Dry River Wilderness..NH

Has anyone done the Dry River Trail in the winter these past few years?
(or even in the summer for that matter)
I hope to do some travelling in there this winter. Thinking in terms of going in and picking up the Mnt Eisenhower Trail to Eisenhower and then making a loop back on the Mnt Clinton trail . I know some have done this as a long day hike in summer and would think I would need at least one over night when the snow is deep..primarily travelling on snowshoes.

....on a related note...

Has anyone bushwhacked to Mt Jackson from Mt Clinton Trail or the unnamed peak (3037') between the Dry River Trail and the Webster Cliff Trail from the Wilderness side?
I would assume the deeper the snow the better the off trail travel in this area...?
thanks...spdr

Thanks for the "heads up about the bridge, it's the 1st I've heard of it.
I'll be going in tommorow to check it out.
I see the bridge is at 1.7...leaving a 1.2 mile bushwhack to Mt Clinton Trail or a 3.5 whack to the Mt Eisenhower Jct so I would be pleased to get anywhere near that on my 1st outing to check things out....I would hope later in the season things would freeze up enough to be able to cross ok.
The contours around 800'-1100' feet look promising but I don't how thick the forest is through there. Most the elevation seems to come after that climbing steeply to the ridge .

The original trail up Dry River was the old railroad grade which made multiple crossings of the river. This was a cut-and-run-before-the-bridges-wash-out operation according to Belcher so the roadbed was not well built and often muddy. Several years ago a hiking trail was laid out which bypassed several crossings and muddy areas but had some narrow sidehill that I don't think of as being particularly good in winter. I don't know how easy it would be to find the RR grade now but it should be better for winter travel. Some skiers go right up the frozen river as easier yet.

RoySwkr said:

Several years ago a hiking trail was laid out which bypassed several crossings and muddy areas but had some narrow sidehill that I don't think of as being particularly good in winter.

Click to expand...

There was a pretty dicey spot on one of these sidehills before the bridge--an icy bulge with a bad runout if you slipped. (IIRC, near where the big up-and-over drops down to the bridge.) Well past the bridge there were some spots where the trail was about one snowshoe width just above the river.

I don't know how easy it would be to find the RR grade now but it should be better for winter travel.

Click to expand...

There were certainly spots where one could follow the RR grade, but I'm not sure one would be able to connect them without some difficulties.

Some skiers go right up the frozen river as easier yet.

Click to expand...

Would have required water skis when I was there... It is a good sized river with a good grade behind it.

Doug