost none 
 
Comments
Comments: Well we got out to a later start but we headed off after 8am. We crossed the bridge that says private drive and took the immediate left on an obvious trail. We saw no one out and the recent weather showed no to very little use. We went in spikes as the trail had a layer of hard crust on top. We almost floated on top, but when you would take a step it would slip because of fluffy under the hard crust. The herdpath/trail was just a little over a mile to the trailhead. From here we took off on north twin trail. So no sign of anyone on it, but if you walked off the monorail you couldn't see-you would post hole from 6"-18" up higher. Once we hit the first water crossing it was guessing but found the herdpath that avoids them on the left. I believe i found where the firewardens trail left as there was a short broken tree and if you looked a little higher you can see a tree that was clearly chainsawed at one point. Ww kept pushing on and finally came out on the trail again. Well we got to the water crossing and there seemed to be two solid snowbridges. We went the most direct but clearly not most traveled since we post holed once we were on the otherside. We threw on our snowshoes from here on out. This was a good idea sowe didn't have to get that double step slipping anymore. Once we finally hit above tree line we bundled up and kept on going with no views. It had been lightly snowing since we started til almost the top of n twin. It was fast moving over to south twin. We were shocked the little amount of wind on north compared to south. We were up there for a short minute because of the wind and the very bitter cold. The next .9 down to the hut was not the greatest. I was in front and was getting some traction on the light crust on top, and the other two were half sliding/skiing because there was nothing to trully grip on after that. We took a break at the hut and me and suzanne dropped our packs and took off while beardo relaxed and then headed off as he already had galhead. It was a quick trip up and back to the top. Grabbed our packs and met up with beardo at the galehead junction. We threw our headlamps on just afrer 5 for the looonnng way out. A wood bridge middle beam was broken and two solid snow bridges on the trail. We came to the end of the trail and took a right, then a left til we saw the next campsite. Took a right into the campsitee and walked on the herdpath to the left until it hit the xc ski trails. There was only a few inches on the ground here. Funny enough only 2 snowshoers had been on the xc ski trail that day. From the trailhead to the truck it was 1.18 miles. We ended finally! No views today but great company.  
Name
Name: Danielle, Beardo, Suzanne 
E-Mail
E-Mail: Navychik72@yahoo.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2017-01-26 
Link
Link: https:// 
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