T
T.J.
Guest
Conditions:
Hancock Notch Trail was well packed. Cedar Brook Trail was as well until the loop trail. As NH Tramper noted, there were a bunch of wandering trails about a quarter mile before the Loop Trail. In general, staying on the east side of the brook is best. Most/all ice bridges are gone.
Cedar Brook past the Hancock Loop was unbroken, but the consolidated base held up well. We broke trail through 8-12 inches of powder. We were joined by 3 other XC skiers trying to do the trail. They turned around shortly before the height of land, so the uphill side should be well packed. We had no problem following the trail except at the height of land where the woods open up. There is a sign marking the Wilderness boundry that is an easy landmark to find though.
From the height of land down there were approximately 20 water crossings, of which maybe 5-6 had some sort of snowbridge. This made the going quite slow, as there was a 3`-5` drop into each. We had planned to XC ski, but this make it very difficult. I snowshoed to help soften the slope of the banks, but it was still a lot of work. I am not sure if more of these were bridged before the thaw a couple weeks ago, but this should be a major consideration to anyone doing a XC on this trail.
The last mile or so of the trail (past the old logging camp) was free of difficult crossings. The brushing on the entire trail was pretty good. We took care of a few. The deep snowpack made some stretches more branchy than others, but not too bad considering I was carrying skis.
We had planned to go to Ethan Pond shelter, but given the extra time on the CBT, we bailed out onto the Pemi East Side Trail. As expected, the Cedar Brook ice bridge was gone. If one goes about 50 yards upstream, there is an easy rock/debris hop (near the second fallen tree). Many people had made it to the west bank, but none had crossed. From there to the gate was decent, with a few easy step over crossings. Past the gate was packed three-wide.
Equipment:
An adept XC skier might have faired better. I would reccomend bringing snowshoes as well.
Comments:
Irene damage on the brook itself is impressive - massive chunks of the banks are gone. Day hiking with a winter overnight pack is hard work, but still had a great time. Got to meet NH Tramper and Jocelyn in the parking lot. Hard to miss him - he has done a good job branding himself!
[email protected]
Hancock Notch Trail was well packed. Cedar Brook Trail was as well until the loop trail. As NH Tramper noted, there were a bunch of wandering trails about a quarter mile before the Loop Trail. In general, staying on the east side of the brook is best. Most/all ice bridges are gone.
Cedar Brook past the Hancock Loop was unbroken, but the consolidated base held up well. We broke trail through 8-12 inches of powder. We were joined by 3 other XC skiers trying to do the trail. They turned around shortly before the height of land, so the uphill side should be well packed. We had no problem following the trail except at the height of land where the woods open up. There is a sign marking the Wilderness boundry that is an easy landmark to find though.
From the height of land down there were approximately 20 water crossings, of which maybe 5-6 had some sort of snowbridge. This made the going quite slow, as there was a 3`-5` drop into each. We had planned to XC ski, but this make it very difficult. I snowshoed to help soften the slope of the banks, but it was still a lot of work. I am not sure if more of these were bridged before the thaw a couple weeks ago, but this should be a major consideration to anyone doing a XC on this trail.
The last mile or so of the trail (past the old logging camp) was free of difficult crossings. The brushing on the entire trail was pretty good. We took care of a few. The deep snowpack made some stretches more branchy than others, but not too bad considering I was carrying skis.
We had planned to go to Ethan Pond shelter, but given the extra time on the CBT, we bailed out onto the Pemi East Side Trail. As expected, the Cedar Brook ice bridge was gone. If one goes about 50 yards upstream, there is an easy rock/debris hop (near the second fallen tree). Many people had made it to the west bank, but none had crossed. From there to the gate was decent, with a few easy step over crossings. Past the gate was packed three-wide.
Equipment:
An adept XC skier might have faired better. I would reccomend bringing snowshoes as well.
Comments:
Irene damage on the brook itself is impressive - massive chunks of the banks are gone. Day hiking with a winter overnight pack is hard work, but still had a great time. Got to meet NH Tramper and Jocelyn in the parking lot. Hard to miss him - he has done a good job branding himself!
[email protected]
