| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Trident Mountain, Bald Cap, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Sinclair Trail, bushwhacks, Mahoosuc Trail, Peabody Brook Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, June 11, 2016 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
we parked at the trailhead for peabody brook trail just across the road from the trails start. room for a couple cars. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
only significant crossing of note on route is that of peabody brook fairly close to the start of the trail which was not a problem today. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
ladder on peabody brook trail is getting pretty rotten and a couple steps have failed. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
some mosquitoes at lower elevation. picked up one tick on overgrown portion of sinclair trail. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
we started up peabody brook trail and quickly took a left onto the sinclair trail. the lower part of this trail, up to roughly 1400 feet is a nice well conditioned logging road that very much approximates the route of the trail shown on usgs maps. after passing through a few log landings and gaining a fair amount of elevation the newer road ends the old trail leaves uphill to the right out of a landing where there is a large pile of slash in a sag just ahead. the trail becomes grassy and overgrown in spots, but is very clear and easy to follow and it soon improbably cuts its way across a very steep slope before turning in the direction of page pond. there are numerous splits for other old trails/roads, but the main trail is generally pretty clear. footing was wet and increasingly muddy. up around 2100, a bit past the a.t. corridor boundary, the trail begins to disappear and we took a line on page pond and started bushwhacking. we soon regained what was likely the trail for a short stretch before losing it completely. woods were fairly open and it didn't take long to reach page pond.
from the pond we followed the mahoosuc trail west for a couple minutes to get past a small bump east of trident mountain then started a bushwhack north between trident and the bump in order to wrap around the north side of trident for the ascent. this was to avoid the very steep woods and cliffs along the south and east sides of the peak. the woods were open and heavily moose travelled and once we reached the saddle we started winding around the peak until we hit milder woods on its north side. some hobblebush and scrappy spruce higher up on the nice mellow ascent up to the recognized highpoint. nearby are some limited but nice ledge/cliff views to the wild river area.
we descended the same route and once back on the mahoosuc trail followed it to wocket ledge. the trail was in good shape with little mud and it was fairly dry, though that changed tonight given the rain. we decided to bushwhack to bald cap from wocket ledge which yielded surprisingly nice results with pretty openly spaced evergreens and loads of moose paths. some areas of blowdown and scrappiness, but generally good going up to the recognized highpoint.
leaving the summit we tried cutting east/southeast back towards the mahoosuc trail and found a fair amount of swampy areas that pushed us farther north than we may have liked. once past the swampy spots the drop down to the mahoosuc trail was a bit steep for a stretch, but woods were reasonable and we were soon back on the trail. peabody brook trail was in great shape though with rain starting the numerous rocks steps and some ledgey areas got pretty slippery. this also made the lower section of the trail where it follows grassy logging roads quite wet as well.
this turned out to be a great loop. sinclair trail was a last minute decision and it ended up being much more pleasant and hikable than expected. we were glad we went up it given the grassy, rocky, muddy footing. it is certainly a great shortcut to reach the page pond area though be ready to route find especially for the last 1/4 mile or so to the pond. |
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 | Name: |
bryan, Nordic Gal |
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 | E-Mail: |
bryancuddihee@yahoo.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2016-06-11 |
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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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