| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Israel, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Guinea Pond Trail, Mead Trail, road walk |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, October 12, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
small lot on Beebe River road a few hundred feet from the trailhead on the opposite side of Sandwich Notch Road. We drove the entirety of Sandwich Notch Road today from the Squam side to Campton. The road is in great shape. We saw a construction worker leaving for the day in a low clearance sedan and albeit bumpy, this would not be an issue. Much more fun in a high clearance 4x4 though:) |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Leaves - Significant/Slippery |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
easy rock hops |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Trails were well blazed and in great shape. I cleared a large amount of medium to large branches off the Mead trail with the old trekking pole flick trick and the old convince your children clearing debris is fun trick |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
awesome dog hike with easy grades and lots of water |
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 | Bugs: |
none. likely atrocious during the season |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Wow this trail looks different than in 2020. The entire powerline road has been and is actively being reconstructed. Lots of heavy machinery and workers. You start on the road and around .1 you leave the road at a small cairn on your left at an obvious path. There is a yellow sign here telling people to stay off the road "warning active work site". Trail follows old railroad grade until .75 where there is a long new relo on your right. There is a nice wooden sign where the relo starts and fresh yellow blazing. The relo parallels the old trail very closely for awhile, and is generally flat with gentle rolling ups and downs. The relo starts to work further away from the old flooded corridor and eventually crosses the power line road just before the old high water bypass. The new trail follows a similar arc of the old bypass but is slightly higher than it was. You then re-cross the road just below a massive power tower on a newly contructed slope where they laid a line of gravel for hikers. You re-enter the woods and shortly re-join the old guinea pond trail just east of the old flooded section. The new bypass adds a short distance and about 200' of vert but avoids all the old swampy sections and is generally pleasant and easy and simple to follow. Take care at the road crossings. The Mead trail is mellow and a beautiful walk through hard woods. Most the color was on the ground and a lot of green on the trees still. Leaf litter was very thick in places. When we returned to road it was 4PM and we assumed correctly that workers were gone so we saved a LOT of time and distance by walking the power line road, which is 90% hard pack gravel and 10% massive steel-reinforced wood planks, back to Sandwich Notch road. Saw two summit hikers and no one else except workers. Had it not been for the massive construction thing we would have had the quiet and solitude I was expecting with this seldom-used approach. 20/52wav for the boy. |
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 | Name: |
Spence, Margaret, James, Fin |
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 | E-Mail: |
stormyweatherholt@yahoo.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-10-12 |
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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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