Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
South Twin Mountain, North Twin Mountain, Galehead Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Beaver Brook XC ski trail, Gale River Loop Road, Gale River Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Twinway, North Twin Trail, North Twin spur trail, Frost Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, February 3, 2025 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Beaver Brook was plowed and the drop toilet was open |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All were bridged |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Several scattered between about 2 miles in to Gale River and the hut. Twinway and north twin spur have a lot throughout as well. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Snowshoes door to door for the both of us today. First on trail with 3-6 inches of new snow from the parking lot until about the 3 mile mark when it gets deeper with some drifting and depth of snow increases to 6-8 inches until the intersection of Garfield ridge. Despite recent reports the trail was well covered with new snow, still an easy to follow trench remained for the most part. From Garfield ridge to the hut was 6-8 inches of snow as well with a faint trench. The real snow started once we headed up Twinway for south twin (we opted for twins first). From the bottom of the climb to about 4,400 feet snow depth is anywhere from 6-12 inches with occasional knee deep drifting. Once you hit 4,400 feet and above snow gets significantly deeper with 12-18 inch drifts almost all the way to the summit. Once we stepped off the summit of south twin we may as well have been swimming. The first .25 mile was waist deep and spruce traps galore. This remained the conditions until north twin, no less than 8 inches of snow in the shallow spots but knee deep being the normal. About .4 miles from north twin we ran into some serious drifting, some waist deep or deeper. It was slow going but we made it to the summit. The return trip was slightly easier as we had a trench to follow and had sprung many of the spruce traps. We ran into a group of two going down south twin, we had hoped they had broken out galehead but no luck. We also ran into two others at the hut but they also had not gone to galehead. So back to breaking trail to galehead, snow was about 4-8 inches, the trail was hard to follow at times with many bent over trees as well as trees covered with several feet of snow. We never ran into the two other groups until heading down Gale River so we were the only two to summit galehead today. If going out tomorrow I would say the trail will be broken out until the hut but is still very soft and 100% still need snowshoes. If going to the twins snowshoes are REQUIRED, without snowshoes you will likely be swimming through chest deep snow. |
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 | Name: |
George & Gemma |
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 | E-Mail: |
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 | Date Submitted: |
2025-02-03 |
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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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