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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks South Crocker Mountain, Mt. Redington, ME
Trails
Trails: Golf course road, bushwhack, Caribou Valley Road, Appalachian Trail, herd path, bushwhacks, snowmobile trail, logging roads
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Saturday, January 2, 2021
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: We parked at the golf course parking by the chairlift at sugarloaf. With the day already giving us 2-3" CVR would but be good for a mini suv like we both had. A pick up truck could have made it down easy parked and had to go slow out but we did see tracks of 1 that came in and out. 
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Snowshoes 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: No issues as we crossed the river on the bridge by the golf course 
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes:  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: I wouldn't suggest it when we were in a foot of powder 
Bugs
Bugs:  
Lost and Found
Lost and Found:  
 
Comments
Comments: Golf course road, Bushwhack, Caribou Valley Road, Appalachian Trail (AT), herdpath/bushwhack, snowmobile trail, Logging road, bushwhack, logging road, caribou valley rd, bushwhack, golf course road

Well, what a day and a half! We decided in the morning that we were going to go the golf course way as the weather was now calling for 8-10" and we made the right call. We started down towards the golfcourse and crossed the river on the bridge. We both had tracks for people who did the bushwhack before but we decided to stay on the same side of the tributary and just whacked up. There was some thick stuff but nothing like we would encounter later on. We made it to the road and swore we could hear some logging activity and saw tracks from the day before of vehicles on the road. There was already a good 4" or more on the road and still snowing hard. We finally got to the AT and the gate is open as well, which we did see tire tracks make it all the way to the trailhead (lucky). We heard it was "broken out recently" which meant you could see a foot print indent under the blanket of snow randomly. So we headed on up, trail was wet but we could avoid this. The slide/steep section took a lot of time with 1 foot up and 2 steps back. Once we made it past this it was smooth sailing, with about 6"-8" of fresh trailbreaking. We finally made it to the peak. We had some food, added a layer and changed gloves out. Everything was wet and froze (my pole would hit my sleeve and freeze to it).

We decided lets get the harder of the two and come back on another day for North Crocker since we could head from 27 if we wanted. So we started towards Redington.... here starts the headache for me, but at least Dolores was in a good mood! Good luck is what is say to this "herd path" I was on 6 years ago in the fall. We followed our track, the ribbons, and the open woods. We could see a faint foot print and we continued to follow this. Well this human track got off the herd path and started to bushwhack so we left it and headed back to the herd path. We found it again in the open tree tops and made our way to the logging road. Once on that we turned off and saw the faint tracks again. We soon lost the trail once there were multiple blowdowns again. After the blowdown mess we had a straight shot to the summit! The canister was frozen so we took a photo for our proof and to vow to never come back here in the winter. We decided with the late of the day and the mess we just went through on the herd path, and the slide that would be a pain, to go down from here. Well this was a genius idea ha! We followed the snowmobile corridor til it came to the logging roads. Once we came to the 3 way we decided looking at the maps, why not go left and just bushwhack the connecting logging roads. Why does no one do this? Well because it is a mess! We were in at least 12" of fresh snow on the logging roads which was oh so lovely. Well we got to the end and started to bushwhack in some thick thiiiicckkk woods. Oh yay a water crossing, crossed that and soon came out to the logging road. Well we thought this was great finally we can get down quicker... Ha! Well towards the bottom of this logging road, we not are walking through brush over our heads trying to steal our snowshoes. Thanks Redington just didn't want to let go. Finally we came back to CVR!!! We headed back down the road, saw human and dog prints at some point but hours old as they had some 4" on top of the tracks. At least it stopped snowing on us. Once we made it past the gate did we see the tire tracks, this helped out a lot and glad we did not drive the road in the morning or we would have had a stuck vehicle. We made it back to where we did the bushwhack for the golf course and put our headlamps on. I started off the wrong way but we made ok time heading out of the whack. Once we got back to the golf course, a set of snowshoes came up and yay we didn't have to break trail anymore! What a day! 2 more down for the winter 67 list...  
Name
Name: Danielle, Dolores 
E-Mail
E-Mail: navychik72@yahoo.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2021-01-03 
Link
Link: https:// 
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