| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Lafayette, Mt. Truman, Mt. Lincoln, Little Haystack Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Old Bridle Path, Greenleaf Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Falling Waters Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, February 24, 2017 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Wide open. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Mud - Significant, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Unstable), Snow - Spring Snow, Snow/Ice - Postholes, Slush |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
With the warm weather they are opening up on the Falling Waters Trail. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
One blowdown on the Falling Waters Trail is an easy step over, but a herd path is forming around it. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Easy if they do not mind deep snow. |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
A whole slew of stuff is present at the trailhead. |
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 | Comments: |
A wide range of conditions on the trails today. The warm weather mixed with a couple of feet of snow has made a mess of the trail.
Old Bridle Path - stable monorail early on, but if you step off it whatsoever then you should fully expect to sink up to your knees. Microspikes were fine. As the trail starts to gain some real elevation the trail is a choppy mess. It appears everyone has just pushed through with microspikes mixed with the snow falling off all the trees. No monorail and plenty of postholes. Sadly, we added to the mess instead of putting snowshoes on and trying to re-break the trail.
Greenleaf Trail - similar to the upper part of the Old Bridle Path. Once you reach the Alpine Zone, there are areas of just ice monorails, bare rock areas, and some areas with snowfields. We continued with microspikes as the bare rock areas would have been rough on the snowshoes.
Franconia Ridge - all summits were mostly bare and actually had a fair amount of mud on them. In-between the peaks was another story. Snow drifts were waist deep and multiple times we sunk in. Snowshoes would help, but it was a real mixed bag again. For every area of deep snow there was an area next to it with bare rocks or just a small ice monorail.
Falling Waters Trail - the worst trail by far. A visible monorail was present, but completely unstable. Even staying exactly in the center we would sink in knee to waist deep. After Shining Rock, we pushed on for a bit more before saying the hell with it and put snowshoes on. Even with them on we found ourselves still sinking in at times.
Besides the spring snow like conditions in February it was a great day out. Forecast said rain coming in around 10, but it held off till we finished just before 1. Temperatures were over 50º on Lincoln (40s on Lafayette). |
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 | Name: |
BobTheLoveGoat |
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 | E-Mail: |
BobTheLoveGoat at yahoo dot com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2017-02-24 |
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 | Link: |
 https://lovegoatfilms.blogspot.com/2017/02/50-on-franconia-ridge-in-february.html |
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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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