| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Shoal Pond Peak, Twintop Mountain (Quinn/South Shoal Pond Peak), NH |
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 | Trails: |
Zealand Trail, Ethan Pond Trail, bushwhack, Thoreau Falls Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, September 26, 2022 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
We parked at the Zealand trailhead at 6:30am. Plenty of room then and when we returned shortly past 4pm. This is a $5/day USFS fee lot. The road in is bumpy but no worse than usual and is passable by any car. |
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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: |
Everything we crossed was rock hopable (crossings on Zealand Trail, drainages along Thoreau Falls Trail). We intentionally whacked from just east of the bridge on Ethan Pond Trail to about 0.2mi south of the northern terminus of Thoreau Falls Trail as we were quite certain that the crossing of Thoreau Falls wouldn’t be doable with dry feet. See comments below for more specifics on that whack |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Zealand Trail is very easy to follow and has the occasional blue blaze. Ethan Pond Trail has the rare occurrence of a (usually old) white blaze as it coincides with the AT. Certainly not as well travelled as Zealand Trail but not hard to follow in my opinion. Thoreau Falls Trail is similar though slightly more difficult. The trail is not blazed as far as I recall (it’s within the Pemi wilderness) and it could be a little tricky to pick up on the other side of some of the drainage crossings and in one particularly muddy spot. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
If your dog can do this long of a hike and you trust them bushwhacking, then sure |
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 | Bugs: |
None |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Day 330, Peaks 313 & 314. Minimal rain overnight meant that the woods were wet but not sopping wet and totally soaked as we made our long approach in on the Zealand Trail and Ethan Pond Trail. The sun flirted with us but wasn’t persistent enough to dry things out by the time we started our hike. No moose seen but nonetheless we thoroughly enjoyed the trek in along the beaver ponds and through Zealand Notch; two of my favorite spots in the White Mountains :)
Because we anticipated getting wet at the northernmost water crossing on Thoreau Falls Trail, we decided to follow Ethan Pond Trail 1/4mi east of its jct with Thoreau Falls Trail to a point just beyond its bridged water crossing. We then whacked back to the west alongside the river to intersect with Thoreau Falls Trail. The woods near the river were mixed and still wet from the rain. Lots of bushes. Decent whacking though. A herd path has formed at times. Just one tricky spot near the river where it was thick and there was a drop off so we had to whack uphill through bushes. We intersected Thoreau Falls Trail about 0.2mi south of its jct with Ethan Pond Trail at 2450ft. We then followed Thoreau Falls Trail, for a little more than 3mi south to 1850ft or so where we started our whack. Mostly east to follow, some beautiful sections, and some significant mud.
Going in, we’d discussed many different options for our whack but ultimately decided on starting almost due west of Twintop (just barely north of west). This worked very well. We began in open woods and had to slab across a drainage or two but once we were on the right (south) side of what I believe was the second drainage, we followed it for a bit, then kept on the same bearing on what almost felt like a minor ridge up to the summit. Woods were mostly open and grades weren’t as steep as they looked. Twinkle Toes kept us on a superbly straight line to the summit. The only REALLY steep part was the final approach to the summit. Hit a little bit of spruce here too but not all that thick. Open hardwoods down low, then some mixed woods, and relatively open softwoods for the most part. About 3/4mi whack with almost 1000ft of gain. We found the register easily enough and then began the long whack north along the ridge to Shoal Pond Peak.
Overall the whack between the peak was quite easy. Just long. I don’t recall anything about the whack between Twintop and its northern subpeak which means that was probably straightforward. The orange string on this sub peak is no longer. We considered contouring around it to the west slightly but the woods just took us naturally to the top. Getting off the summit of this and down into the main col was a little trickier. Very steep and the woods weren’t quite as open though still not thick. Not much in the way of cliff bands though. I got just slightly off bearing too far to the east once we were down off the steeps but corrected and we soon found ourselves in the col. From there I slabbed is up to the minor col beyween the southern subpeak of Shoal Pond Peak and the true summit. This worked very well. Good woods and easy grades until we hit the steep southern ridge. No idea what going over this subpeak would've been like but going just west of it was certainly easy! The southern ridge of Shoal Pond Peak was quite steep but pretty open softwoods. We were a little worried about finding the jar once we hit the flat summit ridge. The summit ridge certainly didn’t seem as narrow as the contour lines lead us to believe but with a careful eye out as we were walking, we came right to the register.
After signing in, we plotted our way down. We’d oronginalky thought of whacked straight down the very steep western side of the mountain to Thoreau Falls Trail but not wanting to regain all that elevation on trail we decided to whack down the northern ridge back toward the jct of Thoreau Falls Trail and Ethan Pond Trail instead. Heading north along the ridge, we soon encountered thick woods with blowdowns. Hard to move through though I’ve certainly seen worse. I tend Tito think this is avoidable if you stay below the ridge. Indeed, we began to favor the east side of it and things soon got better. So this thick and blowdowny section was pretty short lived. As we made our way over the northern subpeak in better woods now, we sort of missed the ridge curving NE. We were never far off and I’m not sure what happened but we both got a little confused here and felt like “how did we miss that?” Maybe the contour lines weren’t terribly accurate or maybe we were just engrossed in too good of conversation and missed it! We had good going for a bit but as this ridge flattened out and soon ceased to be much of a ridge, it became a pain. Nothing real thick or anything but lots of hobblebush, no game paths, and no distinguishing features to follow down. We kept a good N/NE bearing through all this though and the woods soon opened up and became spongy as we began to near the trails. Definitely a good spot to have a bearing and stick to it. We wound up hitting the river just west of the bridge on Ethan Pond Trail. We followed the river east until we we hit the bridge and followed Ethan Pond Trail and Zealand Trail back out.
We finally saw our first people (and several of them!) on our way out the Zealand Trail. I have to say that I really enjoyed this hike. Mostly food bushwhacking and some delightful trails in the middle of the wilderness too :) Wouldnsefinitrly do these peaks again someday. Very grateful for the company of Twinkle Toes on this one!! Gaia had us at about 18mi with 2200ft of gain. It took us 9.5hrs to complete. I’m guessing that about 4 of these miles were bushwhacking. 35 more days and 51 more peaks to go… |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2022-09-28 |
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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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