| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
The Nubble, Peak Above the Nubble, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Gale River Road, Old Nubble Mountain Trail, bushwhack, herd path, FR304 |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, July 30, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Zero cars in either lot when we started. Room for 5-6 cars at the gate on Gale River Road, room for 2-3 cars at the rocks blocking FR304 |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
N/A |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
No official trails |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
N/A |
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 | Bugs: |
Very few |
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 | Lost and Found: |
N/A |
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 | Comments: |
From the gate is an easy walk up the road to the start of the old nubble mountain trail. It was officially a trail for awhile before it became an unofficial herd path decades ago. There are supposedly great views from the summit but it was socked in. From the base of the summit ledges we started the bushwhack up the ridge staying to the left of the river in the hardwoods. There's a series of faint herd paths that are pretty easy to follow up into the birch glades. There is a short section of open conifers where there's more signs of old paths and this is right before the ridge steepens. This is the point of no return as above is an extremely hard whack to the summit.
From here the ridge steepened considerably with 1100' of gain in 1 mile that took us 2 hours. The climb quickly transitioned from the open conifers into pencil thick spruce and fir thickets where it was almost impossible to see your feet and face at the same time. It also decided to start raining from most of this climb which was lovely. At multiple points on the climb we ran into cliff bands that required ascending multiple 10' tall scrambles and piles of rocks with nice deep holes between them and the mess of thick trees and blowdowns on top. We kinda stayed to the right side of the ridge as often this was the best direction to bypass cliff bands and we kept having to fight getting kicked down off the left side of the ridge. For one short 100 yard stretch far up the ridge it opened up into semi open hardwoods but this was short lived and it quickly devolved back into a disaster. After a lot more of fighting with the forest to make progress upward it started getting lighter and we stumbled out onto the summit.
The herd path down is pretty easy to follow to above 3200' feet and it becomes a mess of paths in the open woods to about 2800'. Had to fight the downhill drag to the northeast/left. Eventually the path became more defined and flattened out near the bottom. The junction with FR304 is marked by a small cairn and the road has a well defined path but is well grown up on the sides. Took 5.5 hours to do 4.6 miles
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 | Name: |
Heat Lightning |
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 | E-Mail: |
ecs@mountainlogworks.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-08-01 |
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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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