| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Cobble Hill, Moody Ledge, Green Mountain (Landaff), NH |
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 | Trails: |
Cobble Hill Trail, roads, bushwhack, Orr Hill Trail, unnamed trail, road walk |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, December 10, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
I parked at the start of the class VI road at the hairpin turn on Gale Chandler Rd in Landaff. Only place to park is right at the start of the road, thus blocking it but I think that’s legal and what others have done. I think you could (barely) fit two cars. All roads in other than Gale Chandler Rd and Titus Rd were free of snow and ice. Titus Rd and Gale Chandler Rd were both very doable for a 2WD car and you don’t need any clearance. Just don’t swerve or hit your breaks real hard and you’ll be fine. I imagine that all the snow/ice is gone now anyway. I wouldn’t want to do this with 2WD if it were actively snowing as there are some large hills. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Ice - Black, Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Ice - Blue, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow - Unpacked Powder |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
I don’t believe there were any, or at least any of significance. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Nothing that’s blazed/marked but no blowdowns or real issues. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Should be fine so long as you don’t go down Cobble Hill the way I did ;) |
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 | Bugs: |
None |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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|
 | Comments: |
Class VI Road/Cobble Hill Trail (northern end), roads, bushwhack, Orr Hill Road/Trail, unnamed trail, road walk
Day 40, Peaks 37, 38, and 39. I started at 12:15pm and got back to my car between 4:30pm and 4:45pm. Windy and cloudy day though not too cold.
I started up the “Class VI Road†(town sign) that is the road that Cobble Hill Trail is following when it reaches its “end†near the HOL between Cobble Hill and Moody Ledge. Gaia calls the entire road (beginning where I did in Landaff) Cobble Hill Trail though. I chose to start on this end as it starts at a higher elevation than the trailhead on 112. Many turkeys had been on the road. It was icy in spots and had frozen water which I’d occasionally break through. I didn’t use spikes though you could have (only one place on the hike where you’d really want them, mentioned below).
Just over 0.5mi into the road (which hardly gains any elevation in this interval) I turned left onto a road into the woods. I followed it for a ways at flat/easy grades, passing some blue drums and some other human stuff before turning right off the main road onto another “road†which quickly turned into bushwhacking. This was around where you’d hit the northern ridge which soon became distinguishable. I bushwhacked through open woods at mostly moderate grades, heading south along the ridge. I eventually came to another road(s) that I followed around the ridge. A good hunk of surveyors tape in one spot. I soon came to the summit plateau and had to walk along it for a bit to find the high point. Not hard to find though and it’s a narrow ridge. I signed in and headed down.
My hands had gotten very cold signing in and I wanted to get moving so, foolishly, I didn’t take a look at Gaia or give too much thought into what I was doing and decided to just head west to the col. I knew it would be very steep and that there were some cliff bands but I figured I could work around them. Well, at first, things were just very steep and a bit thick, but then I hit some cliffs a good way down (just before the contour lines become much more gradual) and saw that there was no easy work around. But there seemed to be a slot I could go down. Rather than backtrack a ways, I decided to try and finagle my way through this one spot. If I fell, which I eventually did, I wasn’t going far, but still a stupid decision. So, learn a lesson from this sunny and avoid the cliff bands ;) What I should have done was backtracked maybe 0.25mi north along the ridge, then gone down just north of west and intersected the road a bit north of the HOL. The woods were open hardwoods again once off the cliffs.
Anyway, once down the cliffs, I headed a bit more NW to hit the road near the col between the peaks. From there, I took a direct line toward Moody Ledge. The true col which I passed through is a bit marshy and wet though of course not much of an issue Friday as things were cold and at least partially frozen. Once on the other side of that, I entered softwoods that were a bit tight at times. Grade picked up to moderate pretty quickly. Went through some short Christmas tree type of woods along the way but nothing bad and I was able to make good time up to the summit. The jar wasn’t hard to find and I pretty much came right out onto it. A little cairn too. I signed in, and, with some extra time, decided I’d be foolish not to bag Green Mtn while there too so took a NW bearing to go down the NW ridge to intersect Orr Hill Rd.
The summit area was pretty flat so had to make sure to stay to my bearing and/or check my GPS until I reached the ridge and started dropping down. Once on the ridge, navigation was pretty easy (I always get tripped up heading downhill without my own footprints in the snow to follow). The woods transitioned back to hardwoods before long. I fell off to the east side of the ridge and contoured around the knob that’s about 2100ft which was a bit of a pain. Once beyond that, I turned a bit more westerly. I came to some ledges with partial views around this knob and, as I descended toward Orr Hill Rd, found it a bit hard to stick to a bearing. NOTE: Orr Hill Rd/Trail is NOT where Gaia says it is. It’s in the true col between Moody Ledge and Green NOT between two knobs along the NW ridge of Moody. There is a (very) overgrown road here that I took to get to Orr Hill Rd though. CalTopo has Orr Hill Rd in the correct place. This misplacement screwed with me for a bit before I realized the error.
Anyway, assuming you intersect and follow this overgrown road (which is what, based on Gaia, I thought Orr Hill Rd was at first), to Orr Hil Rd, take a right and down it for a couple hundred feet until another road/trail leads left. This will take you to the summit of Green. A short ways in it says that it’s a private trail and no wheeled vehicles are allowed beyond this point. Thus hikers would seemed to be quietly welcome. The trail to the summit is 1/3-1/2mi gaining about 300ft so as not to be too steep. There was some minor ice flows over rocks and ice underneath the trail so microspikes would be warranted here. The trail is easy to follow and leads to a cabin (don’t enter) in a clearing that seems to be the high point. I briefly explored the nearby woods but found no canister/jar.
I headed back down the trail and turned left (north) onto Orr Hill Rd and headed down. As others have noted, the woods to the right (east) are posted. Orr Hill Rd wasn’t very icy. Orr Hill Rd ends at a roughly L-shaped turn in Gale Chandler Rd. I turned right and walked (mostly uphill) to my car as it got dark. A scenic residential area and I even saw a Barred Owl perched on a telephone wire along my way :)
325 more days and 326 more peaks to go… |
|
 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-12-13 |
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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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