| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Galehead Mountain, North Twin Mountain, South Twin Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Gale River Road, Gale River Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Frost Trail, Twinway, North Twin Spur |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, January 1, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parked across from gate at start of road. 5 cars here, might be able to hold 12. There were about 15 cars at the gate on the other end of the road for Garfield Tr with room for 2-4 more |
|
 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Ice - Black, Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Ice - Breakable Crust |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction |
|
 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Crossings on Gale River Tr are all rock hops but be careful for weak ice. Definitely some melt observed between morning and afternoon |
|
 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
A few blowdowns on Gale River Tr. Not sure if they are hand saw or require axe/chainsaw |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
N/A |
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 | Bugs: |
N/A |
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 | Lost and Found: |
N/A |
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|
 | Comments: |
Road walk was almost bare ground. Put spikes on above the bluff 3+ miles up the trail and was able to navigate both crossings without spikes. Wore them all the way across the ridges and then back down to the road as it melted enough to freeze some nice patches of blue/black ice -which I couldn't really see at dusk- down low. Well packed up to Galehead and South Twin summits. A weird cross between monorail and unconsolidated powder over to North Twin. A guy doing a counterclockwise Pemi Loop had some trouble with postholing between South Twin and Guyot; we ran into another guy going up South Twin who was going to stay at Guyot shelter with snowshoes so this section should be partially packed. We did a short test run on the section of Garfield Ridge Tr west of the Gale River Tr jct to see if we wanted to go attempt or summit Garfield and there was only a couple sets of footprints and we were divoting/postholing too much for our liking. The fact that I broke out my trail runners for today helped make this a short side trip. The ice is pretty soft where it's exposed up high and there is grippy moderately well packed snow so descent back down South Twin wasn't to challenging. The pow monorail cross over to North Twin was already starting to look pretty rough after a bunch of people were on it with spikes today so needs to get repacked well with snowshoes after the snow tomorrow. |
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 | Name: |
Heat Lightning |
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 | E-Mail: |
ecs@mountainlogworks.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-01-01 |
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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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