On New Years day I did a short hike up Mt Crescent via Carlton Notch Trail and down Castleview ledge trail but the caution would also apply to the Mt Crescent trail. The new trailhead and parking at the end of Randolph Hill road is not yet in place and is currently not plowed past the last house. There are several wildlife cuts and logging roads that run east west in this area and what appears to be a lot of use by locals who are not necessarily using the trails. There are also several painted boundary lines that run through the area. The net result is its quite easy to loose the trail or inadvertently turn off a trail onto a logging road or a clearing and possibly end up confused. In the meantime the older Mt Crescent trailhead is still in place a bit lower on the road but parking is minimal at best and would impact the towns ability to plow.
In general until such time that they relocate the trail heads, I would suggest accessing Carlton Notch trail by parking at the end of the road without blocking the homeowners driveway and accessing Mt Crescent trail from the current trailhead. If you are making a loop its easy to just walk back to you car from the old trailhead to the end of the road.
Folks forget about this portion of the RMC network but they are nice option for those who want some great views of the Northern Presidentials but aren't up for a major hike. We elected to do the hike on new years as the trails tend to have good shading from the wind. The trail network is very interconnected so the length of hike can be added to or subtracted and still end up in the same place. Just don't assum they are all easy, there are some steep ice stretches on many of the trails
In general until such time that they relocate the trail heads, I would suggest accessing Carlton Notch trail by parking at the end of the road without blocking the homeowners driveway and accessing Mt Crescent trail from the current trailhead. If you are making a loop its easy to just walk back to you car from the old trailhead to the end of the road.
Folks forget about this portion of the RMC network but they are nice option for those who want some great views of the Northern Presidentials but aren't up for a major hike. We elected to do the hike on new years as the trails tend to have good shading from the wind. The trail network is very interconnected so the length of hike can be added to or subtracted and still end up in the same place. Just don't assum they are all easy, there are some steep ice stretches on many of the trails
