| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Black Mountain (Benton) , NH |
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 | Trails: |
Black Mountain Trail, Tipping Rock Spur, Chippewa Trail, Lime Kiln Spur |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, August 3, 2019 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Both parking areas are on dirt roads so they’re a bit rough but both roads were in fine shape. Low clearance vehicles should be fine. For the car spot we went out to Rt 25 —>10–>116 but I believe you can just continue on Lime Kiln Road to 116 or 25 and save a lot of time.
Room for maybe a half dozen cars at the Chippewa trailhead and a few more at the Black Mtn trailhead before you’d have an issue. Although it was a Saturday there were hardly any other cars at either trailhead. Note that before reaching the trailhead on Howe Hill Road the road becomes tougher and much narrower (the book says the road gets tougher after the trailhead which, while true, is confusing as the road gets very narrow shortly before it where there is no parking as well). |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
A few trickles here and there. Water is very low now (but unfortunately that may change come Wednesday) so everything was trivial. Water would have to be pretty high to pose a problem on these trails I think. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
I don’t recall any blowdowns but I’m writing this several days after hiking it due to a busy weekend unfortunately. The trails are easy to follow and both were blazed in yellow I think although not always frequently or well (we noticed a lot of fading blaze). The beginning of Chippewa Trail that goes around the Beaver wetlands could be trimmed back. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Saw one lady with two dogs coming down the Black Mtn Trail on our way up. The dogs didn’t respond to her commands very well and one inadvertently ran into one of us. Please either leash your dogs or have them on voice command (the vast majority of dogs I meet while hiking do not really listen to their owners...) |
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 | Bugs: |
I don’t recall many but we all used bug spray at the car before starting our hike. I picked up one tick on me which I noticed on the car ride back. I imagine I got it either during the brushy section of Chippewa trail that goes around the wetlands or when heading over to the Lime Kilns (grassy). Since I was the only one that did the lime kilns and the only one to find a tick on me it was probably the latter. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
We all really enjoyed this hike :) I found both Chippewa Trail and Black Mtn Trail to be enjoyable. Chippewa Trail is more scenic but steeper and both have mostly good and soft footing. Watch out for all the slippery pine needles on Chippewa Trail though; I didn’t and fell! It was nice to see so little mud. This seems to be the driest the Whites have been in a long time! I don’t know the type of rock, but it’s the sort of rock that’s always slippery and it was on the upper part of Black Mtn Trail where the trail is a bit tougher. We were happy to ascend the more moderate way and descend the steeper way (and save more views for the end!)
I had a lot of trouble finding Tipping Rock. When you come onto the ledges the main view towards Moosilauke is right in front of you or a bit towards your right. I imagine this is where lost people stop and eat lunch. There are some remnants of the tower and what I thought looked like faded yellow blaze on rocks making me think this was the spur to Tipping Rock. It was not. Further towards your right there is a herd path but it’s in the wrong direction (Tipping Rock Spur travels east as mentioned in the guidebook). That herd path leads to more ledges with a great view and I highly recommend you check it out!! On your left, you can walk east towards Franconia Ridge. This is where the spur begins and enters the scrub although I found it very hard to find. The first time I went over there everything seemed to dead end so I eventually went to the other viewpoints in search of it. Once you walk along the ledges east towards Franconia Ridge, I believe it entered some scrub on the right. When there’s some uprooted trees down to your left and the spur seems to disappear, head right again into brush. It briefly heads into trees and then comes onto ledges again with no indication of which way to go. Go forward and curve around to your right and there’s Tipping Rock! A small rock has been placed underneath it to stabilize it but it can still rock a bit.
For my fellow redlinerers...
The two view spurs on ledges on the Chippewa Trail: I definitely got one of them but not sure about the other. Descending, I found one on the left that was obvious enough when looking and was 30 yards as the book described. Awhile thereafter (it seemed a bit too far) I found a much fainter path to the left that led to a kinda sorta ledge with a bit of a view but it was a bit longer than 30 yards so I’m not sure if that was the right one.
I also had trouble finding the Lime Kilns 😂 I misinterpreted the book to mean that there was a sign on Trail for them which there is not. The sign is 90 yards off the trial along the logging road. So when you get to the T-intersection of the logging road 0.2mi from the Chippewa trailhead go left if ascending and right if descending. 90 yards along this there’s supposed to be a sign for the Lime Kilns but I didn’t see one. Didn’t quite seem like 90 yards either so I continued when I saw another logging road enter instead of hearing right like the book describes and I should have. Ended up finding a very cool and very tall chimney on someone’s property though 😂😂 I eventually realized my mistake and found the Lime Kilns. Impressive stuff! |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2019-08-06 |
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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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