| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
North Twin Mountain, South Twin Mountain, Southwest Twin (attempt), Mt. Guyot, Zealand Mountain, Mt. Hale, NH |
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 | Trails: |
North Twin Trail, North Twin Spur, Twinway, bushwhack, Zealand Spur, Lend-A-Hand Trail, Firewarden's Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Thursday, July 4, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parking full on Haystack Rd, and overflowing past the bridge on arrival at 8am. Only about 5 cars left at 7pm on return. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
We choose to cross the Little River directly, wetting our feet, but rock hopping should be possible with some exploration. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Only spotted one blowdown on North Twin Trail in the upper section, easy to step over. Firewarden had some blowdowns that didn't pose any problems. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Saw about 5 dogs all day. All well behaved and leashed. |
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 | Bugs: |
Terrible. I don't know if I had secretly been dosed in bug pheromones, but stopping for more than 2 minutes was impossible. House flies, noseeums, little bees and TITANIC deer flies (or horse flies?!). Specifically, the bushwhack was unsuccessful largely due to being swarmed by, I swear to god, inch long or bigger what I can only assume were deer flies. These things were swarming, repeatedly biting through our clothes for most of the whack to the point were Carrie and I nearly lost our minds. I was truly starting to wonder if we'd make it out. It's very unusual for me to not have a positive demeanor in the face of suffering, but I was swearing and threatening them. They continued to follow us when we returned to twinway for a while, but the ability to move fast made it much more tolerable. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
As mentioned in the "bugs" section, the biggest issue was the deer flies, which made it hard to reason about navigation and make good decisions. After crashing through some spruce near the bog boards, we found relatively easy woods at 4500' and kept a SW bearing. I had remembered reading that the woods were better below the ridge and tried to drop us down to about 4300' and sidehill to the col. This was a big mistake. In retrospect, there's a seam below the ridge at about 4400' with thick above and thick and steep below, which should be followed until it gets thick, then you should cross over the ridge to the north side to the open woods there and take your bearing to the summit. 4300' was miserable and we tried to push through for a while, then decided to climb back up higher. At this point the bugs had gotten so bad that this became something not worth doing anymore. We found a herd path on the ridge and headed back. I donned my raincoat in spite of the heat, which did provide some relief, but didn't make the labor any easier. Eventually the ridge became littered with blowdowns and too difficult to traverse. Carrie said I had at least 6 giant flies on my back trying to eat through my raincoat. Getting back down to the 4400' contour involved swimming through some spruce saplings and thick pokey trees. At least swimming through spruce temporarily got the flies off of us. We found good woods shortly there after and were able to get back to the trail in reasonably good time, this time avoiding crashing through any spruce stands.
Next time we'll come better prepared, with a better route and some gaitors, and maybe not attempt on such a hot and buggy day. I also didn't think to use my deerfly sticky tape on my hat, which may have helped. Mother Rush'ya throughly hated this whack, but she seems ready to try again. |
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 | Name: |
Bougie Bob |
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 | E-Mail: |
rcorsaro@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-07-05 |
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 | Link: |
 https://www.strava.com/activities/11810656269 |
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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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