| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Madison (attempt), NH |
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 | Trails: |
Great Gulf Trail, Osgood Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Thursday, January 19, 2012 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
The Great Gulf Trail lot is plowed and sanded; there's room there for well over a dozen vehicles. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Ice - Blue, Snow - Drifts, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Water crossings are not an issue. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Great Gulf Trail has two small-diameter step-over blowdowns on the section that runs near the Peabody River.
Osgood Trail has two old large, walk-under leaner blowdowns on the section near the intersection with the Great Gulf Trail, but also three large- and medium-diameter shimmy-under blowdowns on the steep section heading up the ridge, past the tent site. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Plenty of running water in some of the small creek/stream crossings. |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
The Great Gulf Trail up to the Osgood Trail, and the Osgood Trail to the tent site, are packed out and bare-bootable. From the tent site to treeline the trail is a mixture of frozen postholed unconsolidated snowshoe track, punctuated by occasional patches of blue ice. Above treeline, trail is mixture of blue ice and two-foot drifts that are crusted over.
My goal today was to check out conditions up to about Osgood Junction (0.5 miles from the summit) -- however, it does look like one set of frozen bootprints continues past that point on up to the summit, so someone has been up that way in the past week.
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 | Name: |
Pancks and Tesco Heaney |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2012-01-19 |
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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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