| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Black Hill (Orford), Lampier Hill - East Peak, Lampier Hill, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Snowmobile trails, bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Thursday, April 23, 2026 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Spotted a car at the end of Rowentown Rd. There's a gate with an ambiguous no parking sign that I took to mean 'don't block the gate' but there's a spot for 1-2 cars outside the area that sign seemed to apply to. Then we drove to the AT crossing on 25a. We later looked at the logging road/snomo junction a bit to the west of the AT and this was blocked by trucks/heavy machinery and did not seem like a good place to park / access. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Two beaver dams that caused floods/washouts in the snomo trails. One to the NE of Lampier hill and one north of Black Hill but south of the AT |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Champ enjoyed investigating the moose skull on East Lampier. Tucker enjoyed rolling in something. |
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 | Bugs: |
not yet |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
I was unenthused about the normal approach from quinttown road and always love a traverse, so we opted to traverse these. We contemplated trying to approach from Ellsworth Hill Rd, but ultimately the confidence of parking at the AT and the satellite views of the snomo roads looked better from the north so we opted for the AT.
We followed the AT south until it intersected with the obvious road that we hopped on. This road was truly a road - likely driveable if it weren't gated and not mud season. Naturally we made good time following it all the way to Brickett Pond, and started our whack from a little clearing almost due east of Black Hill. This was a great route, mostly open woods until the summit spruce band, but even that wasn't too bad. Found the jar without much trouble. There was one of the best defined herd paths I've ever seen running N/S, just east of the summit, which we elected to follow south on our descent. This probably put us in a bit more spruce than we had on the ascent and was probably a small mistake vs. retracing our ascent line. But eventually the woods opened up and we popped out on the road SE of the Black Hill. Followed the road further south, past a junction where we contemplated taking the road that went around Lampier to the west, but opted to stay to the east, which forced us through a section of flooded road due to beaver activity. Started our whack up Lampier at another clearing to the NE. Decent woods up to Lampier and a little tricky finding the jar, which had lost it's orange tape. We descended just south of our ascent line, navigating some steeper sections than we found on our ascent. Got back to the road, which was starting to feel more like a snomo trail than a road and followed it east past Rocky Pond, then stayed right at a junction untill we were just north of west of Lampier East. Snomo trail was definitely in worse shape for this stretch - wet and muddy! Whacked up to East Lampier, again in good woods and found the jar plus a moose skull and 4-5 bones. From heare, we traversed over the summit to the col with the subpeak to the east, navigating a short but very steep section, although no cliffs until we found the snomo trail in the col, which was in pretty good shape and we followed that SE back to the car at Rowentown Rd.
A little over 4 hours total and I was very pleased with the route and sure seemed easier than via Quinttown rd.
90 mins from 25a to Black Hill, 70min from Black to Lampier, 40 mins from Lampier to Lampier east and 50 mins from Lampier east back to the car.
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 | Name: |
Big Al Dente |
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 | E-Mail: |
bigaldentenh@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2026-04-24 |
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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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