Gale River Loop Road (NH) question

Just trying to plan this weekend's hikes and was wondering what the road walk on Gale River Loop Road between Garfield Trail and Gale River Trail was like? I was thinking about doing a Garfield/Galehead loop but will be solo so no car spot...

About 1.5 miles on a flat gravel road.

It's not that far, a bit over a mile IIRC. But my advice is to have someone else in your group do the road walk for the car. That's always worked for me.

Or, just stash a bike at one end and it'll be a short trip.

-dave-

WMG 27 says 1.6 miles. Somebody measure it the next time you drive by.

I've done the walk. It's not bad, just a bit boring.

The odometer on my truck said 1.7 - but that's close to the 'book'. And, not completely flat, Waumbek. You have to some mild inclines there - not bad on a cool summer day, but can seem interminable in winter when you've done a Galehead/Garfield loop, starting from Beaver Brook park lot, and are heading there after making the road from Garfield and need to break trail along that section.

According to my map is 1.6 mi. I've walked the walk before from Gale River TH to Garfield TH. You'll walk a bit uphill then slight downhill. Not bad at all took me about 30 min.

Garfield is one of my most beloved mountain, have fun!

http://s94354335.onlinehome.us/hike/garfield_galehead/image28.html

I've done that before too (Tuco on and I had to walk from the Gale River trailhead back to Garfield where his car was). As mentioned it's a road walk, no mountaineering boots needed You can check out the campsites there too as there are USFS campsites there that neither Eric nor I knew about.

Jay

You can save a bit of distance, and use old logging roads instead of a road with traffic, by following the logging roads south of the Gale River Road.

Simplified directions: Go up Galehead, on your way down from Garfield, after the upper stream crossing you will reach an old logging road/snowmobile trail. Go right (east) on it. After about half a mile the old road straight ahead gets very overgrown; turn right (south, uphill) here for a short distance. You will reach a clearing, and the road makes a right angled turn back eastwards. Just before a clearing the road turns left (north, downhill) and reaches the Gale River Road. Go right for about half a mile to your car.

It's a great trip, see my trip report about a week ago.

You will have replaces about a mile of trail plus 1.6 miles of road walk by a bit over two miles of logging roads plus road.

I will second Mohamed’s idea of the logging road shortcut. We had wondered if indeed there was a shortcut and last year we tried it without knowing for sure if there was. Mohamed is correct (as usual) in saying that the shortcut is not necessarily straightforward. The shortcut saved us some considerable time and distance. It was also a very hot day and the less we were out on the sun baked road walk the better we felt. The road walk from the Garfield trailhead to the Galehead trailhead seems to be more uphill than the opposite direction even though both trailheads are at 1500 feet.

JohnL

I do the road walk at the front end of the hike. The easy walk will warm you up for the uphill to come. If you don't want any "extra" walking, by the end of the day it is easy to catch a ride from one trailhead to the other as this is a very used area. Just don't jump in the back of a p/u or let others ride in the back of yours. Last year several of us got warnings from a friendly police type not to shuttle folks like that.

Tim Horn said:

I do the road walk at the front end of the hike.

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When doing a real road walk I also try to get it out of the way at the start, when I am fresh, rather than at the end.

Thanks everyone for the great info. I think I'll try to stumble through the shortcut. I really don't like road walks!

I have put the description of the shortcut, plus a map, on my web site.

Excellent, Mohamed. I was having a hard time picturing in my head where this road takes off. The only one that came to mind is the snowmobile trail which is useful in high water to avoid the major brook crossings.

Kevin Rooney said:

I was having a hard time picturing in my head where this road takes off. The only one that came to mind is the snowmobile trail which is useful in high water to avoid the major brook crossings.

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It is that trail, followed east beyond the bridge. I hope the current version is clearer on that point.

I call it a logging road rather than snowmobile trail since it is no longer maintained as such.