Snowflea
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- Joined
- Sep 5, 2003
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Route: Tunnel Brook Road, Benton Trail, Beaver Brook Trail
Date: Saturday, 2/01/14
Equipment: Snowshoes, Microspikes
Trail conditions: 2-4” snow over ice on Tunnel Brook Road and lower Benton Trail progressing to up to a foot of trail breaking higher up. Some hidden ice.
Comments: The Benton was another lightly used winter route on my to-do list. Stars were aligned, as a good friend also had it in his sights. We were able to drive to the new, post-Irene summer trailhead/gate on Tunnel Brook Road about 1 ½ miles in from Route 112, so this hike turned out to be only a little over 10 miles! Tunnel Brook Road had some impressive washouts. Can see why the feds don’t want to spend any $$$ fixing this particular road!
Once on the Benton Trail, the stream crossing 0.2 miles in was frozen over completely and easily crossed. We barebooted until about 2800 feet +/- at which point snowshoes proved to be the most efficient mode of travel. This trail is nicely graded and perfect for snowshoeing. Much to our delight, the trail was completely un-traveled and unbroken. Some serious trail breaking was had for a solid mile plus before meeting the highly traveled Beaver Brook Trail. There was just enough snow on the summit area that we opted to keep our snowshoes on. Wonderful and far reaching views today, the wind just a tad chilly.
We returned via the same route, switching to Microspikes for the downhill icy sections. We saw zero people until the summit area and zero people after the summit area but about 15 people on/near the summit and a couple of exhausted looking older dogs.
(Boo!)
This is a great route that I would highly recommend for a change of pace over the usual routes.
Date: Saturday, 2/01/14
Equipment: Snowshoes, Microspikes
Trail conditions: 2-4” snow over ice on Tunnel Brook Road and lower Benton Trail progressing to up to a foot of trail breaking higher up. Some hidden ice.
Comments: The Benton was another lightly used winter route on my to-do list. Stars were aligned, as a good friend also had it in his sights. We were able to drive to the new, post-Irene summer trailhead/gate on Tunnel Brook Road about 1 ½ miles in from Route 112, so this hike turned out to be only a little over 10 miles! Tunnel Brook Road had some impressive washouts. Can see why the feds don’t want to spend any $$$ fixing this particular road!
Once on the Benton Trail, the stream crossing 0.2 miles in was frozen over completely and easily crossed. We barebooted until about 2800 feet +/- at which point snowshoes proved to be the most efficient mode of travel. This trail is nicely graded and perfect for snowshoeing. Much to our delight, the trail was completely un-traveled and unbroken. Some serious trail breaking was had for a solid mile plus before meeting the highly traveled Beaver Brook Trail. There was just enough snow on the summit area that we opted to keep our snowshoes on. Wonderful and far reaching views today, the wind just a tad chilly.
We returned via the same route, switching to Microspikes for the downhill icy sections. We saw zero people until the summit area and zero people after the summit area but about 15 people on/near the summit and a couple of exhausted looking older dogs.
(Boo!)This is a great route that I would highly recommend for a change of pace over the usual routes.
