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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Mt. Adams, NH
Trails
Trails: Airline, Star Lake Trail, Valley Way, Lower Bruin, The Brookside
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Saturday, May 14, 2022
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: Snagged the last spot in Appalachia at 8:30ish.  
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Ice - Breakable Crust, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Unstable), Snow - Spring Snow, Snow/Ice - Postholes, Snow/Ice - Small Patches 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Light Traction 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: The water crossing from the Brookside to Watson Path and to Keton Trail are not passable without fording as of this afternoon. The more northerly portion of the two Brookside water crossings "may" be rock-hoppable if you are exceedingly brave in your jumps...we both got pretty wet. The lower one is hoppable, but just barely.  
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: Nothing but minor easily avoidable blowdowns in a few spots. There is a hemlock that fell that is kind of blocking the path from Watson to Brookside that obscures the sign. It was stuck and I couldn't get it out though.  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: Plenty of water everywhere 
Bugs
Bugs: They are out, mostly black flies, but not terrible yet. I went sans bug-spray and they were mostly a minor annoyance. My wife wore bug spray and didn't even notice them. 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found:  
 
Comments
Comments: Peak spring condition shenanigans on Adams today. 85 degrees and humid, sheets of ice, unstable monorails, trails that are now rivers, dry trails, great summit weather, postholing. You know, spring hiking in the whites.

Airline is easily doable without spikes, there are a few sections of sheer ice that are mostly easily avoidable and no monorail to speak of. We didn't bother taking out the spikes for the trail at all. Up to Adams was smooth sailing and was just gorgeous at the summit. Decided to go down Star Lake as we hadn't been that way before; that was a mistake. The snow there is extremely unstable in spots, there's no firm monorail as its rarely used, and we were constantly on edge to post-hole, and I did, twice, up to my upper thigh and gashed my leg a bit, nothing serious, but you never know when you're gonna hyper-extend or break something. There was no ice so we didn't take the spikes out, but I'd avoid this trail until the sun takes care of it a bit more, there is a lot of really unstable snow in that area. Very slow going with gingerly placed steps.

We had mixed reports as to the condition of Valley Way, some hikers telling us to avoid it going down entirely, others said it was fine with spikes. Ended up chatting for a while with a guy from Fryeburg at the hut, cool dude and after chatting we decided to head down as we wanted to grab Brookside. It's fine with spikes. It's a freaking mess to be sure, but not dangerous on the descent. Mostly very elevated (a few feet or more in spots) monorail, lots of water, and very slushy, so it has some nice bite to it. I wouldn't want to go down (or up) it sans spikes, but we saw a few people doing it, so it's possible, but why cause the headache. We put on spikes just after the Airline cutoff split and wore them straight down to Upper Bruin. After that it's not worth keeping them on even though there is a lot of icy spots.

Lower Bruin is also a mess of slush and ice. Same goes for The first half or so of Brookside. I can't recommend them in their current condition as an alternative to Valley. Just very slow going, though we took the spikes off because it would have been constant on/off the entire way. Still, not a ton of fun. The waterfalls were running nice though. Last half of Brookside was great, a really pleasant trail, but we couldn't get across to Kelton as the river was raging pretty hard; this and the crossing to Watson need be forded in their current condition. So instead we just finished up Brookline and ran back into Valley Way. Tama Fall didn't look cross-able either but I didn't inspect it closely.

Great day with a bit of everything, but was slow going with the conditions, we were barely over 1.7 miles an hour. So allot more time than you would for a summer hike of the same area.  
Name
Name: hotrodjimmy 
E-Mail
E-Mail: hotrodjimmy1810@gmail.coim 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2022-05-14 
Link
Link: https:// 
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