| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Clough, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Tunnel Brook Trail, bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, May 14, 2022 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Despite what the FS May say, Long Pond Rd is gated from the south. It’s open from the north but only to the pond. We parked roadside at its jct with High St. plenty of room to pull off there for our handful of cars. More there when we returned. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
The water crossings along Tunnel Brook Trail were a bit tricky to get across in trail runners without getting my feet wet but weren’t dangerous or difficult. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
I don’t recall any blowdowns on Tunnel Brook Trail but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any ;P I don’t recall the blazing hut it’s not hard to follow in this section although the treadway is on the lighter side. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Dogs may struggle some in the blowdown patches but Tunnel Brook Trail is a good trail for them. We had one small-medium sized dog with us and it generally did okay. |
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 | Bugs: |
Not nearly as bad as the day before a little further south. There were around our cars a bit and the found us at the summit but beyond that they didn’t bother us. Black flies. Not too many mosquitos out yet. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Day 195, Peak 187. Great group hike with some friends :)
We hiked in 2mi from our cars (1.7mi along Tunnel Brook Trail) to exactly where the 2200ft contour line is on Gaia to start our whack. Nice to walk along the Tunnel Brook Trail again. I’d only ever been along this section in winter before. It was nice to revisit in a different season :) We took a bearing to the SE ridge and headed into the woods, making our way through hobblebush. We went over one minor ridge before attaining the SE ridge of the peak at 2400ft. We followed this winding ridge uphill the whole way and thoroughly enjoyed it :D Based on NETC reports the vast majority of folks tackle this peak from the SW but I’d highly recommend this approach unless doing the peak in winter. Trip reports from the SW seemed mixed; some pretty bad, some decent, but none great and it seemed like we’d hit thick woods and wet areas at some point. The one (successful) trip report we found for the SE ridge sounded quite pleasant and our experience was the same :)
As we ascended, the woods quickly transitioned, but stayed decently open except for short, moderately thick patches that were quite brief. The ridge is quite steep around 2700-2800ft and gets a bit scrambly but we contoured around easily enough and found a way up. Other than this part toward the beginning of the ridge, grades were easy-moderate which we enjoyed. The woods varied but we’re generally COOL/interesting and decently open. As the ridge began to swing more toward the west, we began to hit some blowdown patches. We worked our way around and/or through them. Truly nothing that bad, plus they provided us with some cool views :) Lots of views over toward Moosilauke and South Peak across the notch on the way up until the blowdown patches where we also got some views west which was nice. Also, lots of moose paths through the woods which we were able to follow which was pretty neat!! Not hard to find the canister which clearly isn’t at the try highpoint. We called the true high point a nearby tree with a herd path to it.
We followed the same route down but meandered from one side of the ridge to the other, myself being congenitally incapable of staying on a ridge downhill. Up high we began to get a hit off course and found ourselves in firs and thicker woods but we corrected. When we hit the 2400ft contour again on our way down, we decided to head more southerly than southeasterly to cut some distance and elevation. We had a great line but hit a wet area just before the steeper descent back to the trail. To our surprise, we saw several groups hiking/running along the Tunnel Brook Trail on our way out.
The hike was about 7.25mi with around 2200ft of gain, taking us just over 5hrs to complete. 170 more days and 178 more peaks to go… |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2022-05-17 |
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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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