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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Mt. Cushman, Green Mountain (Woodstock), NH
Trails
Trails: NH Route 118, bushwhack, Weasel Trail, Flume Road, Weir Road, Hubbard Brook Road
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: We parked at a large pullout on 118 about 1/4mi east of the HOL. In summer it sounds like you could pull off the road enough and park directly at the HOL but in winter the road isn’t plowed wide enough to do so.  
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Ice - Blue, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Snowshoes 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Nothing on the bushwhack that I recall. I few small drainages on the trails out of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Most of them had wooden bridges over them though the seepages themselves were all open.  
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: Weasel Trail is well blazed in yellow and east to follow though the blazes are becoming a bit faded. No obstructions on it or the roads that I recall.  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: Sure 
Bugs
Bugs: None 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found: None 
 
Comments
Comments: Day 128, Peaks 108&109. Not too cold but very windy and cloudy to start but the clouds gave way to sun throughout the day as it continued to warm some.

From where we parked we walked up the road about 1/4mi to the HOL, then hopped into the woods. Unfortunately, we soon got turned around due to a broken pole and by the time we got started again it was probably around 11am. I took a bearing as we entered the woods to pick up the narrow N/NW ridge of Cushman. We came to it soon enough but, as should have been expected, snow conditions were nasty. Gone are the few good weeks of descent bushwhacking conditions with a few inches of powder over a good base. Now, we’ve got a mostly unsupportive crust. Sometimes we’d mostly stay on top of it but we’d often sink down deep underneath. Snow depth really wasn’t all that great and we sank down fairly close to the ground from what I could tell. Snow conditions weren’t quite as horrendous as a few weeks ago from my hikes in Littleton (Mt Misery and Towns Mtn report) as the snow wasn’t as deep) but it was still pretty bad even if we were able to move a bit quicker.

From the road to the ridge was hardwoods with hobblebush mixed in. The ridge was mixed woods. Open enough and easy navigationally with generally better snow conditions than at the beginning. 1/2-2/3mi along the ridge before you come to the much broader and flatter summit ridge. Here the woods tightened up significantly as we were now in the softwoods which presented themselves mostly as “pencil woods” though luckily for us the pencils weren’t that close together. I took another bearing here since the woods tightened and the ridge broadened, making it much more difficult to know which way to go. We followed the summit ridge SE to Cushman through semi-thick pencil woods in general, though we did hit one thicker patch. As I believe others have noted, I think you can avoid the thicker sections by staying a little below the ridge. I’m stubborn so I stuck to it ????

The summit area is relatively flat but if you just go from highpoint to highpoint, it’s really not hard to find the canister. There’s a bit of an open area here (at least with the snowpack) where you have a view to what I think was Carr Mtn. We found some blue surveyors tape at a nearby local highpoint leading us to the highpoint. I’m guessing that this was placed by hikers and not marking the experimental forest boundary but I could be wrong. There blue surveyors tape around the true on which the canister is hung as well.

We took a direct bearing from Cushman to the col rather than follow the gentler ridge. We stuck to our line pretty damn well but this descent honestly felt like the most tedious part of the day to me. It felt like it went on forever and felt like a rather awkward or random descent. I’d still recommended following our tracks if looking to bag this peak though. The woods surrounding the summit of Cushman are thick so we had to push through a bit but things soon opened up enough to make for a reasonable descent. As we headed east off the summit, the descent was quite steep but very doable. We avoided some thick woods. Further along, the grade becomes gentler, and there’s even some ups and downs. This makes you think you’re at or close to the col when you’re really not. I skirted north a little bit to try and avoid some of these PUDS.

Once we finally reached the col, the ascent to Green was quick and probably the easiest part of the day. Not too steep, woods weren’t bad, and snow conditions were better. In fact, there was even some bare trail in here. Easy going from the false summit to the true summit. Easy to find the canister. Our descent off of Green started off in nice hardwoods, but I soon pulled us off too far to the north, closer to the forest boundary and the woods tightened. I corrected, and took a bearing to a bit south of the HOL on Weasel Trail to avoid going over the eastern bump of Green Mtn. Snow conditions got wretched again. We soon found some snowshoes tracks which we followed to Weasel Trail which had been snowmobiles. We followed Weasel Trail (which was steeper than I might’ve though at times!) out to Flume Rd, to Weir Rd, to Hubbard Brook Rd for an easy if long walk out.

The total hike was about 8mi with 1000ft of gain taking us 7hrs though this time is off because I didn’t start it until after we’d entered the woods, then didn’t stop it when we had to go back for a different hiking pole. I’m sure the hike would’ve been much quicker a week ago but we had much nicer snow conditions! 237 more day and 256 more peaks to go…  
Name
Name: Liam Cooney 
E-Mail
E-Mail: liamcooney96@gmail.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2022-03-09 
Link
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.

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