| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Martha, NH |
|
 | Trails: |
Cherry Mountain Trail |
|
 | Date of Hike: |
Wednesday, December 30, 2020 |
|
 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
I parked 0.6 miles from the Old Cherry Mountain Rd gate on Lower Falls Toad, which is a dead end. I was able to have my car completely off the road for safety. |
|
 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Wet Trail, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Ice - Breakable Crust, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Slush |
|
 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction |
|
 | Water Crossing Notes: |
None |
|
 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Two blowdowns that will give snowmobiles some trouble, but no problem for hikers! |
|
 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Did not see any. |
|
 | Bugs: |
Did not see any!! |
|
 | Lost and Found: |
Yup. On Monday I hiked Mount Martha from 115 via Cherry Mountain Trail and, after the Mt Martha summit, continued approximately 0.8 miles to pretty near the true summit of Cherry Mountain where I was astonished to nearly trip over what turned out to be a matched pair of shed moose antlers!! How cool is that? At the time I didn’t fully understand what I had found (I am just a relocated Ohio girl), so I moved them off the trail into the woods out of fear that a future snowmobiler would be injured crashing into them. NH Fish and Game told me that I could have them!! So today (Wed) I hiked back from the other direction and found them, again!! |
|
|
|
|
 | Comments: |
My mission was to hike from the eastern end of the Cherry Mountain Trail up to the point where I found the moose antlers two days ago (see Lost and Found section!!). I built a pulk sled (thank you REI blog post for the DIY instructions) out of a kid’s sled from WalMart, paracord and two PVC pipes. I parked as noted above and hiked up Old Cherry Mountain Road to the trailhead for Cherry Mountain Trail, and then up Cherry Mountain Trail to where my GPS said I had last seen the antlers. Wonder of wonders, they were covered in snow and exactly where I had last seen them 2 days ago. I easily loaded them on my pulk sled (combined weight 15.8 lbs, as measured on my home scale later in the day) and dragged my sled back to my car. 11.4 miles total. The road before the gate is plowed and sanded so easy. Old Cherry Mountain Road is not maintained in winter and has about 2-3†snow over the dirt road and again was easy; there was a parallel set of boot prints up the road to about 1.7 miles and then they turned around and went back to the gate. I continued on to the trailhead through unbroken snow. I was wearing microspikes (mostly because dragging the sled was a little bit of work) and they were perfect. Cherry Mountain Trail from the east trailhead has every type of condition - running water and mud under 2-3†snow and also ice that is crusty in spots. I only broke through one time and had mud up to my ankle (yay for waterproof boots). The trail was unbroken until 0.1 miles east of the antlers, where I saw multiple bare boot and dog tracks. The humans and the dog were in that spot after I was but did not notice the antlers off to the side of the trail (no tracks near it).
It was a grand adventure!! |
|
 | Name: |
Bikecamphikegirl |
|
 | E-Mail: |
bikecamphikegirl@yahoo.com |
|
| Date Submitted: |
2020-12-31 |
|
 | Link: |
 https:// |
|
|
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. |
|
