1HappyHiker
Well-known member
Some photos and additional details about this trek are located in the Trip Reports forum (Click HERE).
Below is a summary of the Trail Conditions.
TRAIL CONDITIONS:
On the day of this hike, the conditions were such that you could walk on top the snow with no fuss, no muss, and no sinking! Boilerplate conditions were created by recent rain and warm weather combined with a hard overnight freeze.
My trek started in the Crawford Notch on the Ethan Pond Trail, and from there I hiked to Shoal Pond. Along the way, I made a stop at Ethan Pond. In addition to those two on-trail destinations, I also did two off-trail forays. This included a short bushwhack to "little" Ethan Pond (just a bit east of the main Ethan Pond), plus a longer bushwhack to a 3K ledge located about a mile west of Ethan Pond.
There were numerous postholes on the Ethan Pond Trail up to the Willey Range Trail. However, with the hardened snow conditions, it was possible to simply walk in the woods alongside the trail and avoid the particularly nasty spots. After the Willey Range Trail junction, the Ethan Pond Trail was pretty much free of postholes. And after Ethan Pond, there was no sign of hiker traffic. It was smooth hiking for the remainder of the Ethan Pond Trail and for the bushwhack to the 3K ledge. The Shoal Pond Trail had some postholes, but nothing major.
I finished off my trek at the end of the day with a short 0.4 mile jaunt off the Ethan Pond Trail to visit Ripley Falls. This trail (Arethusa-Ripley Falls Trail) was pretty much a mess. It had a nasty mix of postholes, mud, snow, ice, running water.
Considering the numerous off-trail portions of this trek, it's difficult to be precise, but I'd roughly guesstimate that this was perhaps a 13 to 14 mile journey overall.
Special Equipment:
On this particular day, about all you needed were your own two feet. However, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I began the day on microspikes and changed to snowshoes at the junction of the Ethan Pond/Willey Range Trail. On the return leg of the trip, I switched from snowshoes back to microspikes at the same trail junction.
Blowdowns:
Yes, there were some all along the way, but nothing that couldn't be easily worked around, especially with the boilerplate snow condition on this particular day.
Water Crossings: All were ice-bridged.
Below is a summary of the Trail Conditions.
TRAIL CONDITIONS:
On the day of this hike, the conditions were such that you could walk on top the snow with no fuss, no muss, and no sinking! Boilerplate conditions were created by recent rain and warm weather combined with a hard overnight freeze.
My trek started in the Crawford Notch on the Ethan Pond Trail, and from there I hiked to Shoal Pond. Along the way, I made a stop at Ethan Pond. In addition to those two on-trail destinations, I also did two off-trail forays. This included a short bushwhack to "little" Ethan Pond (just a bit east of the main Ethan Pond), plus a longer bushwhack to a 3K ledge located about a mile west of Ethan Pond.
There were numerous postholes on the Ethan Pond Trail up to the Willey Range Trail. However, with the hardened snow conditions, it was possible to simply walk in the woods alongside the trail and avoid the particularly nasty spots. After the Willey Range Trail junction, the Ethan Pond Trail was pretty much free of postholes. And after Ethan Pond, there was no sign of hiker traffic. It was smooth hiking for the remainder of the Ethan Pond Trail and for the bushwhack to the 3K ledge. The Shoal Pond Trail had some postholes, but nothing major.
I finished off my trek at the end of the day with a short 0.4 mile jaunt off the Ethan Pond Trail to visit Ripley Falls. This trail (Arethusa-Ripley Falls Trail) was pretty much a mess. It had a nasty mix of postholes, mud, snow, ice, running water.
Considering the numerous off-trail portions of this trek, it's difficult to be precise, but I'd roughly guesstimate that this was perhaps a 13 to 14 mile journey overall.
Special Equipment:
On this particular day, about all you needed were your own two feet. However, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I began the day on microspikes and changed to snowshoes at the junction of the Ethan Pond/Willey Range Trail. On the return leg of the trip, I switched from snowshoes back to microspikes at the same trail junction.
Blowdowns:
Yes, there were some all along the way, but nothing that couldn't be easily worked around, especially with the boilerplate snow condition on this particular day.
Water Crossings: All were ice-bridged.
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