| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Little Sugarloaf, Goose Pond, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Elwell Trail, Goose Pond Trail, Goose Pond Loop Link, Around the Pond Trail, road walk |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, January 6, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Plenty of space (room for more than a dozen I think) at the dirt lot for Sugarloaf. We were the only ones there at 7:45am ad there were just a few others at 12:45pm Note that a short distance below the trailhead for Bear Mtn, there is major washout that most cars will not want to go up. Those that can, may just do more damage to the road. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Ice - Black, Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant, Leaves - Significant/Slippery |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All rock hopable. Memory is quite fuzzy at this point but if Brook Trail ever crossed the brook, which I'm not sure it did, the crossing(s) were small. Crossing of inlet brook on Good Pond Trail was easy. Outlet crossing on Around the Pond Trail I think was pretty small. One of the two inlet crossings on what is described in the guidebook as Around the Pond Trail but is not labelled on the in-text map (the trail that loops around the north of the pond) could be a slight issue in high water. It was still easily rock hopable this day but we met a woman who said her small-mid sized dogs wouldn't go across it. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
I think all these trails would be good for dogs with the possible exception of Bear Mtn which may have just seemed worse than it was due to ice. Hiking dogs should be fine. |
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 | Bugs: |
None |
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 | Lost and Found: |
I left a pair of red Black Diamond poles in the parking lot. I think they were the called the Corkscrew. We went back in the evening to look for them after our second hike but they were not there. |
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 | Comments: |
Elwell Trail is blazed in yellow and is blazed pretty well and easy to follow in this section. Goose Pond Trail is well blazed in orange I believe though the kiosks indicate it's blazed in green west of the orange blazed Goose Pond - Elwell Link (if so, I think blazing is much less frequent in this section). There's a mid-sized but trivial stepover near its start by Elwell Trail. Bakcwoods Trail is blazed in blue (some diamonds as well) and maybe not blazed as well as those trails closer to the pond. Bear Mtn Trail is blazed in yellow. It's blazing may have been a bit older/faded. There was a cluster of 2-3 mid-large sized blowdowns at the base of the steeps where the trail meets the brook. They've been there awhile; you can either walk around them uphill or clamber through them (no limbs but still a pain). While I don't think many of the trails around the pond have official trail jct signs, they are usuaully fairly obvious if you know what you're looking for. The one exception is Brook Trail, only marked with a white stake in the ground at its jct with Backwoods Trail and just a bunch of white diamonds on trees just east of the bridge on Goose Pond Trail. There was a trivial stepover blowdown or two on this trail. The kiosk seems to indicate that Goose Pond Loop Link and Around the Pond Trail are blazed in red but I believe some parts were blazed in orange. Some blowdowns along here but either easy stepovers or small ones hanging over the trail.
First hike of the day to clean up the trails here after our Elwell traverse of sorts a couple weeks prior. Our whacky redline route:: Goose Pond Trail --> Elwell Trail --> Alternate snowshoe route --> red-blazed bypass --> Elwell Trail --> red-blazed alternate path (labelled on in-text map as Elwell Connector) --> yellow-blazed, orange-blazed connector (Goose Pond - Elwell Link), Elwell Trail "triangle" --> descend Goose Pond - Elwell Link --> Goose Pond Trail (west) --> Hebron Rd (for 100ft) --> Backwoods Trail --> Elwell Trail --> Bear Mtn Trail --> OAB on short piece of Bear Mtn Rd to be sure we began it from where guidebook describes --> Bear Mtn Rd to col --> Hebron Rd (south) --> Backwoods Trail (north) --> Brook Trail (south) --> Goose Pond Trail (east) --> Around the Pond Trail (clockwise) --> OAB on Goose Pond Link --> Around the Pond Trail (north side of pond) --> Goose Pond Trail east back out to car.
As you can see from the above, this is a rather anal redline with lots of to and fros. Note that not all of the little alternate paths above are technically needed as redlining spurs, namely the alternate snowshoe route and the "red-blazed alternate path" as they are not described with a distance. I called all the spurs by their name given in the guidebook. Interestingly, the guidebook does not describe what's shown on the in-text map and trail kiosks as Goose Pond Loop Link and does not label the section of Around the Pond Trail that goes around the north side of the pond as such. That section is a bit obscure on its western end as it turns right off the main road (I guess continuing ahead would be the Goose Pond Loop Link) and descends to the pond (as a spur path) but the main trail turns obscurely left off of this. Also, keep an eye out for where Around the Pond Trail diverges off the main road (Goose Pond Trail) on its eastern end. We missed this turn while hiking the loop around the pond. I don't recall ground conditions all that well but I' sure there was a decent amount of mud and wetness. No real snow and I think the only real ice we saw was when descending Bear Mtn Trail which required care. Only saw a few others out hiking around the pond. We threw rocks out onto the frozen pond as others had done before us and were quite surprised and amused by the rather quizzical sound they made on the ice.
Gaia had us at about 8.75mi, 1600ft of gain, 4hr45min. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney and the CCC |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-01-21 |
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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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