| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Goose Eye Mountain (attempt), NH |
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 | Trails: |
Bull Branch Road, Wright Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, January 5, 2020 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
We met at Sunday River and left my FWD car and took my friends 4WD car as far down the road as we could. We heard from someone that broke Trail on Friday that the road was plowed to 1.7mi if the trailhead. Same case on Sunday. The plowing stopped just after you turned left into Bull Branch Rd over the little bridge. We parked right next to what looked like a summer residence. Not sure whether or not a 2WD car would have made it this far. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow - Drifts |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
No problem crossing Goose Eye Brook. Mostly snowed over. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
The trail is blazed in blue. While the blazes past the tentsite as you ascend the switchbacks and gain the ridge towards treeline are fresh as fairly frequent, the blazes down low are often faded and a bit more spread apart. More of a faded, light blue that doesn’t stand out as much. We only stopped a couple of times to look around to see which way the trail went and it was often because the snowshoe tracks from Friday went two different ways indicating they had a little trouble following the unbroken trail. Of particular note is the alternate route at the beginning of fbe trail that descends to the left to the brook. While walking along the brook is very pretty, this did not seem like a trail at times. While there was prolific blaze in a spot or two (most likely because there was no semblance of a trail otherwise) it was so overgrown at a point or two that we couldn’t believe it was a trail. It had us going right through small bushes and trees. Very weird. A few spots like this and mostly towards the beginning. Later on, it became tinker trailike and actually had something resembling a corridor. There were several blowdowns at least one of which was a large one you had to crawl under. One smaller one on the switchbacks either forced you to squeeze through to the left of it (ascending) between some trees (doesn’t look doable at first glance but it’s actually the easier way) or go to your right through very deep powder with spruce traps to go around if. At least a few others on or roght beside the trail at least one of which you can just go around. Nothing very difficult impeding travel. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Deep unbroken powder and drifts higher up that may be too much for a dog. Also, may have been too cold and windy a day for most dogs (and people!). |
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 | Bugs: |
None |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Goose Eye has been on my list for awhile and the Wright Trail seemed like the best option for me for this time of year so I was very excited to redline the Wright Trail with my friend. Unfortunately, when I’d looked at the weather earlier in the week, I’d assumed Sunday would be the nicer day given that it wasn’t as likely to snow/rain as Saturday even if it’d be windier and colder. Well Saturday night I looked for closely at the weather and saw just how cold and windy it’d be. I almost suggested to my friend we do something lower and totally below treeline but it felt it was too late so I just went with it realizing we’d likely be turning around at treeline and that’s precisely what we did. In retrospect, I should have changed our plans as this really wasn’t doable given the predicted wind and the fact I have an annoying chad now.
Anyway, the road walk felt long, especially on the way out when I suddenly got rather tired after not feeling like I excepted myself much all day. We passed a very cool snowman ;) The roadwalk is fairly flat and it’s nice to walk along the water (I swear I smelled a beachhead, seaweed smell). A big reason we did this hike Sunday was because I knew it had been broken out to the jct with the AT by two hikers on Friday. They did not do the alternate route down to the water though so we broke that out before joining back up with the main trail. The trial has easy to moderate grades mostly with just a couple steeper pitches thrown in along the way to the tentiste. While there snowshoe tracks were well defined initially, they became obscured well before I thought they would. I knew they’d be blown over with all the wind above treeline and I figured we’d start to see that shortly after the tentsite but their tracks has actually blown in for stretches a ways before the tentiste. Also, although I don’t think it ever truly snowed there Sunday it felt like it constantly was as Saturday night’s powder was constantly getting blown off of the trees.
So we began essentially re-breaking trail at times shortly before the tentiste. Beyond the tentiste deep powder and drifts began to appear right in sync with steeper grades which made for some challenging snowshoeing. The grade moderates significantly after you gain the ridge. I really enjoyed the section between the ridge and treeline. It gets steep again right before ou brbeak treeline.
We stopped there to fuel and gear up foolishly thinking we could attempt to hike on for 10mins before turning around. The ind immediately told us otherwise as we ventured beyond treeline. I’m guessing that gusts were 80+mph and although the wind did die down occasionally to what might resemble “normal winds†they were pretty sustained above 50mph at least. I’d guess wind was mostly between 60-70mph. The gusts were the worse I’ve been in and the first time I’ve been knocked over by the wind. We immediately attempted to get back below treeline. My friend thought this was fun; I did not. This was only at 3200ft. I think the wind was stronger than predicted. Guess we weren’t sheltered from the northwest winds like I thought we might...
The descent was steep enough up top to require butt sliding, back/side stepping with snowshoes, or unintentional sliding. I suppose an ice axe would have helped but really isn’t necessary and most people wouldn’t have bothered whipping it out for this brief period of time even if they had one. The rest of the descent was pretty easy although we noted how quickly our tracks had nearly blown over!! We also tried to check out the campsite while there. It looked like there was a short path that led to an open spot about 100ft off trail which I thought was likely a tent platform or renting area. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2020-01-07 |
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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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