HH1
Member
On Sun May 23rd, we found the Jefferson Notch Rd closed, so we parked at the WMNF lot just west of the Base Station, crossed the road to the Jewel trailhead and hiked for .4 mi where we turned left onto the Boundary Line trail, which had to be recently maintained as it was wide open - flat easy hiking.
Clay Brook was running a bit high but we found an easy crossing on rocks about 50 yards downstream.
After hitting the Jefferson Notch Rd. at 2500', we enjoyed a pleasant walk on the car free road right to the empty Caps Ridge lot (weird!) and trailhead. If there are 500 trees down, they must be on that part of the road under 2500', as we saw no significant blowdown to speak of on the road. Total ascent time was one hour, fifteen minutes from parking lot to parking lot at an easy pace.
Caps Ridge Trail trail, on the other hand, has four to five blowdowns, the first, and the biggest, just a few minutes from the trailhead. Although taking only a couple of minutes to bypass them, we had to take considerable care to relocate the trail, especially because pockets of snow hid the trail here and there. (No postholing while crossing snow, however).
We had the Caps Ridge to ourselves right up to the summit, where other folks were streaming in from the Gulfside trail.
Headed south to Clay where we enjoyed the best views of the day, the air particularly clear compared to hazy Saturday's. Nice snow pockets still remaining, but only a couple on trail heading up Clay and again solid. Saw five or six skiers in the Great Gulf.
Descended on the Jewel trail where we hit three foot snow as soon as the conifers provided deep shade, maybe around 4300 feet. We hiking boot skied pretty well for about 40 minutes until the snow ran out at about 3500 feet, trail then being virtually snow free the rest of the way. (Memorial Day weekend hikers will probably find a lot less snow on the Jewell).
Great loop!
Clay Brook was running a bit high but we found an easy crossing on rocks about 50 yards downstream.
After hitting the Jefferson Notch Rd. at 2500', we enjoyed a pleasant walk on the car free road right to the empty Caps Ridge lot (weird!) and trailhead. If there are 500 trees down, they must be on that part of the road under 2500', as we saw no significant blowdown to speak of on the road. Total ascent time was one hour, fifteen minutes from parking lot to parking lot at an easy pace.
Caps Ridge Trail trail, on the other hand, has four to five blowdowns, the first, and the biggest, just a few minutes from the trailhead. Although taking only a couple of minutes to bypass them, we had to take considerable care to relocate the trail, especially because pockets of snow hid the trail here and there. (No postholing while crossing snow, however).
We had the Caps Ridge to ourselves right up to the summit, where other folks were streaming in from the Gulfside trail.
Headed south to Clay where we enjoyed the best views of the day, the air particularly clear compared to hazy Saturday's. Nice snow pockets still remaining, but only a couple on trail heading up Clay and again solid. Saw five or six skiers in the Great Gulf.
Descended on the Jewel trail where we hit three foot snow as soon as the conifers provided deep shade, maybe around 4300 feet. We hiking boot skied pretty well for about 40 minutes until the snow ran out at about 3500 feet, trail then being virtually snow free the rest of the way. (Memorial Day weekend hikers will probably find a lot less snow on the Jewell).
Great loop!