Percy Peaks Question

[grouseking]

Saturday I plan on heading up to the Percy Peaks via the Old Summer Club trail. I read on a somewhat recent thread (from May) that the trail is tough to follow and littered with blowdowns. I was wondering if anyone had hiked this recently and if there are still nasty blowdowns?? If so I may reconsider my approach, but I really wanted to check out the lake and possibly Victor Head.

grouseking

 

[bill bowden]

Percy Peaks

I'm uncertain as to the route of the Summer Club Trail. The trail in from Nash Stream Road was in very good shape last year, well-marked and brushed out with a clearly marked intersection with a Coos Trail connector in the saddle between N and S peaks. The formerly flagged route to the S. peak has become a rough but tolerable trail. There are occasional blazes marking the Underhill route but I couldn't easily follow it.

 

[AntlerPeak]

Saturday I plan on heading up to the Percy Peaks via the Old Summer Club trail. I read on a somewhat recent thread (from May) that the trail is tough to follow and littered with blowdowns. I was wondering if anyone had hiked this recently and if there are still nasty blowdowns?? If so I may reconsider my approach, but I really wanted to check out the lake and possibly Victor Head.

grouseking

This might help I found it on the Cohos Trail Website. As the Summer Club Trail is part of the Cohos Trail I guessed if there was any work done they may know. What they say there, I'll paste here.

[ 4. Percy Road to Nash Stream Road
The trails here -- Bald Mt. Trail, Rowells Link -- have had a crew of 12 through them, to remove blowdowns, branches, do clipping, and conduct some water diversion and some erosion control. These trails should be in good condition. An early report from a hiker on the Old Summer Club Trail to the col between South Percy and North Percy Peaks indicated that the trail appeared to be in good shape this spring. There are a few blowdowns that will be removed in 2006. They have been bypassed at this time. ]

Here is the link
Cohos Trail

It was likely my report you read about the blowdown. It was pretty bad in there in the last mile ( appx ) before the col.

Also take care when you start out from the lake trail head as it was poorly marked. The signs mentioned in the latest edition of the AMC NH guide were all but missing though there were a few. Count your intersections as we missed one and walked straight ahead covering about a quarter mile before figuring out "things were not right". We back tracked and turned on an old road. Followed it quite a distance before confirming it was the right path. The bridge at 1.0 was the first solid clue we were going right. The second clue was the blue blaze at 1.3 marking entry to Nash Stream Forest. There were no signs to announce the forest property just a blaze. As you know a blue blaze could mean a lot of things. At 1.7 we hit the intersection with Jimmy Cole Brook rd and the first sign announcing the Cohos Trail. From there markings were no issue, but getting to that point took considerable "paying attention". Once we crossed the upper reaches of the brook and began the ascent to the col we encountered the blowdown. It appears the Cohos Trail people did some improvement as I thought they would, as they are a good outfit.

Hope this helps.