North Twin Trail??

Wondering if anybody has hiked this trail recently?? Thinking about tackling the Twins tomorrow but I’m a little curious about the river crossings?? Maybe I should think about a different mountain to climb??

Not a good time, my bet is the rivers will be way up for a couple of days after this amount of rain. Its still raining in Gorham as of 2 PM.

Thanks!��Mt. Garfield here I come!

Remember, Garfield has a couple of water crossings down low and has a few washed out sections.

What about Mt. Success? Do you guys think I’ll have any issues with high water or flooding tomorrow?

richard said:

What about Mt. Success? Do you guys think I’ll have any issues with high water or flooding tomorrow?

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Mt. Success via the Mt. Success trail should be fine, no crossings to worry about. That being said, there is a section of Bog bridges that are in terrible shape, and you should plan on getting your feet muddy or very wet.

My go/no-go decision for the North Twin Trail is when the USGS Gauge for the Ammonossuc in Bethlehem is above 200-250 cfs. As of this writing it is about 3870 cfs and rising 200 cfs/hr. All of the gauges I follow are still very, very high. The Saco gauge near Conway, NH is at an all time high for today and is in minor flood stage alert. I'd imagine anything with any kind of major water crossing this weekend will be dangerous or impossible. Most gauges are still rising as of right now.

sierra said:

Mt. Success via the Mt. Success trail should be fine, no crossings to worry about. That being said, there is a section of Bog bridges that are in terrible shape, and you should plan on getting your feet muddy or very wet.

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Thanks for the information

peakbagger said:

Remember, Garfield has a couple of water crossings down low and has a few washed out sections.

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In 2018, one could avoid the stream crossings by:
* turn left at the first crossing and bushwack parallel to the stream.
* turn right on the snowmobile trail
* cross 2 bridges and turn left
* bushwack parallel to the stream until you return to the trail

There are stream crossing both above and below the snowmobile trail.

Hopefully the bridges are still there.

Doug

Even the most innocent crossing can become deadly after heavy rain. In 2015, this time of year, a woman was found dead in the Gale River. It was presumed she was washed away crossing the Gale River, as the article reads anyway. But that was after the re-route had been completed so the crossing would have been Garfield Brook. If you know it, it's pretty tame. But, again as the article reads, "after 3" of heavy rain in the area". And I believe the Whites received more than that over the past couple days. Even the best of hikers can slip, and that's all it takes in high water conditions. One thing that can save you is, make sure all the straps on your backpack are unclipped while crossing.

This is a picture of the Garfield Brook crossing. What probably became a turret of water strong enough to wash someone away. Hard to believe.

Personally I would not mess with Gale River. A number of years ago I barely made it across on the way up to Galehead and the Twins via Gale River trailhead. As the rain became torrential throughout the day, I went over to Garfield and came down via Garfield trail and walked back up the road to the Gale River trailhead. It was a monsoon but at least was somewhat warm (August). But I did not have desire to try to make it back down Gale River trail that day. I later learned that one of the Gale River bridges washed out in that storm. I also learned to pay better attention to mid-summer weather.

I was backpacking on the AT in Mass and on Saturday afternoon, we just hiked over a bog bridge in a large marsh and found a fish on the trail! The nearest stream was fifty feet away, and easily a foot and a half below us by that point. This was near Great Barrington, which got the rain Thursday night into Friday morning.