| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Sugar Hill (Colebrook), Tumble Dick Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Road walk, Cohos Trail, bushwhack, Cohos Trail View Spur |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, January 28, 2022 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Not 100% sure on exactly where the CT was, I parked roughly opposite the Coleman State Park sign by Eckerd Alley Way on Diamond Pond Rd. Eckerd Alley Way seemed to be more of a neighborhood than a park entrance and I saw what looked to be more like park HQ’s just beyond, so I should have parked a bit further down the road at the top of the hill. There aren’t any plowed pull offs but the road is plowed so wide that I just parked on the side of it and no one seemed to mind. Diamond Pond Rd is a mix of snow and ice but is well plowed and should be doable for any car. That said, I had to exercise a bit more caution than when I was on it last weekend likely due to the dusting of snow they got overnight and that it snowed throughout most of the day by the Diamond Ponds. I fishtailed twice in the same spot going around a bend on a hill. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
I crossed a frozen drainage a few times heading up Sugar Hill |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
No blowdowns on CT |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Be careful with all the snowmobiles |
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 | Bugs: |
None |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Day 89, Peaks 80&81. 3rd hike of the day after Dead Water - South Peak and Diamond Pond Peak. Temps slowly dropped throughout the day. Probably in the mid-teens by the time I started these at 10:15am. Occasional glimpse of the sun but mostly cloudy and snowy.
From where I parked, I walked up Diamond Pond Rd to the top of the hill where there was a playground, what appeared to be park HQ’s and campsites, etc. I knew the CT started behind one of the campsites (#11 I think) so I began to look for it. Look for a yellow post in the ground in the back right hand corner of the sites. This post could get covered by snow by the end of the winter. The CT turns left of the snowmobile trail/road. The park is heavily snowmobiles and the CT which appeared to shortcut some snowmobile trails here, had even been trafficked which made for quick walking. It soon came back to the snowmobile trails and turns left. The CT/snowmobile trail heads SW, at very gentle grades, then more S a bit more moderately, to hear the col between Sugar Hill and Tumble Dick.
Here is where I deserve to get the ding-bat of the day award. Though I had read something about a “Corridor 18†in trail reports for this hike, I’d forgotten about it and rather than continue just beyond the col, then take a right onto another snowmobile trail that brings you to the summit area of Sugar Hill, I turned right here and bushwhacked up the summit. Breaking trail in deep powder steeply uphill was just a wee bit harder than taking a welll trafficked snowmobile trail to the summit 😜 This added probably 30-45min to my hike. The powder was consistently deeper than a foot and often 18in, and sometimes approaching 2ft in spots. Though it wasn’t really crusty, there were layers of it that you had to push through. Difficult going. And imagine how I felt when I heard snowmobiles near the top then came out on a snowmobile trail 🤦 Then, the tricky search for the highpoint and canister began.
I thought I read that the jar was in the NW corner of the highest contour but it’s not. On Gaia, it showed it pretty much in the middle of the highest contour (just east). I came around the backside of the tree it’s on and noticed some red. If coming from the open area with the bush rather than the dense trees, the canister is sort of hidden. Anyway, I loved opening it and seeing all the old names in it. Though that particular canister has only been there a few years, the sign ins went back to the 90s when I was still a baby!! One of the oldest ones I’ve seen! I found my way back to the snowmobile trail, and followed it back to the CT. Much quicker than bushwhacking up ;P
I turned left off of Corridor 18 back on to the main snowmobile trail (and CT?) and made my way back up to the HOL. Here, there’s a sign for a “View Spur†on the CT. No herd path right at the sign but a ways before it there was. I followed it and the yellow blazes to where the view spur (or maybe this was the CT proper??) turned right to contour around the mountain and I began properly whacking up, following the SW ridge of the mountain. The grades were easy-moderate I’d say. Still deep powder bud easier because of Mt he grade than my pointless whack to Sugar Hill. The woods were mixed and not thick. Same for Sugar Hill except near the top where I hit some thicker stuff.
I found a nice red canister at the summit. Unfortunately, I couldn’t open it :( I followed my tracks back to the HOL, and hoofed it back to the car. 6-6.5mi, 1050-1100ft of gain, taking 4-4.25hrs. Take off a half hour if you’re smarter than me and remember that there’s a snowmobile trail to the summit area of Sugar Hill and you need not bushwhack ;) 276 more days and 284 more days to go… |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2022-01-29 |
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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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