| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Edmands Col, Mt. Jefferson (attempt), NH |
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 | Trails: |
Caps Ridge Trail, The Link, Castle Ravine Trail, Randolph Path, Gulfside Trail, The Cornice |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, June 29, 2025 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Third vehicle at Caps Ridge trailhead when I pulled in around 8:15. When I got back around 5:25, there were maybe 10 vehicles there. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
The crossings of Castle Brook on the upper Castle Ravine Trail were straightforward rock hops. The small crossings on the Link between Castle and Caps Ridge were also pretty easy. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
The RMC has done a great job with clearing blowdowns on the Link and Castle Ravine Trail. Significant sections of Castle Ravine Trail between the upper Link junction and treeline had water running down it. Mud was only an issue on a few sections of the lower Caps Ridge Trail. Signs are all in place. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Saw one on Caps Ridge. They'd need to be hardy and experienced to be able to do Caps Ridge, and even then they might need to be lifted up the bigger scrambles. Definitely would not recommend dogs on Castle Ravine. |
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 | Bugs: |
I put bug spray with DEET on at the trailhead, and they didn't bother me at all until the final hike out on Caps Ridge below the viewpoint. And if I kept moving there, they weren't too bad. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
My sanity. Several times. If someone finds it, they can keep it. |
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 | Comments: |
Insane. Death-defying. Record-breaking regarding the number of times I've swore on a hike. This was definitely one for the record books.
The jaunt up Caps Ridge to the junction with the Link was the easiest part of the day. I made good time on it. Then I turned onto the Link for the sidehill jaunt over to Castle Trail. Knowing the horrific reputation of this stretch of trail, I was a bit curious to see what I'd think of it. The first 0.6 miles, up to the first brook crossing, aren't bad at all - footing is generally fairly smooth, with nothing out of the ordinary. However, the next few tenths are quite bad, with all of the roughness, rocks, roots, and hollows that this section of the Link is known for. Traversing those rocks and roots was made significantly more difficult by the fact that everything was wet from the rain yesterday, and the sun hadn't appeared to dry them off, so I had to be extremely careful not to slip on something. After that, there's another few tenths that aren't so bad, but then it gets bad (sometimes very bad) again, and continues like this all the way to Castle Trail. There was one particularly difficult scramble that I had to bushwhack around - luckily there's a faint herd path through the woods around it. It ultimately took me about an hour and a half to do this section of the Link, so slightly over a mile an hour.
Next was the steep descent on The Link down into Castle Ravine. This stretch is also very rough and slow, but had somewhat fewer hollows than the previous stretch of the Link. When I finally got down to Castle Ravine Trail, I made sure to redline the short stretch from there to the junction with Emerald Trail - this finally finished my redlining of the Link. I already felt somewhat tired, but I had a snack and decided to stick to my plan and continue up Castle Ravine Trail.
First came four crossings of Castle Brook, all of which were pretty straightforward (though obviously the rocks were all very slippery). Then the climbing started. The section below Roof Rock was steep, wet, and slippery, but really not too bad. But that changed when I broke treeline. The "fairly difficult scramble" mentioned in the WMG was quite challenging with the rocks all being wet and slippery. The extremely steep climbs up the open rocks were extremely difficult. Not only were the rocks at odd angles, not only did they have deep holes between them, not only was the grade extremely steep (definitely comparable to the King Ravine or Great Gulf headwalls), and not only were many of the rocks loose, but they were all very wet and slippery as well. I mostly had to grab hold of other rocks above me to haul myself up to a place where my boots wouldn't slide off the rocks. It was honestly some of the worst footing I have ever experienced in all my hiking (and I've completed 5 hiking lists and I'm 98% complete with redlining). It is honestly a miracle that I didn't slip off a rock somewhere on that headwall and fall a long distance. I strongly recommend against climbing the Castle Ravine headwall in wet conditions like these - it is legitimately dangerous, and I may well have been in more danger on this hike than any other hike I've done in many years. As I climbed higher, the wind gradually started to get stronger, but I was doing so much exertion that it didn't really bother me. The cairns, and occasional orange pluses, are frequent enough on the headwall that I could always tell where the trail went, even with the socked-in conditions today. When I finally reached the top of the headwall, the trail became less well marked, and the footpath faint, but I was still able to follow it up more gradual grades to the junction with Randolph Path, and then I followed that to Edmands Col.
I was initially planning to have lunch at Edmands Col, but the wind was blowing strongly there, so I decided to continue and find a place more out of the wind. The climb on Gulfside out of Edmands Col is steep, but nothing was as bad as on Castle Ravine. During this climb, I met the first other hiker I'd seen all day - a woman who was planning to go all the way to Adams and then back over Jefferson. I could see where the snowfield is on this section just before the junction with Mt. Jefferson Loop - the snow there is all gone. Being exhausted already, and not wanting to do any unnecessary climbing, I continued on Gulfside past Mt. Jefferson Loop and found a spot to have lunch that was mostly out of the wind. This section of Gulfside is mostly gradual, but the rocks were still extremely wet and slippery. It made rock-hopping on the talus sections slow and challenging. The wind picked back up once I had passed the other end of Mt. Jefferson Loop. Soon afterwards, I turned right on the Cornice to head back to Caps Ridge. Sections of the Cornice are not marked as well as Gulfside (the cairns are spaced further apart), and I briefly lost the trail since I had continued down an area of talus while the trail took a slightly higher line across the mountain. The WMG says that this section of the Cornice has "reasonably good footing", but this is relative - sure, it has good footing compared to the other sections of the Cornice, but then again so does almost every other trail in the White Mountains. This section of the Cornice still has many areas of talus, and by most standards the footing is still quite rough.
I've done Caps Ridge three times before today, but the descent of it today was the toughest of any of them, and that was mostly because the rocks were wet and slippery. In many places, I had to buttslide down ledges where my boots had provided enough grip on previous hikes to just walk down the ledge. I started to meet other hikers right around the lower Cap, and I kind of joined up with them for the steep scrambles below there - those are tough in any conditions, but today, with the slippery ledges and my extreme tiredness, I was glad that other hikers were there. Below those scrambles, the trail got gradually smoother and less steep, and my pace was finally able to increase for almost the first time today. Glad of the easier grades and better footing, I bounded down the lower mile of trail.
This hike redlined The Link and Castle Ravine Trail, which means I have just one more hike to finish redlining Chapter 2 of the WMG. From door to door, this took me about 9 hours and 10 minutes. This has to have been the toughest hike I've done in a while, and possibly the toughest (mostly-)solo hike I've done in a very long time. I am completely exhausted after doing this, but glad I finally got these very difficult trails completed. |
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 | Name: |
GN |
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 | E-Mail: |
ghnaigles@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2025-06-29 |
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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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