| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Jefferson, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Lowe's Path, Randolph Path, Gulfside, Jefferson Loop, Castle Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, June 9, 2019 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Plenty of parking at both Castle trailhead and Lowe's Store. Lowe's Store charges $2 to park there, which we happily paid. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Snow/Ice - Small Patches |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
On the route we hiked, the only major water crossing was on Castle Trail at the very end of the hike, 0.4 miles from the trailhead. One hiker found a way to cross slightly downstream of the trail that kept his boots dry. Since it was so close to the end of the hike, I just walked straight through the water (which was perfectly safe, as long as you don't mind getting your boots wet). We met another hiker who had come up Castle Ravine Trail, and she said the crossings on that trail required boots to get wet. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Very few blowdowns - there was evidence in several places of fairly recent blowdown clearing. All trails were fairly straightforward to follow. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Castle Trail has several scrambles and lots of sharp rocks - I wouldn't recommend taking dogs that way. The rest of the trails could probably be done by an agile, highly experienced dog, but a dog that isn't both of those things would probably have issues. It seems that other hikers came to the same conclusions, since we didn't see a single dog on the trails today |
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 | Bugs: |
They were out and hungry for most of the hike. Slightly less bad at the higher elevations, but the summit area of Jefferson had an enormous number of bugs that seemed to like me a lot. And they weren't just black flies and mosquitoes. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
Nada. |
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 | Comments: |
What an amazing, difficult, and strenuous hike! Our original plan was to take Castle Ravine Trail up, but the report from a few days ago that said the stream crossings were not rock-hoppable convinced us to use Lowe's and Randolph Paths instead. Lowe's Path was nice - gradual at the beginning, then steeper (but never especially difficult). Randolph Path is fairly gradual but is extremely rough - you're not going to make up any time on it. It was great to visit Edmands Col - a place I've wanted to visit for a while, and even better to do it on such a nice day with very little wind. Gulfside south from Edmands Col is steep. The only snow we encountered on any of the trails was on Gulfside just north of the Mt. Jefferson Loop junction - it was a large, steadily melting snowdrift. There are clear tracks across it, and it's easily crossable without traction. Mt. Jefferson Loop is a pretty standard summit cone trail - moderately steep and with a lot of rock-hopping. The summit had practically no wind, and as is mentioned above, was very buggy.
Castle Trail is really a Jeckyll-and-Hyde trail. The upper 1.5 miles, from the summit down to the Link junction, is mostly above treeline, is extremely rough, involves a very large amount of strenuous rock-hopping, and will take much longer than you expect. The lower 3.5 miles, however, is much easier - even the steep section going down from Mt. Bowman wasn't anywhere near as bad as the upper part. The upper 1.5 miles took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to descend. The lower 3.5 miles took us 2 hours and 5 minutes to descend.
Thanks so much Melissa, Diane, and Dana for joining me on this hike! 10.5 miles, approximately 4,400 vertical feet of climbing, a little bit over 10 hours. The weather was perfect - it's the season for above-treeline hiking in the Presidentials! |
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 | Name: |
GN |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2019-06-09 |
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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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