| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Pierce, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Crawford Path, Webster Cliff Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, February 3, 2019 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parked along 302. Lots of cars. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
If you come in on Clinton Road, be aware the monorail on the footbridge is high and is getting narrow. If it ices up, it could become treacherous, because you could fall in between the handrail and the monorail. Can be avoided by using the other entrance to Crawford Path, which is directly across from Highland House and kind of hidden behind a tall snowbank. (The top of the tall snowbank is partially broken out, so you can snowshoe along the top to get to this trailhead.) |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Pretty good, couple spots on top where the trees tighten up the trail a little, but not bad. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
I saw quite a few snowshoers today (hail!) and the trail is looking pretty good. It's a little choppy here and there, with some parasitic postholers managing to divot the top few inches in spots. But mainly, it's highly compressible snow that's been highly compressed into a pretty nice monorail.
BUT!, if you step off the monorail to let somebody pass, you better take a life preserver with you. I'm not kidding, that snow is deep and soft, and should you get slurped down into it, it's very heavy to pull out of.
Near the top, after the sign, where the .2 to the summit turns off, I lost the trail by following a snowshoe track off the trail. This 'wrong way' is basically at a right angle to Crawford Path, and looks correct because of the gentle uphill angle. But the real trail is a harder right turn and requires an immediate uphill climb, up a short but steep rise. Once you get up the short rise, you can see the rocks that mark the side of the pathway and the cairns, because it's been windswept to very shallow snow. It was pretty fogged in today, so maybe it'll be easier to spot the trail under better conditions. The breaking out of the trail ends abruptly at the summit. Which is kind of unexpected because back down lower, at the fork for the Mizpah Cutoff, the trail to the hut and the Nauman tent site looks pretty nicely broken out. (To put it another way, if you approach Pierce from the Mizpah Cutoff, you'll have to do some trail breaking.)
There were people continuing on Crawford Path to Eisenhower, and I was told the trench was similar, ie pretty good. Windy out there though. |
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 | Name: |
Steve Marion |
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 | E-Mail: |
swamp_fox@comcast.net |
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| Date Submitted: |
2019-02-03 |
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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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