| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Bald Cap, Wocket Ledge, Trident Mountain (Trident Col Peak), Giant Falls, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Peabody Brook Trail, Mahoosuc Trail, bushwhack, Giant Falls Spur |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, September 10, 2022 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
I parked at the small pulloff opposite the trailhead on North Rd in Shelburne at 5:30am. One other car there. Not a lot of room. I was surprised to find only two other cars there when I returned. Seemed to be more people out than that. The pull off would easily overflow with much more than that though and I’m not sure where else you could park. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Easily rock hopable |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Peabody Brook Trail has the very rare light blue blaze along it. Very overgrown at times higher up through hobblebush and could certainly be cut back but I wouldn’t call it hard to follow. Make sure to note the signs pointing you in the correct direction down low as the trial intersects other roads. One large widow maker/leaner highs above the trail down low. May have been other blowdowns higher up but I don’t recall. Mahoosuc Trail is blazed in white as it coincides with the AT. Blazing is rare along this section of trail but it’s not hard to follow. I think there were a handful of blowdowns but I don’t recall specifics. I don’t believe Giant Falls Spur is blazed but it’s not too hard to follow; just maybe a bit obscure as it approaches the base of the falls. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
The whack go Bald Cap the way I did it might be rough for some and I wouldn’t recommend taking a dog on Trident Col Peak; it is very steep and scrambly and I’d be very worried that a dog would hurt itself there. |
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 | Bugs: |
Minimal to none. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Day 314, Peaks 291 & 292. Interesting to revisit Peabody Brook Trail. Hadn’t been there since redlining. Not too muddy as I remember it but much more muddy on certain spots along the Mahoosuc Trail. Dream Lake was beautiful.
I started my whack to Bald Cap 1/3mi west of the Mahoosuc Trail’s (MT) jct with Peabody Brook Trail at a HOL. There was a piece of pink flagging here.It seems that most people who approach this peak from the MT follow the “ridge” to the NE, then cut W/NW to the summit and they don’t seem to have great woods or anything. Since the woods aren’t good that way anyway, I decided to take the straight line approach and head N/NW across the drainage, then climb steeply up to the peak. As the crow flies, this is only 0.4mi which is certainly shorter than following the ridge. Although you cross the drainage, little elevation is lost. There seemed to be a bit of a herd path through the woods where I started my whack but I soon lost it. Woods were thick but not awful. From here to the drainage, grades were flat or gently downhill and woods were generally thick but not too bad; they varied some. Some wet footing and marshy stuff around the drainage but not as bad as I thought it might be. Crossing the drainage was easy (20-25min to here).
Once on the other side of the drainage, I soon hit a spruce wall which was very thick and steep to ascend. That was awful. As I began to approach the summit, woods opened up. Took me nearly 30min from the drainage to get here so my total whack of only a 1/2mi or so took close to 1hr. Not hard to find the canister but it’s bent in such a way that I think some wtEr is getting into it unfortunately. Maybe someone with the right tools could try to bend it back? Not wanting to descend the same way I came up, I followed the SW ridge of the mountain back to the MT. Woods were softwoods but were generally semi-open on this ridge. There were some views to be had if you stayed on the SE side of this ridge as well. A few fir waves to avoid but not too difficult. The ridge curves more westerly around 2875ft. If you don’t curve with it, you’ll hit spruce. It seemed out of my way to get pushed that far west but it’s where the woods took me. You’ll see some worse looking woods below you that I eventually went into but they weren’t as bad a they looked; semi-thick. Woods become a bit worse and wetter I believe as I crossed the yellow blazed AT boundary and approached Wockets Ledge. I popped out of the woods nearly on top of it.
I continued west along the MT for 0.8mi to a point just over 0.1mi west of Page Pond. This is where I started my whack to Trident Col Peak. I headed NW in open hardwoods for 0.1mi, gaining 200ft of gain, THEN I hit the steep stuff at about 2400ft. Yikes! The scrambling here is no joke!! Ledges pushed me north though I still went over them, still over sketchy stuff, and this was after looking around for a bit! This was on the east side of the mountain which I thought was supposed to be less sketchy. I lost a pole hut was able to retrieve it on my descent. The scrambling pushed me north and I had to cut back SW to reach the true summit for a short ways. Woods could be a bit thick at the top of the ledges but opened up around the summit. Not hard to find the register. I returned more directly to the west. Got down safely but not sure my descent line was any better/safer than my ascent line was. If you want to avoid some serious scrambling either hope you have better luck than me, swing to the north side, or approach from Bean Brook Rd. Once I contoured to the north to retrieve my pole, I descended the same line back to the trail.
I returned along the MT and followed the Peabody Brook Trail back down to my car. Did the OAB go Giant Falls Spur just for fun too. Saw a handful of other folk out as I was heading down and a couple thru hikers along the ridge. Total hike was about 11mi with 3500ft of gain. Took me almost 8hrs to complete. 51 more days and 73 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: |
2022-09-13 |
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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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