| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
North Twin Mountain, South Twin Mountain, Galehead Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Forest road, Haystack Road, North Twin Trail, North Twin Spur, Twinway, Frost Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Gale River Trail, Gale River Road, Beaver Brook XC ski trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Beaver Brook lot was easily passable but a rough ride- lots of frozen ruts- seems like it only gets plowed after major (4-6"+) storms, so it's built up quite a layer of hardpack after a number of smaller snowfalls |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All bridged and easy to cross |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Removed a couple of blowdowns on North Twin trail, will be back in the spring to take care of a couple of leaners (still high enough to easily get under, even with additional snowpack) and do a bunch of brushing at higher elevations. North Twin Spur could use some fresh blazes, a few hard to follow spots where the trail was completely drifted in. Removed a couple of small leaners from Frost trail, and cleared a sizeable blowdown on Gale River trail. Still a handful of leaners along most of the route, but either high enough or big enough that I didn't feel the need to mess with them today- nothing remaining substantially impedes traffic at this point or in the foreseeable future |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Had a lovely day in the woods today! Parked a car at Beaver Brook, and then got dropped off at the end of Little River Rd. Area got an inch or two of fresh powder overnight, but everything up to North Twin was pretty well packed underneath the "heavy dusting," aside from some drifting up at higher elevations. Bare booted from the car to the 3rd river crossing (followed the "bushwhack" to avoid the first two crossings- doesn't look like ANYONE has crossed all three in quite some time) then donned snowshoes for the rest of the journey. North Twin spur was pretty well drifted in, unsure when it last saw foot traffic, but at least it's broken out for now, though still pretty unconsolidated and definitely warrants snowshoes. Twinway from the summit of South Twin to Galehead hut was also unbroken, except for a set of (slightly older) knee- to mid-thigh deep postholes the whole way! Did what we could to try to fill them in along the way, but it'll probably take a bit more snowshoe traffic and maybe even a good freeze-thaw cycle to fully fix that mess... there were a few wider spots where I opted to just break an entirely new line as that seemed like the better option instead of trying to fix the postholed mess! Frost trail and Gale River trail were both in pretty good shape, much like North Twin trail was- hard packed, with an inch or two of fresh powder on top. A few wayward postholes off to the sides here and there, but nothing to get excited about. Met two other pairs of hikers at the hut, one pair said they had followed us all the way up and over North Twin, and the other pair had just come up Gale River trail- Great chatting with all of you! |
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 | Name: |
Zippy |
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 | E-Mail: |
hikerzippy@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2023-02-08 |
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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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