| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Bacon Ledge, Round Mountain, Lightning Hill, Trout Pond, Nancy Mountain, Proctor Hill, Stacy Hill, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Trout-N-Bacon Trail, bushwhacks |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, April 15, 2017 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parked about 0.5 mi. down Old Antrim Road in Stoddard, at a small pullout marked with a SPNHF sign. Room for a couple of cars here. Beyond here, the road was soft and muddy, and there's nowhere to park at the actual trailhead anyway. From this pullout, it's a 0.4 mi. walk up the road to reach the trail. |
|
 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant, Leaves - Significant/Slippery, Snow/Ice - Small Patches |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Too many to count while off trail. All crossed easily though. |
|
 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
A few blowdowns along TNBT. |
|
 | Dog-Related Notes: |
I guess. |
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 | Bugs: |
A few flies. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
Nothing. |
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 | Comments: |
Easy going up to Bacon Ledge, really the only views on this 11 mile loop. Nice perch up there with one short scramble to get up. After the ledge, TNBT takes care to follow, although it is blazed well. The corridor is sometimes unclear. I continued across the flat ridge to Round, where the high point appears to be a trailside boulder with a cairn on top. Recent bear tracks noted as well.
I descended toward Trout Pond to a large field. From here I whacked up to Lightning through open woods. Upon reaching the ridge, I found a faint trail leading to the high point, marked by an old cairn. I then retraced my steps back to the pond for a break. Still a bit of ice left but going fast.
I followed a woods road around the shore of the pond to the base of Nancy. This side of the hill is strewn with huge boulders and is steep, so I worked my way up around the end of the ridge and followed it to the high point, again through mostly open woods. At the summit is a small cairn and a neat register placed in 1989! It's been there so long the tree has grown around the string. Last entry was from 2013. Really neat to find this. One entry also mentions the aforementioned trail on Lightning, which was apparently built in the mid 90s. I pretty much followed the same route back to the pond.
I continued on the TNBT which is now a snowmobile trail at this point. It was pretty much a muddy hell. :( I christened one of my new Keens pretty good. After slogging awhile, I reached a logged clearing between Proctor and Stacy. I first went up Proctor, following a stone wall almost to the summit. There's a tiny cairn there. I took the same route back out, then went up to Stacy, where there is nothing. :) Woods were open for both of these peaks.
Wanting to skip the Shedd Hill Road walk, I whacked directly from Stacy SE to the TNBT trailhead. The terrain was bouldery at first then got easier. I detoured around a swampy area before hitting the trail. This stretch also had the most snow cover I'd seen all day, and yeah, I postholed. ;) I emerged from the woods just about at the start of the trail, then walked the road back to my car.
TNBT was a mix of conditions, mostly dry but also muddy stretches. Nothing too significant except for the snowmobile road portion. The bushwhacks varied from dry to wet to muddy to snowy. Ah, spring. |
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 | Name: |
KenM |
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 | E-Mail: |
kmacgray@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2017-04-15 |
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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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