| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Jefferson, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Boundary Line Trail, Jefferson Notch Road, Caps Ridge Trail, Jefferson Loop, Gulfside, Jewell Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, January 6, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Ammo lot. Plenty of parking, but busy this morning. $5 to park or annual pass. Two vault toilets. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction, Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
The tricky one on Boundary Line was accomplished using the large tree and some rocks. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
See BikeCampHikeGirl’s trail report for the beginning. Jewell has three blowdowns right before you exit tree line. One step over, one duck under, and one 20’ long fir that is laying along the trail. You can stay far left to get around it. Nothing stands out from there all the way down to the split that goes to the Cog…after that, though, get your saw ready! Plenty of blowdowns in the first .9 from the Jewell trailhead. Most are easily stepped over. One has a herd path around it (very close to the trail), another has a handy stump that you can climb onto to get over. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Caps isn’t recommended at this time of the year and frankly everything above treeline was just loose powder in holes around rocks. It sucked for us and I think a dog wouldn’t love it either. |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
We donned rock spikes on Boundary which were helpful in crossing the log…sort of. The log has a pretty good incline, so not walkable, but we shimmied out a bit and then could reach a rock on the other side. We had a lovely time hiking with BikeCampHikeGirl this morning and even saw blue skies and sun on Jefferson Notch Road and the bottom of Caps Ridge. Caps Ridge didn’t appear to have been touched recently, but hard to tell as there was a few inches of fresh snow. We continued up to the viewpoint and a bit further before BikeCampHikeGirl called it a day and we forged on up the caps. I thought that we’d be dealing with lots of ice, but actually everything was covered with a few inches of powder that had an unsupportive, breakable crust. At the bottom of the trickiest spot (2nd cap), we switched to Hillsounds, but I’m not convinced that they were any better than my rock spikes. In any case, we slowly made it to the summit (after getting off trail very near the top of the summit cone) and enjoyed our view of the inside of the cloud. It was 8°F, windchill -14°F, wind 14 mph. Definitely the coldest and windiest all day. Once off the cone, the wind dropped to almost nothing. We picked our way carefully along Gulfside and the top of Jewell as every step was a question: rock? snow? hole? slanted rock into hole? We were very glad to finally enter the trees on Jewell. We swapped out the Hillsounds for rock spikes and got down as fast as we could. We need snow badly! |
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 | Name: |
WanderingSoules |
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 | E-Mail: |
soules@writeme.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-01-06 |
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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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