| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Little Haystack Mountain, Mt. Lincoln, Mt. Truman, Mt. Lafayette, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Falling Waters Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Greenleaf Trail, Old Bridle Path |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, April 23, 2017 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Ice - Black, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Mud - Significant, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Unstable), Snow - Spring Snow, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
A few of the Falling Waters crossings required stepping on submerged rocks or logs. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Took out part of a blowdown on lower Falling Waters. A few more remain on the trail. Not sure if I recall any on Old Bridle Path. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
A few random flies. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Hodgepodge of conditions. Microspikes were needed for a few areas. I carried snowshoes, but did not use them. With snowpack still 4 feet deep in places, I'd personally would still carry them tomorrow, to enable off trail travel in the event of an emergency.
The monorail starts pretty much at the parking lot. I was able to bareboot up to the second waterfall, but put on spikes thereafter due to icy monorail. There are some bare stretches here and there in the vicinity of the brooks. In the woods between and above the brooks, there's still full snowpack and it's up to 4 feet deep. The monorail was firm from the copious bareboot traffic in recent weeks; I only postholed once the entire day (where an ice shelf was collapsing anyway).
Above treeline, I ditched the spikes due to the amount of rock. There was fresh rime melting in the sun, so things were sloppy with occasional hidden black ice. It wasn't too hard to stay on trail even barebooting, but unfortunately others were pushing right through the alpine growth rather than stepping on snow or ice. Plenty of people out without equipment, wearing worn out sneakers and sweatpants, who looked to be having a bad day by the time they were slipping down the mountain whilst soaking wet.
Descending Lafayette, the sideslope a little below the cone still has some ice which may make folks want spikes for descent. Occasional ice monorail from there down to the scrub line. The trees between scrub line and the pond outflow have 4 feet of snowpack still with a very tall monorail.
Descending Old Bridle Path, some of the ledgy areas were completely thawed, while some of the scrambles had enough ice mixed in to make things tricky with or without spikes (I find spikes to be a liability on bare ledge). The monorail resumes below the ledges and continues almost all the way to the Falling Waters junction, though there are some extended bare stretches. Plenty of mud mixed in too.
Blue skies. A little breezy up high, but very calm on the ledges further down. |
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 | Name: |
rocket21 |
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 | E-Mail: |
rocket21@franklinwebpublishing.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2017-04-23 |
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 | Link: |
 https://www.franklinsites.com/hikephotos |
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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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