| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Chocorua, Middle Sister, Blue Mountain, Blue Mountain - Northeast Peak, Blue Mountain - Northwest Peak, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Champney Falls Trail, Piper Trail, Middle Sister Trail, bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Started at Champney Falls, ended at the little pull-off just to the north of the Stream Mill Brook/Kanc intersection |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Lots of crossings of Stream Mill Brook on the descent. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Champ had a blast. None of the cliff bands were problematic for him. |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Up Champney to summit Chocorua, then over to Middle Sister and proceeded on Middle Sister trail to the obvious launch point for Blue Mountain, where the trail turns sharply SE and begins to descend. I was hoping to pick up remnants of the old Middle Sister trail, shown on some maps to proceed all the way over Blue Mountain, but no such luck. Still an easy enough whack up to Blue. Summit is a bit to the east of where I naturally ended up. Some slabs in here, but easy to avoid or maneuver.
I took a fairly direct bearing from Blue to NE Blue, going down the steep grade. Not to bad and woods were fairly open. Only issue was passing the two nubs to the north of the peak. My route took me to the south of the southern nub, which was pretty boggy. Had to go around the bog to the north, hugging the southern edge of the nub itself. Otherwise an unremarkable ascent up NE Blue. The ridge is more contoured than the map makes it appear, and again the summit more to the east that my instinct would have guessed. The jar is adjacent to a couple big rocks and is definitely not waterproof any more, so if you're reading this, please bring a new jar for this summit. I drained it and took care to tighten the existing one. Remarkably one of the zip locks inside the jar seemed to be doing it's job.
NE to NW was a bit more of an adventure. Getting down to moose pond was straight forward, though the area to the SW of the pond is boggy, so had to go around that further to the west than I had hoped. I passed the pond and aimed for the SE ridge, which is seriously steep with bad footing and nasty cliffs - maybe the worst steep stretch I can recall. It was passable, but only at what seemed like the true spine of the ridge. Way steeper/tougher than the topo makes this look, and I wouldn't fancy coming down this stretch. Woods tightened up on top of the ridge before popping out at the summit.
From NW, I wanted to try and hook up with the remnants of the old Manway trail, running parallel to Stream Mill Brook on old maps. I had seen a trip report from 15 years ago saying it was a remarkably good route. So I descended WSW off the summit, just trying to follow the path of least resistance down to the east branch of the brook. It was steep, but pretty good woods. Made it down to the east branch of the brook around 1700ft and followed it down to the intersection with the west branch. Footing was pretty wet around here, unsurprisingly. I was hoping to find remnants of the trail at the junction of the branches around 1600ft, but alas no sign of it, so followed the brook for a ways, alternating sides for whichever one was less steep. Just below 1500ft, the old trail became very apparent on the west side of the brook, and I followed that the rest of the way out with remarkable ease, as the remainder of the trail was in lovely shape for something abandoned that long ago. Passed a junction at one point where another trail diverged to the right - which I suspect would have intersected with the gravel pit east of the brook. Summit of NW to the Kanc was about 60 minutes. If I were doing this again, I would aim my descent whack to follow the minor ridge that intersects the brook around 1450ft and pick up the abandoned trail there.
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 | Name: |
Big Al Dente |
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 | E-Mail: |
bigaldentenh@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2023-10-11 |
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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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