| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Chandler Mountain, Sable Mountain, Round Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Slippery Brook Trail, forest roads, bushwhacks |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Thursday, October 31, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
We parked at the trailhead for Slippery Brook off Town Hall Road. Town Hall Road is a good, paved, barely 2 lane road until it intersects with Towle (?) road. From this point it becomes a good dirt road until the gate. After the gate it turns into a good White Mountains gravel road passable by any vehicle. This road is gated in winter. I assume that Town Road is plowed to the final residence in winter. The remainder of the road is gated in winter. The trailhead is signed, with kiosk, no privy. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Leaves - Significant/Slippery |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
There is a medium sized water crossing just after starting on FR 17A that was crossed on rocks. The second, and last water crossing of the day, was on FR 5046 just before it connects with Slippery Brook. This was also easily crossed on rocks. I imagine it would be a real issue to cross these in elevated water conditions. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
List: NH 100 Highest, NH 500 Highest*
Trail type: established trail, forest roads, bushwhacks
Jar/Canister: Canisters on both Chandler and Sable, nothing on Round that we could locate
*There is no “official” NH 500 Highest List. I took mine from 48X12.com.
Route: FR17A to bushwhack to Chandler > continued bushwhack over to Sable > bushwhack down Sable to unnamed decommissioned forest road > FR 5046 to > Slippery Brook > bushwhack up and over Round Mountain > Slippery Brook to end.
FR17A: barely discernible road. Very over grown and vegetation was wet soaking our clothing. We followed this to a point where we began our bushwhack.
Chandler bushwhack: excellent woods the entire way. There were some steep areas that were avoided by contouring short distances east or west (depending on the obstacle) then resuming the climb. There is a short herd path/ game trail on the summit that leads the adventurer directly past the canister and over the summit. There are excellent views past the summit of South Baldface and Eastman mountains, plus countless others.
Sable bushwhack: from the summit of Chandler we made our way down the mountain through good woods, some beautiful glens, to a fantastic col/ saddle. The col/saddle was the only place we noted fresh moose activity. The ascent of Sable was also accomplished in good woods. We were able to avoid all precipitous slopes/cliff bands/rock ledges by following a good bearing that took us up a narrow channel between the obstacles. The slope shading on Gaia really helped as well. There were more conifers between Chandler and Sable vs the other side. We easily located the smaller canister on the mountain and signed the dry register. After leaving the summit, we were able to locate and follow the ancient, long abandoned Mount Sable trail for over 0.25 miles before it vanished into the environs. The southeast flank of Sable was GORGEOUS. Open, inviting woods. Thick, thick leaves. If the adventurer only does Sable, I highly recommend approaching from this side. Just lovely. We came down the mountain and thought we saw a mirage. An old, but wide and good, forest road appears from seemingly nowhere. This was not on our GPS, but when in the precise direction we needed. We were able to follow it for the better part of a mile.
FR 5046: This forest road is very overgrown with lots of brush. Nothing like the old forest road we had just left. We elected to bushwhack off the upper end of this road through amazing woods to intersect the road lower. This lower portion was not as brush laden as the upper part. We continued down this forest road to the intersection with Slippery Brook (small arrow sign for the Slippery and brown metal pole with the forest road number on it at this jct).
Slippery Brook: not blazed, footpath apparent. Small arrow signs direct the hiker along the route at turns. I nearly plowed into a small bear. We simultaneously turned from each other and headed in opposite directions. Once sure the bear had vacated the area, we continued on the path. When we came to a point with good woods and grade on our left, we decided to bushwhack up to Round Mountain. The remainder of the Slippery after we rejoined from the bushwhack was simple to follow back to the cars.
Round Mountain bushwhack: excellent woods on this side of the mountain. We made quick work of the 0.4 miles to the summit. No jar, but there were several high points the jar could have been. We were running out of time and could not explore further. We then shot a new bearing, heading over what we think is the high point and continued back down to the Slippery. This side of the mountain still contained good woods, but there were a prolific amount of boulders and rocks with leaves obscuring any holes that lay between them. It was a tedious time to work over this boulder field. About 0.2 from the trail jct the woods resumed their rock free state and we plowed our way down.
Congrats to Chantal for completing the NH 100 Highest List!! Way to go!!! |
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 | Name: |
Remington34 |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-11-01 |
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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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