Old Osgood Trailhead

[NHClimber]

Curious if this is still followable from the auto road. All thoughts welcome.

 

[Ear Drum]

I have no experience on this old trail. I searched (via goggle) and found this old post here, by the trail maintainer at that time:

https://www.vftt.org/threads/visiting-a-section-of-"ye-olde"-osgood-trail-doing-a-short-loop-hike-02-jan-2009.27121/

It includes a map of the old Osgood route, with discussion of the water crossing etc. It says it's generally part of the Glen House trail system now. They publish current Summer and Winter maps here:
https://greatglentrails.com/trail-map-summer/
https://greatglentrails.com/trail-map-winter/

Caltopo does show the old trail on their historic layer.

All the best in finding the route.

 

[Ear Drum]

Here's a Steve Smith report from that same era, 2009. It refers to the Views poster I linked above, who also comments there in the blog. As usual, Steve's report and photos are concise, evocative, and will induce you to get up and go hike there.

https://mountainwandering.blogspot.com/2009/06/great-gulf-chandler-brook-6409-trip.html

(There's no mention of the old Osgood trail).

 

[NHClimber]

Thanks. Appreciate it. I have a season pass to GG and am up there a lot so was curious. Might make for a fun casual exploratory hike one of these days. Worst case it’s a short whack over to Madison Gulf. And that trail comes very close to the back side of the GG system near the warming hut.

 

[NHClimber]

So given the crappy XC conditions and the fact that there is barely any snow in the woods, I poked around and found part of the old trail. I came to the West Branch of the Peabody River from the Great Glen trails (snow shoes not really required given the paucity of snow) and just happened to look up river and see what I thought was a dam. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be old bridge abutments with stairs still in tact on the southern side where I approached from. Given the water conditions, I chose not to attempt to cross the river. I did see what appeared to be somewhat of an old trail that led to the stairs but it blended into the woods quite quickly. On the hike over, I saw no signs of any trail other than close to the Auto Road, where I suspect GG uses the beginning of the old trail as a snowshoe trail, but that trail eventually turns north towards the tubing hill.

Edit.: Didn't have a chance to click on the link above to the 2009 VFTT post before I set off, but I see now that it mentions the same site I just happened to come to and it is the old trail bridge site. 1HappyHiker came to it from the north and I came to it from the south.

 

[Ear Drum]

Thanks for the report!

 

[JoshandBaron]

I came across that bridge on a fishing trip in 2020 but never did the research. Here's a couple more photos from the North side.

 

[NHClimber]

I love old artifacts like these. And when you look at old Topo maps, it’s amazing how many trails there used to be all over the place that have since been reclaimed by nature.