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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Mt. Crag, NH
Trails
Trails: Access road, Yellow Trail, Red Yellow Trail Connector, Cable Car Spur, Gates Brook Trail, Austin Brook Trail, road walk
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Saturday, December 7, 2019
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: The guidebook describes parking on a cement pad at the Philbrook Farm Inn. As I only ever seem to hike in this area in winter, I’ve never seen this and have opted to park elsewhere. Last year I parked at the jct of North Rd and Meadow Rd and that seemed fine. This year I just pulled off across from the access road. You may want to bring a shovel especially if your car has very little clearance and especially once we have more snow. I was the only car when I arrived around 9:45 and left around 3:30 but another redlining friend happened to park behind me while I was out and about 😂 When I foot down Austin Brook Trail there was one car across the street in the plowed lot. You could fit a couple but you’d quickly get o blocking each other unfortunately.  
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Snowshoes 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: None were any trouble except the one near the cable car. I didn’t use the cable car as water wasn’t too high and things were mostly snow/ice bridged but the bridges were thin in some spots. You may break through more easily in bare boots but in my behemeath XL snowshoes (35in) I was mostly okay.  
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: All the trails in this area are generally well blazed. The access road I don’t think is and goes through an open area by the cottages behind Philbrook Farm in so if you’re there when the road is snow covered so you can’t see it, you haven’t been there before, and it’s not already properly broken out, then you may be unsure of what way to go. Yellow Trail was well blazed in yellow. I don’t recall if Yellow/Red Trail Connector is well blazed. I was only on a very short section of it yesterday but I don’t recall having any issues following it last year. The cable car spur is also blazed in yellow so might confuse people on which way to go. The road on the other side isn’t but you just head down 100yds to meet back up with Yellow Trail. Gates Brook Trail is blazed in orange. The trail is well blazed except for where it follows Mill Brook Rd where it is wide and obvious anyway. Austin Brook Trail is blazed in blue (connects with the AT). I believe that it was also well blazed. I don’t recall much in the way of blowdowns so there were probably only a couple. I do recall unexpectedly hitting my head on something. It was a limb caught in a tree. I was able to pull it down and haul it off trail (Yellow Trail approaching Mt Crag maybe??) but there was another small leaner that you could walk into right after it.  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: These trails should be good for them.  
Bugs
Bugs: None 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found: None  
 
Comments
Comments: A nice little hike on the Shelburne Trails to finish redlining this area except for the uppermost portion of Austin Brook Trail and the Dryad Fall - Mahoosuc Trail Loop. Hoping to do that as an out-and-back starting on Success Trail this summer unless some crazy redliners want to break that out with me this winter ;)

I got a late start which meant it was already in the 20s when I started and sunny. It was a little windy throughout the day but nothing bad. Could have stayed on top of Mt Crag for a long time if the wind were still. I think it got warmer than anticipated as well although we also got some unexpected snow flurries in the afternoon.

I reluctantly put my snowshoes on at the start as walking without them was a pain but there was so little snow that snowshoes didn’t feel right either. At least I wasn’t sinking anymore. The access road goes behind some cottages which may feel odd so be ready for that. I took this past White Trail on the right to where Blue, Red, Orange (Wiggins Rock) and Yellow trails start. I then took Yellow Trail to its end. Along the way I took the Cable Car Spur to the brook, crossed it (dicey ice bridges but I didn’t feel the need to use the cable car which is not entirely enclosed), then turned right down the road to where Yellow Trail crosses it and crossed the brook again. At the top of Mt Crag, you actually have to turn left (obvious) to the true summit and where the views are. Nice views across over the Androscoggin to Mount Winthrop with the Moriahs behind it (Shelburne Moriah in particular), Stock Farm Mtn, and I think you could even see East Royce way across to the left peaking up over the ridge around where Howe Peak and Shelburne Trail are). Coming down the last 0.3mi of Yellow Trail wasn’t as steep as I thought it would be given it loses 450ft and it was very doable even in my huge snowshoes. I then took Gates Brook Trail to Austin Brook Trail. Nice grades. Where it comes into the open, it is marked by the occasional cairn most of which were at least partially snow covered. I tried to unearth them a bit. I then took Austin Brook Trail up to the jct with Dryad Fall Trail. It was nice to already have this broken out by several snowshoers that I met coming down at the jct. The grades are easy until you get closer to the jct where they become moderate. Made pretty quick work of this in both directions. Headed down the last 1.3mi of the Austin Brook Trail, things became bony at times and snowshoes (at least large ones like mine) were not ideal but I just kept them on. Once down I walked about one and a quarter mile to my car.

The snow was mostly powder. Only a few small spots towards the beginning of my hike that felt a little more like crunchy frozen granular. Some spots were totally untouched powder (never too deep so not real strenuous trail breaking) such as Yellow Trail over Mt Crag save for some boot tracks that went across the trail that I’m guessing were a hunters, others had seen some bareboots, Gates Brook saw some skis in its lower part (to Middle Mtn Tral I believe), and Austin Brook Trail was packed thanks to a midsized group that stayed at the shelter by Gentian Pond that I ran into :) Sfill don’t know if you’d want to microspike that though. Seemed like it could use some more snowshoes first. But all this is likely useles given the snow tomorrow 🙃  
Name
Name: Liam Cooney 
E-Mail
E-Mail: liamcooney96@gmail.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2019-12-08 
Link
Link: https:// 
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