| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Stairs Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Rocky Branch Road, Rocky Branch Trail, Stairs Col Trail, Davis Path, Stairs Spur, bushwhacks |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Wednesday, September 24, 2014 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parked at a modest parking area before a closed gate roughly 2 miles below the regular trailhead. The road in is okay. The bridge repair still has a ways to go; the concrete supports at either end are in along with the metal bridge spans, but they were working on the latter today. Decking hasn't started and it looks like a lot of concrete work is to come before then. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Rock hops. Rocky Branch is pretty low right now and hiking in it was fun and easy. Any other stream was small and easily crossed. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Rocky Branch trail to shelter mostly okay and fast with just a few old paint blazes and a couple of arrows. Stairs Col & Davis Path trail mostly okay. They do have some very slippery rocks/ledge in a few places. All signs in place. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Fun day for Pepper; water available all day long except for the upper Stairs Col, Davis Path and spur. There were lots of squeaky toys on the trails. We saw only one other hiker on the trails, heading into the shelter on our hike out, so he pretty much was free to do as he pleased. He is so nimble and fast on the rocks/boulders, he had plenty of wait time to sit and watch how slow a 2 legged creature is in comparison. |
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 | Bugs: |
One; who is no longer with us. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Pepper redlined Rocky to and including Stairs Col, and after a quick hike to Stairs we went exploring the rest of the day. Rocky Branch between the shelters is still closed; we "bluelined" Rocky Branch on our way upstream with easy rock hops, seeing the incredible amount of damage Irene did. There were periodic huge half dams of trees and rocks washed down from eroded banks; the latter ranging from a few feet in height to a few hundred. The biggest was awesome to see. We got up to near the shelter this way, but I wasn't sure where we were (although with an altimeter and map I figured we were pretty close) so we then climbed a bank and found the old trail and shortly we were at the second shelter with its leaky roof. On the hike back we explored damage to the old trail itself and older roads off it, and what appeared to be new trail options. There are several sections where the trail was washed way quite a distance, a few where it is blocked by the washed up debris "dams". We've checked out Irene caused damage on many trails this summer, but this had some of the "best". We had a ball hopping around all the rocks/boulder in Rocky Branch and figuring ways around the debris in other places; Pepper sippin n dippin whenever he wanted. It seemed odd that our normal mindset for Isolation via Rocky Branch is to be wary of the crossings, and here we were easily hiking right up the stream, with way better views than those from the woods on either side . The foliage is still well below peak in general, but it still was beautiful from the stream. The views from Stairs were special too although several summits were hidden in the clouds. What a great day and hike to take off from work. This is such a great time of the year. Thanks Pepper! |
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 | Name: |
Pepper and Me |
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 | E-Mail: |
windriversjohn at gmail dot com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2014-09-24 |
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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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