| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Patience, Mt. Metalak (Millsfield), NH |
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 | Trails: |
bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, July 26, 2026 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
We drove the parabola spur road to the SW of these peaks to the landing near the vertex of the parabola. This was a 'questioning your life choices' spur road. Very narrow with scraping branches in places and navigating around plenty of medium/large sized rocks in the road with the narrow margins made for white knuckle driving in mid clearance. Noting after the vertex of the parabola, there's a degrading bridge, with a large bolt sticking up that could easily puncture a tire. Would not recommend driving past the first landing, and not sure I would recommend driving to the 1st landing. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
These were 336 & 337 for Champ. Not sure dad has the Patience to redo the ones he did without Champ... |
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 | Bugs: |
none |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Seeing the logging road from the parking landing was pretty overgrown, we opted to follow the continuation of the spur road on foot to the final landing, then aim for the southern spine of Patience. This worked OK, but not great. The logging roads were usually waist high low growth and the woods quickly changed to dense spruce. We had some luck following the edge of an old clear cut that was on the eastern edge of the spine. It opened up a bit and became ferny as we neared the summit, but it was a slog up, partly because it was getting hot and we were tired already from the 1st two hikes. Found the summit/jar and proceeded on the NW ridge towards the col. This stretch was gnarly with a mix of hobblebush and dense spruce. As we neared the col, we aimed for the eastern edge, which sat showed better woods and that paid off as we got a short reprieve from the tougher woods. We were able to follow some herd paths/drainages through more thick stuff up to Metalak. Found the jar, which curiously didn't have any sign ins since 2023, making us think there might be multiple jars up here.
From here we headed SW back toward the parking landing, latching on to some vertical swaths. We hit a horizontal old road around 2550, that we followed west to a badly overgrown clearing, then followed more badly overgrown logging roads back to the car. Wasn't a pleasant descent, but in hindsight we made decent time.
45 mins up Patience, 30 mins from Patience to Metalak and 30 mins from Metalak down. I imagine this could be done quicker pre or post foliage.
If I were doing this again, I think I would scout out the spur road to the northeast of the peaks.
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 | Name: |
Big Al Dente |
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 | E-Mail: |
bigaldentenh@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2026-07-27 |
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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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