| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Black Crescent - South Peak, Black Crescent, Black Crescent - North Peak, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Peak Path, Cook Path, bushwhack, ATV trails |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, June 1, 2025 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Spotted a car at the end of Corbin St. Space enough to pull off the road just shy of the gate. Started at the Randolph Community Forest parking area. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Champ and Tucker had a great day, although the ATV trails were decidedly less fun for them. |
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 | Bugs: |
Nasty. Head net for most of the day. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Followed Peek Path then Cook Path to Hunter's Pass where we started our whack. We aimed to hit the eastern ridge of BC-South, and this was the big mistake of the day. Woods were not great, but not awful getting up to the ridge, but the ridge itself was truly awful - swimming in spruce. The last 2/10th of a mile took us close to 20 minutes, but we did finally break free of the nasty spruce, just shy of the summit.
Not wanting to retrace steps through the spruce, we opted to descend NNE to around 2750, aiming to bypass to the west, the subpeak before Crescent. The initial descent off BC-South was steep, with sketchy footing and some cliff bands to avoid, but still much better than the sprucy eastern ridge. It flattened out shortly and became a sea of medium-height hobblebush as far as you could see in every direction. We fought through that and ended up skirting the subpeak just slightly to the west at around 2850ft. After this subpeak, the woods got much better. The long, winding SW ridge up Crescent was quite lovely for much of it - though we did hit a blowdown patch about where it starts to pivot northwards. We stayed to the west of the blowdowns patch, below the true spine of the ridge, which worked great. Found the National Forrest boundary sign and red blazes, which we followed on and off to the summit of BC. Only trick is the cannister is facing north on a tree, so we had to walk past it, then look backwards to find it.
From BC we followed a direct bearing to BC - North, which took us only about 45 mins in mostly open woods. As we approached the summit of BC - North, we found a distinct herd path which helped but also disappeared at points. Cannister here also facing north/west to we had to go past it then turn around.
From BC-North, we descended NNE, aiming to intersect with the ATV trail 'Top Loop' as shown on the Jericho Mt State Park trail map and visible on sat imagery. It was a sketchy descent, on poor footing and in thick woods at times, but took us about 35 mins, short enough to make me think it was still the right choice. We hit the loop around the southern tip and followed it counterclockwise to the overlook trail -> Wyman's Way. From sat imagery, I though there was an old road we could follow SE, hovering between 1900 & 2000ft to the town forest boundary, which we could follow to Corridor A, but we never found that old road. Realized the issue at the intersection of Wyman's Way and Camp Loop Rd (129). Whacking from here over to Corr A did not look fun (dense, younger growth), so we followed the trail north until the S curve where it goes east briefly before turning back north, parallel and close to Cor A. At the turn north, we whacked over to Corr A, on a really faint old skidder road, visible on some sat imagery.
Up to this point, we had seen only a handful of ATVs, and the unpleasant dust clouds they created. Corr A was the highway for ATVs, with probably 50 passing us (on a Friday no less). This plus dust clouds plus the sun bearing down made this not so fun. Nevertheless, we made it just shy of the HOL and started our whack to Sugar Mt. Short & easy whack, although finding the cannister was tricky on the flatish summit area. It's northwest of where I would have expected it to be.
We whacked back to Corr A. Following it east until an intersection around 1700ft, where thankfully we turned left (twice) and past a gate that meant no more ATVs! This was now a pleasant old road - probably driveable if it weren't gated at both ends. We followed it all the way back to the gate at the end of Corbin St.
About 7 hours in total, of which 2:45 were after BC-N. All-in-all I think it was an efficient way to get these 4 peaks. If I were doing it again, I would try a different route up BC-S and would wait for a rainy day to minimize the ATVs and the dust they kick up. |
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 | Name: |
Big Al Dente |
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 | E-Mail: |
bigaldentenh@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2025-06-28 |
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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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