| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Deer Mountain - South Peak (Pittsburg), NH |
|
 | Trails: |
Deer Mountain Fire Tower Trail, bushwhack |
|
 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, September 3, 2022 |
|
 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parking lot is off a spur rd of Sophie’s Ln off of Rt 3 in Pittsburg. This is just south of Deer Mountain Campground. The road in is dirt and I wasn’t driving so don’t remember it terribly well but was easily passable with a mid clearance car. Could probably get in or at least to the spur rd with low clearance too. Just some potholes and such. Room for maybe a half dozen or so cars at the trailhead. Despite seeing other groups on the trail as we were coming down, we were the only car there when we returned. Maybe people from the campground do this. One car arrived shortly after we did. |
|
 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
|
 | Recommended Equipment: |
|
|
 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Rock hopable |
|
 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
The trail is marked by blue wooden plants tacked onto trees much like many sections of the CT except blue instead of yellow. No blowdowns that I recall but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any! |
|
 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Sure |
|
 | Bugs: |
None that I recall |
|
 | Lost and Found: |
None |
|
|
|
|
 | Comments: |
Day 307, Peak 285. 1st of the day. Nice to show my parents the north country. We walked up the trail 1.5mi to the point where I’d start my whack. The trail to this point was usually relatively narrow but not badly overgrown at all. A mix of grades but overall quite easy-moderate. A few deep mud pits. Nice trail. I then headed S/SW toward the peak while they continued to the summit and fire tower of Deer Mtn.
I headed due south from the trail climbing steeply up the side of the 3000ft+ bump just off trail briefly. Once I was able to I then contoured along the east side of the bump. Woods weren’t great but not horrible either. A bearing was certainly very important as it’s all pretty flat in here so there’s not too much to follow. Now at the SE corner of this bump I hit a marshy area. I went just to my left (east) to avoid it in the woods. My memory is a bit fuzzy in here but I remember crossing a brook that presumably drains the swamp. Not sure I’m getting this in the right order, but I believe it was soon after that that I poked out the pokey (but not terrible) woods into a fern glade. This seemed to be the start of the barely defined northern ridge of the peak. The walking seemed good here and I enjoyed it for a bit but the woods tightened up again and I eboheb there was some wet areas. Before this, I’d come across some moose paths, but here is where they really showed up and helped! I followed moose paths just west of the spine of this northern ridge most of the way to the peak and was able to move at a decent clip. The woods began to drop off to my right as I approached the peak though so I figured it was time to head right up to it. Unfortunately I quickly meant this meant swimming in some spruce. I came to a locally high knob before coming to the true summit. Luckily I didn’t have any trouble finding the register. Took me just under 1hr to get here from the trail.
I heard blasting or shooting signs from the summit that didn’t sound far off. I don’t think there’s any camps or anything around here so really not sure what it was. Sounded close though. I yelled a few times but no response. I even considered that maybe it was a moose or something breaking twigs and such through the woods but didn’t sound quite right. Anyway, after signing in I took a bearing and headed back. I came off the summit just east of my ascent line. There seemed to be a steep drop and very thick woods to my right so I got pushed back over to the west pretty quickly. I then diverged east again on the other side of the spine. Similar walking in that I had moose paths but the footing seemed a bit wetter if memory serves correctly and, at the end of this section, I walked through a swampy area where my feet got soaked. Then it was back through the ferns, then cross the brook, then some pokey woods back toward the SE corner of the 3000ft+ bump just south of the trail. Since the woods weren’t great over there anyway, I thought I saw better walking below me, and I might as well come out lower on the trail, I decided to diverge from my ascent line here and follow closer to a small drainage down. This didn’t prove to be very nice. Some thick woods and brush. Came out 0.1mi below where I left the trail.
I was going to run up to the main summit of Deer Mtn after this but since the whack took me longer than expected and I didn’t want my folks waiting on me, I just headed back down the trail. Ran into them shortly before we got back to the car. Nice trail but not the nicest whack. That said, there’s plenty worse! The hike was about 5mi with 1100ft of gain. 58 more days and 80 more peaks to go… |
|
 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
|
 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
|
| Date Submitted: |
2022-09-05 |
|
 | Link: |
 https:// |
|
|
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. |
|
