| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Castle Mountain - West Peak, Stratford Notch Mountain (East East Goback Savage), Goback Savage - East Peak, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Bushwhack, logging roads, herd paths |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, November 8, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Where Brown Rd comes to a T, we went down the east branch of the road and parked at the end of it. There was room to easily fit two parked cars here. This is where Gaia shows the road ending BUT, we could have continued steeply up the right hand bend in the road and gone another 0.1mi to a gate. This is the way I came down at the end of my day. I was able to do the road in in just FWD but it was quite rough at times. Meriden Hill Rd is sometimes dirt, sometimes cement but is always sound and easily passable for any car. Brown Rd is all dirt and was quite easy at times but then was also quite rocky like Success Pond Rd at times. Nothing crazy steep but I definitely took a bit of care to get up some hills in my FWD car. Because of the rocks, I wouldn’t recommend a sedan with low clearance. I’d suggest mid-clearance (6in??). A couple furs too that could screw you up but not too bad. Two muddy spots where my car struggled a bit. There’s also 2 bridges that are sound but don’t have guardrails or anything. There are houses and such down to the end of the road basically though. We were the only cars parked there. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Ice - Blue, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Leaves - Significant/Slippery |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Only very small little streams that were easy to get across |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
The logging road a short ways north and southwest of the col between Stratford Notch Peak and Savage Goback East is quite overgrown through much of this section. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
None seen and I wouldn’t necessarily advice bushwhacking with a dog during hunting season up north. |
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 | Bugs: |
I saw at least one flying around but nothing annoying. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
I realize that it’s a long shot but one of my buddies lost a trekking pole while bushwhacking down West Castle. It was lost between 3000 and 3100ft just south of the ridge but not quite in the ravine. |
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 | Comments: |
Day 8, Peaks 9, 10, and 11. 357 more says and 354 more peaks to go.
From where we parked at the eastern end of Brown Rd, we started up an old road ahead of our parking spaces (NOT the more obvious continuation of the road we were on). We walked a short way up that until we came to a drainage and whacked to our right up that to the logging road east of where we parked. From the logging road, we took a beating and began! The point at which we crossed this road was maybe 0.25mi from our cars.
As we made our way to West Castle, we came across logged areas and lots of dead hobblebrish. Not bad walking generally but had the hobblebrush been in bloom, it may have been a different story. We were on the ridge we wanted and stuck to it. The whack was steep but not scrambly, and the woods were generally good. The woods eventually transitioned to softwoods which were occasionally thicker but still generally easy going. No massive blowdown patches but a good deal of blowdowns in a spot or two. As we approached the summit, one friend took a good line, and myself and my other friend took a bad one. We stayed further southwest (stayed right) and got pulled into thick woods and a small blowdown patch. Nothing horrific but very slow going for this short while. If you avoid this? The summit shouldn’t be bad. Just gotta keep your head up and choose your line carefully. Once we got to where our other friend was, we quickly made our way to the canister through better woods. The canister was easy to find. We signed in and headed down! Only a bit of snow up here.
We tried to follow our same route down but invariably got pulled off track. First, we started off too far to our right (north) which was no problem at all, but then we cut left and then stuck too far left and began to get pulled into the ravine. We got maybe 0.1mi from the ridge and our track up. Not bad walking though. We came across a steam/drainage. It was around here my buddy lost one of his poles. Once we gave up on looking for it, I continued ahead of them as I wanted to grab Stratford Notch and East East Savage Goback afterward.
I got back up to the ridge but then took a bearing slightly further west so that I’d come out on the logging road a wee bit further south than where we intersected it. I felt like I hit all the tighter woods and nasty logged stuff on my way down. Oh well. I got to the logging road and turned left to head toward my next two peaks. Two notes: 1) I believe I’d only been hiking 2.5hrs when I got to this point, and 2) though I of course was tempted to shave distance and contour over to the logging roads from a higher elevation, I just went all the at down to the logging roads and info think that this is he quickest option (unless you’re a super slow walker).
I came to the 1.4mi section of logging road as shown on Gaia that travels northeast, roughly halfway through its length, a short distance southwest of where we crossed it earlier. I walked the 0.75mi(ish) southwest and largely downhillto its jct with another road, turned sharply left, and began walking uphill again. I walked about 2.25mi on this to just northwest of the col between Stratford Notch Peak and East East Savage Goback. Grades were mostly easy, and, if not, moderate, on the logging roads. As the logging road came into the open and had views to the cliffs of Goback, the road also becomes much less defined. It’s very overgrown at times and I’m glad I did it this time of year rather than in summer with all of the ticks. When I made it to the closest point the logging road gets to the col between the two peaks, I planned on continuing right into the col, but there appeared to be herd paths taking a more direct bearing toward each peak instead so I took advantage of that!
First, I turned left and headed up toward Stratford Notch Peak. The herd path is quite faint and you can’t really follow it for long as it diverges but I’m going to say that these paths here are not just moose made. Anyway, because of this, I came up to the peak more from the west than from the south. I hit many different types of woods. Some very enjoyable, different sort of stuff though. Generally pretty good down low, then it got worse as I approached the summit bump. The woods became pencils and I also hit a nice below treeline, Moss-covered boulder field right beneath the summit. This cliff band, if you can call it that seemed to extend a ways in both directions, hutninworkeybway right a bit and scramble dip through it. This brought me to the top of what I thought was the summit in thick woods. Everything around me seemed both open and lower. I pushed pack to the far side of the summit, went through some more thick woods/blowdowns, then walked up to a slightly higher point. Be sure to check out what’s in the old pill bottle canister ;)
After signing I decided that I’d aim straight for the col. No need to go back the way I’d came. So I took a bearing southwest. But first, I decided to come off the summit area more westerly to try and avoid the cliffs. This worked. Then, I cut left. This seemed to make the thick stuff not last as long either. From there, it was a quick trip down to the col. I then made my way up East East Savage Goback. The grade becomes quite steep, quite quick, but then moderates and becomes quite pleasant :) I got pushed west a wee bit as I continued up to avoid some steeper stuff. This was fine. Mostly good woods. You’ll come to what seems like it could be the high point and I saw a pill bottle here. I opened it and it had a single (wet) sign in from 1998. I was still in diapers then! Ha!! Guess that’s not the high point (quite obvious in Gaia now) so I continued northwest to the highest bump. Orange tape around the jar made me see it from a ways away :) I enjoyed the open woods in the summit area here :) Hardly any snow seen on either of these two peaks.
To get down, I opted to go down almost due west so as to get to the logging roads as quickly as possible. As a waypoint, I used where the logging road splits on Gaia, just west of the summit. Only issue was that the contour lines looked damned close together. The grade was actually quite easy at first and I was surprised I didn’t find cliffs. I checked Gaia and it seemed to confirm that I was over the but alas I just hadn’t come to them yet. I carefully made my way down some classicallynmoss carpeted bushwhack scrambles. Once at the base, it was a short ways to then road. I turned right on the road and headed down. The road is quite overgrown here and seems to split off in various directions so I actually used Gaia to make sure I was on the right road. In 0.6mi I made it back to where I jumped off the road and made my way back down. Only difference was that rather than go back up to where we first intersected a logging road at the beginning of my day, I followed a gated road I noticed on my way in that’s just south of where my car was parked and is the closed the logging road gets to Brown Rd.
Saw two bunnies today! One, a snowshoe Harare, a short ways down from the summit of West Castle, the other while on the logging road and I believe was a regular rabbit. We heard gunshots/hunters on West Castle but that was it. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-11-08 |
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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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