NH Tramper
Member
Date of Hike: Apr. 18, 2013
Trail Conditions: Been a while me. Thankfully I have a bike. Today I hiked two of the 52WAV peaks: Potash and Hedgehog, in that order. We first went up Mt Potash via the Mt Potash Trail. It was a mix of rocks, roots, running water, still mostly hardpacked snow, soft snow, ice, and the fallen debris associated with spring -- lots of that. There wasn't a monorail in most sections because the snow either existed or it didn't. It was quite a mix all the way up, though. We started bareboot carrying spikes and snowshoes, not knowing what to expect. We stayed that way for awhile deciding at some point to wear spikes, but that resulted in equal parts wear and traction. A real toss-up. The snowshoes were never needed since we were able to stay on top of the packed out remains or rock hop. There were many postholes, but they were there before us. The wide open crossing was manageable via rock hops. There is a skinny but strong log and a leaning tree, and both helped make the toughest section possible. There were a couple of blowdowns but all were either easy-over, had clipped routes, or had 'whack-around herd paths. After dropping off our unused snowshoes in our vehicles we hit the trail again, this time headed for Hedgehog via the UNH Trail. We did this counter-clockwise, hitting the west side first. (Afterward we all agreed, doing it the other way would have been better.) The conditions were basically the same. I think we did encounter more snow on Hedgehog on the east side branch of the loop and we did in fact post hole a foot a couple of times when we hit bad patches, but not a lot -- the trail is still pretty firm. If we did have our snowshoes, however, I'm not sure we would have put them on. There was a good mix of conditions barring one minor segment. We would have had to take them off and put them on a lot. It's not going to get better in that regard, but I expect as it softens it'll become necessary to use snowshoes on this trail again just to make passage.
Special Equipment Used: While we carried snowshoes in the first part of this hike, we didn't use them, but if it were any warmer we would have needed them on and off more than likely. We used spikes in parts but had to remove them a few times since summits and ledges were bare. Trekking poles were very helpful for making the crossing.
Comments: Hiked this one as a participant of a Meetup hike led by Bill Robichaud. Along for the hike were also Theresa, a fellow NE Peakbaggers group leader, Leslie, and Leslie's cool dog Banjo (he's from Tennessee, barked with an accent, and said funny things like "Boy, you've sure got a purty sandwich!"). The views were pretty good for a while, then got worse -- even spitting on us -- as the day wore on, but then got nice again before we left. Like the trail, the weather offered up a mix of conditions. Awesome perspective of the mighty Passaconaway; impressive. The summits and ledge... all really nice, with very little effort to get there. Awesome little mountains.
Mike "Tramper" Cherim
Nottingham NH
Trail Conditions: Been a while me. Thankfully I have a bike. Today I hiked two of the 52WAV peaks: Potash and Hedgehog, in that order. We first went up Mt Potash via the Mt Potash Trail. It was a mix of rocks, roots, running water, still mostly hardpacked snow, soft snow, ice, and the fallen debris associated with spring -- lots of that. There wasn't a monorail in most sections because the snow either existed or it didn't. It was quite a mix all the way up, though. We started bareboot carrying spikes and snowshoes, not knowing what to expect. We stayed that way for awhile deciding at some point to wear spikes, but that resulted in equal parts wear and traction. A real toss-up. The snowshoes were never needed since we were able to stay on top of the packed out remains or rock hop. There were many postholes, but they were there before us. The wide open crossing was manageable via rock hops. There is a skinny but strong log and a leaning tree, and both helped make the toughest section possible. There were a couple of blowdowns but all were either easy-over, had clipped routes, or had 'whack-around herd paths. After dropping off our unused snowshoes in our vehicles we hit the trail again, this time headed for Hedgehog via the UNH Trail. We did this counter-clockwise, hitting the west side first. (Afterward we all agreed, doing it the other way would have been better.) The conditions were basically the same. I think we did encounter more snow on Hedgehog on the east side branch of the loop and we did in fact post hole a foot a couple of times when we hit bad patches, but not a lot -- the trail is still pretty firm. If we did have our snowshoes, however, I'm not sure we would have put them on. There was a good mix of conditions barring one minor segment. We would have had to take them off and put them on a lot. It's not going to get better in that regard, but I expect as it softens it'll become necessary to use snowshoes on this trail again just to make passage.
Special Equipment Used: While we carried snowshoes in the first part of this hike, we didn't use them, but if it were any warmer we would have needed them on and off more than likely. We used spikes in parts but had to remove them a few times since summits and ledges were bare. Trekking poles were very helpful for making the crossing.
Comments: Hiked this one as a participant of a Meetup hike led by Bill Robichaud. Along for the hike were also Theresa, a fellow NE Peakbaggers group leader, Leslie, and Leslie's cool dog Banjo (he's from Tennessee, barked with an accent, and said funny things like "Boy, you've sure got a purty sandwich!"). The views were pretty good for a while, then got worse -- even spitting on us -- as the day wore on, but then got nice again before we left. Like the trail, the weather offered up a mix of conditions. Awesome perspective of the mighty Passaconaway; impressive. The summits and ledge... all really nice, with very little effort to get there. Awesome little mountains.
Mike "Tramper" Cherim
Nottingham NH
