| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Long Mountain - Middle Peak, Long Mountain - West Peak, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Road, bushwhack, Trio Trail, Percy Loop Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, June 20, 2022 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Only room for a few cars at the Percy Loop trailhead. There were already two there and it would be a tight squeeze for me so I parked up near the driveway as the guidebook indicates - just don’t block the driveway! We then drove over to Trio Ponds Road. We parked at the gate at the fork as the southern end of the fork we wanted was gated. Both Nash Stream Rd and this road should be suitable for all cars. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
The drainage(s) we crossed between the summit of west peak and the trail were easy to cross as was the small crossing on Trio Trail just before reaching the jct with Percy Loop Trail |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Trio Trail is blazed in yellow; I don’t know how well as we were only in it for a brief section but I believe some of the blazing looked faded. Also, a friend noticed a triple blaze and wondered what that could indicate! The Percy Loop Trail below Trip Trail that we were on is blazed in red. I don’t recall how frequently but it was easy to follow. No blowdowns that I recall on either but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Sure. Ample opportunities for water, the trail portions are good for them and we didn’t end up in any real bad spots bushwhacking. That said, I think there’s some cliffs on the west side of Long West which would obviously be tricky for them. |
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 | Bugs: |
Yes, mostly black flies I think. Didn’t notice the except for when we stopped at the summits when they could be bad. They usually liked Chris’ blood more than my own or Rick’s so not a huge issue though ;) |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Day 232, Peak 216. Great sunny but cool day out with two good friends to grab two more peaks for my 500 and their NHHH.
We followed the southern fork of the road to its end just above 2300ft. It became very overgrown and not very road-like but we were able to follow it. It ended at a clearing where the real whacking started. A due north bearing to the summit. After an initial small climb up, things are relatively flat for a ways so it’s easy to get slightly off course to the west where the elevation is rather than sticking to the bearing. Not a big issue - just something to be aware of. The woods were pokey at times in this flat area and could be a bit thick though just in spots and never all that had. After about 1/2mi or so at 2600ft, the climbing starts. Nice easy-moderate grade in great woods. My kinda whacking. At some point the grade went from easy-moderate to moderate-steep but still in good woods. My friend said that he’d read reports that said the woods got tighter before the summit but we had decent woods the whole way up.
We felt like we pretty much walked straight to the highpoint. It was pretty flat though so we knew it might be hard to find the jar. We went left (east) looking for it in both open woods and a small thick thicket and found nothing. There was some orange flagging but didn’t seem to lead us anywhere. We were quite surprised we couldn’t find a canister. We even looked at the blowdowns. We finally moved west and sure enough one of us found the canister on Middle Peak. We’d been deceived. After signing in, we took a direct bearing to the pond (rather than sticking to the ridge). We kept a nice straight line about 3/4 of the way to the pond, then did some meandering as we got closer and the woods got tighter and the footing wetter. Very close to the pond, I took us around a wet area just east of the pond to approach from the north instead. Stayed clear of the wet footing but got us into a (small) blowdown area instead. This descent to the pond was probably the first slightly PITA part of the day. The pond was a real treat! Definitely recommend making the stop.
If I recall correctly, I think we took a direct bearing from the pond to west peak. That said, we didn’t really stick to it. First, we had to navigate between the pond we were just at and a wetland just to the NW. Luckily we found dry enough footing in between the two and didn’t have to go all the way around. We made our way over some insignificant bumps along the way, getting pushed a bit to the north off our bearing a couple times due to blowdown patches. There was a herd path we were following too so we tried to just follow that. This took us further off our bearing though is it seemed to be aiming for the small bump N/NW of West Long rather than the summit itself. We decided to stick to this herd path as we had open woods and the woods to our left (south) were thick. Well, as we approached the small 3600ft bump N/NW of the peak, the woods tightened and our herd path seemed to disappear. We fought through very thick woods but for only a short ways along the ridge until coming back into nice open woods again. Not sure if we would’ve found better woods and a more efficient line to our south. One in our group thought we should’ve just stuck to the bearing. I’d be interested to hear others experience. Anyway, now in open woods we flew up to the summit of west peak. The summit had partial views to the south. Easy to find the canister this time ;)
From the summit we headed just south of west to the Percy Loop Tentsite. My friend who isn’t a totally cheapskate like me and actually pays for Gaia saw that there were cliff bands just to our west (not surprising given the contour lines) so rather than head directly west off the summit, we headed south off the summit for almost 0.1mi, then SW for another tenth or two of a mile, then west or just south of west the rest of the way. Still steep at first but didn’t find us any cliff bands. The woods maybe weren’t quite as nice as they were on our ascent of middle peak but were still decent. We crossed the drainage just below 2400ft and from here contoured, often in hobblebush, to the Trio Trail at about 2300ft. We got a kick out of the tentsite being right in the middle of the trail. Quick walk to the jct with Percy Loop Trail which we then descended back to Nash Stream Rd. The trail was mostly dry.
The hike was about 7.75mi with almost 2000ft of gain, taking us 5.5hrs. Saved about 600ft of elevation by going this direction. 133 more days and 149 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: |
2022-06-23 |
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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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