| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Hale, Zealand Mountain, Mt. Guyot, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Herd path, North Twin Trail, Fire Wardens Trail, Lend-A-Hand Trail, Twinway, Zealand Spur |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, February 20, 2017 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Little River Road and Beaver Brook both nicely cleared with ample parking |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All easy |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
A few blowdown walk-under/around blowdowns on Lend-a-Hand, more on the Twinway between Zeacliff and Guyot, though the impact of the latter is exacerbated by the treadway's elevation into the canopy. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
The plan was to hike Hale, the Twins and Galehead.
The FWT was largely a manicured sidewalk, though snowshoes enabled us to avoid post holing.
L-a-H was quite choppy (it appeared as though a solo snowshoe-er had been through ahead of us) and firm enough that we couldn't smooth much of the chop.
Twinway from the hut to Zeacliff was beautifully broken out, and an AMC group from the hut that was just an hour or two ahead of us broke out the trail to the Zealand summit.
From there, my partner and I punched our way through the virgin mega-snow and drifts to Guyot. By the time we got there, we saw that the segment to the Twins was unbroken, as was the Bondcliff Trail. We used the last hour of daylight to initiate the attack off Guyot to S.Twin, encountering everything from breakable crust, massive drifts, and 6-foot spruce trap falls. The assessment: getting to S.Twin would be as much or more work per mile as Guyot was, with almost double the miles to do. The decision: call it and backtrack to the hut for a contingency stay. Kudos to Molly at the hut for her outstanding hospitality, help, and cheerful spirit. In the morning since we didn't have a car at Zealand, we exited the way we came, back over Hale. Due to our return and a couple of folks who must have come through to the hut after we did the prior morning, L-a-H was now in good shape.
The Zealand-Guyot segment? As you'd expect with the route finding done and the benefit of our first tracks, the trip back to Zealand from Guyot was drastically easier than the trip in -- and as a result of the round trip, it's ready for another party to come through and apply the 'finish coat'. |
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 | Name: |
alexmtn |
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 | E-Mail: |
alex [at] nedzel dotcom |
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| Date Submitted: |
2017-02-23 |
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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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