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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Mt. Success, NH
Trails
Trails: Success Trail, Outlook Loop, Mahoosuc Trail
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: Alaskan Ice Road Truckers have nothing on me, I confess my sanity should be checked for driving this road today without chains. I kept my all wheel drive car in the blue ice ruts and often put a wheel in the snow without somehow sliding into the ditch. The last downhill back to the town was scary. Parked about 2/10th of a mile before the trailhead where road was plowed wide near a camp and a snowmobile crossing. I parked so I would not obstruct the snowmobiles. (we never saw or heard any snowmobiles today). No room to park at trailhead and I did drive past trailhead about half a mile before I could find a flat place to do a 4 point turn. 
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Snowshoes 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: small streams were frozen solid, everything was frozen solid 
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: A couple of big blow downs that will need a chainsaw just before reaching the Bucket Tree. With only a foot or two of snow on the Mahoosuc Trail our heads were hitting the branches, blazes on the AT are few and far between, in fact we only saw one very worn blaze. Blazes on Success Trail and Outlook were new and easy to follow.  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: why not 
Bugs
Bugs: none yeah 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found:  
 
Comments
Comments: OK read above for the drive in, after my palms stopped sweating we hit the trial it was 8 degrees and blue sky. To our delight not too long ago a snowmobile had driven up the trail more than halfway to the outlook and the snow was packed hard and made for wonderful bare booting. We were able to bare boot all the way to the Outlook since it seems that others had snowshoed and bare booted here. The Outlook was grand and we enjoyed a nice break soaking up the sunshine. Back on the trail we put on our snowshoes since the trail was no longer packed and we sunk in our snowshoes through a thin crust between 1 to 4 inches with the occasional deeper punch-through. Easy going all the way to the AT/Mahoosuc Trail and then our heads were hitting the tree branches and route finding was sometimes a challenge. Going down and up the steep cliff was okay since the snow had stuck to it well and we were able to get our snowshoe crampons to stick well. Windy and colder on the blue ice covered summit. We went a bit further south on the AT through the trees to the other side of mountain where open views were stunning. The wind had blown away the snow and the ice covered bog bridges were exposed. We also went off the trail near the summit and looked down on the Outlook, this was cool and something you probably would never do in the summer. Fast trip back down to the car where it was now 19 degrees and the drive out was very very slow. Thankful for a beautiful perfect day.  
Name
Name: Nordic Gal, Danielle 
E-Mail
E-Mail: amybike@gmail.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2018-01-31 
Link
Link: https:// 
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