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Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Carter Dome, NH
Trails
Trails: East Branch Trail, Wild River Trail, Black Angel Trail, Carter-Moriah Trail, Rainbow Trail
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Saturday, August 17, 2019
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: Only car there at 8am and 7:45pm. Many cars at pullouts on the drive in that were camping. It’s a long drive to East Branch Trail. Park in a large dirt turnaround. The road in is a rough dirt road but very doable for probably any car. Towards the beginning? Watch for large potholes in the road you’ll want to avoid if in a smaller car. Closer to the trailhead watch for small rocks protruding from the road. The road goes over a “bridge-like” thing next to a small pond. The surface is down entirely to rock so I recommend you go very slowly over that particularly if in a smaller car.  
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment:  
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Nothing you had to wade through deeper than average boot height. Some were rock hops but some required getting part of my boots wet. The ones on East Branch Trail are small but don’t always have rocks to hop across on. Crossings above cascades usually scare me a bit but the one on Wild River was a fairly small cascade and you could just step over it.  
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: All the trails I was on other than Carter-Moriah Trail could use brushing. Wild River and East Branch probably the most so then followed by Rainbow, then Black Angel. Several blowdowns throughout this route obviously. Don’t remember where many were but Black Angel seemed to have the most and were the biggest pain (not quite as nice as I remember it when I did it last year). I don’t remember much undermined trail other than a bit on Black Angel. You’re not going to find much blaze on any of these trails other than Carter-Moriah but an experienced hiker shouldn’t have trouble following them. The treadway is mostly obvious; the trails are just overgrown.  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: Didn’t see any but I imagine most highly skilled and experienced hiking dogs could do it:  
Bugs
Bugs: A couple mosquitos at the car so I put bug spray on at the start but they were hardly any throughout the day. So nice to be mostly rid of bugs! 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found: Picked up what I’m guessing is a small lunchbox. I think it was along Rainbow Trail (either that or Wild River Trail between Perkins Notch and East Branch Trail.  
 
Comments
Comments: Big lollipop loop today: East Branch Trail —> Wild River Trail —> Black Angel Trail —> Carter-Moriah Trail to Carter Dome —> Rainbow Trail —> Wild River Trail —> East Branch Trail. 21-21.5 miles with about 4600ft of elevation gain.

I was a bit scared to do this hike on my own for fear of following Wild River Trail but it was a much nicer trail than I anticipated. Overgrown but the treadway is pretty obvious and certainly no more overgrown than the sections of Kilkenny Ridge Trail and other trails around the Berlin Fish Hatchery that I’ve done recently. Things were a bit wet from rain the night before so I got a bit wet on East Branch and Wild River in the morning but not bad. Thick cloud and mist made for a similar situation on Rainbow Trail.

East Branch is overgrown at times but easy enough to follow. Just incredibly muddy and wet at times. There are some nasty mud pits towards the beginning of the trail that people talk about the nastiest section is between the height-of-land and the jct of Wild River Trail where you cross a boggy area. The trail has nice grades and starts out with nice soft footing but the section where you climb to the height-of-land has rough, rocky footing which was wet and nasty on the way back down. Wild River, has nice grades and good footing throughout. Just overgrown with some mud and rotten bog bridges. Black Angel has mostly nice grades like I remember but seems to have many more blowdowns and is more overgrown than I remember it last year. Nothing of note on the short section of CMT I was on. Rainbow is nice enough but is also getting pretty overgrown. The birch section was very nice even like everyone says even in the mist :)

Cloudy most of the morning but partway up Black Angel I got some sun and blue skies. Then back into the clouds as I continued up until the CMT where it looked like we might get views westward (there seemed to be a thick cloud east) but alas no views at the summit. It misted on me a bit on the summit and down Rainbow Trail but that was the closest to rain I got all day :) No thunder either!  
Name
Name: Liam Cooney 
E-Mail
E-Mail: liamcooney96@gmail.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2019-08-19 
Link
Link: https:// 
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