| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
North Tripyramid, Middle Tripyramid, South Tripyramid, Mt. Whiteface, Mt. Passaconaway, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Pine Bend Brook Trail, Kate Sleeper Trail, Rollins Trail, Dicey's Mill Trail, Walden Trail, Square Ledge Trail, Oliverian Brook Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, December 15, 2023 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parked at Oliverian Brook Lot, biked to Pine Bend Brook. No cars at either in the morning(8:30am), 1 car still at PBB when I picked up my bike at 5. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Ice - Black, Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Wet/Slippery Rock, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow - Drifts, Snow - Wet/Sticky, Snow/Ice - Postholes, Slush |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Most of the crossings all day were fairly rock hoppable providing you didn't choose a shiny rock, but the first crossing coming down the Passaconaway Cutoff, you're going to have to step on some ~6" deep rocks. This is about 2.5 miles from the Oliverian Brook lot. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Dragged a birch tree off Pine Bend Brook trail. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Coming down the backside of Passaconaway has a lot of challenging ice/rocks/steep terrain. I was glad to have opposable appendages to utilize trees. |
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 | Bugs: |
I saw a moth... |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
A day full of type 2 fun. Parked at Oliverian Brook, biked to Pine Bend Brook. Maybe 3 cars passed me on the Kanc during the 3 mile ride. Bare booted up PBB until the Wilderness sign at ~2500' then put on Hillsounds when it started to get steep. You definitely want traction for this section as there are some decent icy sections. You could make the case for starting out with the traction on as the "easy stopover" crossings are a little less easy due to ice rocks. After Middle Tri the trail become much less traveled/packed and snowshoes would have been best but I stayed with spikes for descending the S. slide. I switched to snowshoes at the first Kate Sleeper sign but forgot there was still another slide section after that. Snow on the slide was soft and sticky, no issues. Initially, I thought someone had tried to bare boot the KS trail, but eventually realized the post holes were moose tracks...once I passed East Sleeper the trail was a mess of Moosalicious tracks until the beginning of the ascent to Whiteface where there were no tracks at all. Very glad to see the Rollins trail sign, and continued in snowshoes to the summit of Passaconaway. Switched to spikes for the descent down the Walden Trail, which was a bit treacherous in spots with ice/rocks/snow on some steep terrain. In places, a slip would be consequential. Was glad to get to the Square ledge trail which had no tracks and more reasonable terrain, so switched back to snowshoes. Unfortunately, once I hit the Passaconaway cutoff trail, there started to be extended sections of bare, wet, sometimes rocky or icy trail, then back to snow. Was beating up the snowshoes, so I switched to bare boots for the rest of the way as the bare sections became more frequent. If I were to do it again, I'd go the other direction in order to ascend the OB/Sq. Ledge/Walden section and come down Pine Bend Brook trail. Only saw 1 other hiker the whole day on the Rollins trail. Some pics of the trail in the link. |
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 | Name: |
Borealis |
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 | E-Mail: |
kdwelch1@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2023-12-15 |
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 | Link: |
 https://www.strava.com/activities/10386850560 |
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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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