North Twin, South Twin, and Galehead Loop

Date of Hike: 3/8/15

Little River Herd Path: 1.0 miles  /  North Twin Trail: 4.3 miles  /  North Twin Spur:  1.2 miles  /  Twinway:  0.8 miles  /  Frost Trail:  0.8 miles  /  Garfield Ridge Trail: 0.6 miles  /  Gale River Trail: 3.8 miles  /  Corridor 11 & Corridor 11 Bypass: 5.0 miles
Total Miles 17.5  (4,624 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report ... In Pictures :)

7 a.m. at the end of Little River Road I jump on the herd path and head over to Haystack Road 

 I head along the North Twin Trail, bypassing the first two water crossings and hook onto a well used herd path.  Notice the ski tracks heading across the river, that's where the trail actually goes, I took a left at this spot onto the herd path.

 The Little River is just filled with snow

 With this much snow depth the route heads directly over the river!

 Back onto the North Twin Trail, then making the water crossing over the Little River

 Heading up to North Twin through the woods.  Lot of action in the trees down low, lots of snow up high

 View to the north down to the Sugarloafs

 To the west the sun is in a battle with the clouds!

 The trail corridor up to North Twin is fill to the tops of the trees

 North Twin summit.  The sun still trying to break through

 Hooked onto the North Twin Spur

 View from the North and South Twin col.  North Twin (left), South Twin (right)

 South Twin in the clear as I approach its summit cone

 Cool snow formations on the way to South Twin (top).  Looking back to North Twin (bottom)

 The final stretch to South Twin

 South Twin Summit

 Views over to Guyot and the Bonds (top).  Zealand (bottom)

South Twin Summit 

 Looking to the west across to the Franconia Ridge

 Heading down the Twinway. So much snow!!

 Dropping down back into the woods

 Galehead Hut and Galehead Mountain

 Frost Trail to the summit

 Nice view of South Twin and the hut from the Frost Trail outlook

 The summit of Galehead is still in the woods even with the high snow pack.  Nice view of South Twin near the summit of Galehead

 The descent back down the car via the Gale River Trail

 Trail reroute.  The Gale River Trail was rerouted to avoid two water crossings, this winter the old trail has been broken out

 Old Trail is in yellow, reroute is in red

 The mostly flat walk back to Gale River Loop Road

 I hook onto Gale River Loop Road, 'Corridor 11' and share the road with snowmobilers

 Signs spied along the way!

 Corridor 11 leads back to Haystack Road, I jump on that using the Corridor 11 bypass back to Little River Road

 An old fireplace and cobblestone cellar, the trailhead, and my Jeep :)

  Route for the day, Blue X's form left to right: North Twin, South Twin, Galehead.  Lower right red dot is where I hooked onto Gale River Loop Road, then Corridor 11 and Corridor 11 bypass back to the lower left red dot at the end of Little River Road. Click here for more details

Garfield, Galehead, South Twin, and North Twin (#37, #38, #39, #40)

Date of Hike: 1/30/11

US 3 / Gale River Road: 1.4 miles
Garfield Trail: 4.8 miles
Garfield Ridge Trail: 3.3 miles
Frost Trail: 1.0 miles
Twinway / North Twin Spur: 4.2 miles
Garfield Ridge: .6 miles
Gale River Trail: 4.0 miles
Gale River Road / US 3: 3.0 miles
Total Miles: 22.3 (6,000 elevation gain)
Click here for trail descriptions

Trip Report:
- After a great week of training I figured Sunday would be a good day for a challenging hike over Garfield, Galehead, South Twin, and North Twin.
- Left Five Corners at 6:15am, Garfield 9am, Galehead 10:45am, South Twin 11:45am, North Twin 12:20pm, Gale River Trailhead 3pm, finished 4:15pm. Temps 5-15 degrees, good views of Pemi Wilderness from Garfield, socked in the rest of the day, breezy on South Twin summit and very cold!
- The Gale River Road is closed in the winter so I started the hike out at 'Five Corners' off US-3 in the dark. I'm not a big fan of road walks but it was a pretty short and quick 1.5 miles over the newly constructed bridges on the Gale River Road to the Garfield trailhead.
- The Garfield Trail was well broken out and the trail ascends gradually with no steep spots.  There are no views along the way but it's a picturesque hike in the snow laden woods.  The only downside to this trail is the semi-annoying switchbacks as the trail gains the ridge.
- Views from Garfield's summit were pretty cool, there was a purplish early morning glow over hovering over the Pemigewasset Wilderness.  I didn't hang around for long because of the frigid temps and what might lay ahead of me on the dreaded Garfield Ridge Trail!
- Going into this hike I had psyched myself up for a trail-breaking sufferfest along the ridge to the Gale River Trail junction. Luckily by some miracle for the first time in weeks there would be no major trail-breaking today!
- The previous day two brave souls (Jeff and Karine) broke trail to the Gale River junction and what's even more impressive is they stayed exactly on trail the entire time which takes some super skills.
- However, the hike to the Galehead Hut was still annoying as ever with numerous PUDS (pointless up and downs), high snow levels, and snow bombs falling from every branch along the way.
- Once past the Gale River Trail junction I was thrilled because the trails would be all broken and packed the rest of the day.
- When I reached the Galehead Hut it was off to the awesomely boring summit of Galehead.  I carefully avoided dead end bushwhacks I made my way to and then up the frost trail where most branches were at face level because of the snow depths. I avoided getting my eyes poked out but got whacked in the face a few times.
- At the summit I put on some dry layers, refueled, and took a picture of the buried summit cairn and got the hell out of there!
- Next was the steep ascent up the Twinway to South Twin, usually I book it to see how fast I can hike the 0.8 miles but today I played it safe and just went at a steady pace all the way up to the breezy low visibility summit of South Twin.  I didn't linger long on the South Twin summit, it was really cold so I hurried over to the North Twin Spur Trail and quickly descended back into the woods and out of the wind.
- I finally ran into the first hiker of the day just before reaching the North Twin summit where of course there were no views.
- The hike back over to South Twin wasn't to exciting but the descent down the Twinway to the hut sure was as it was a slip-slide-speedfest complete with controlled and uncontrolled "white-washes."
- The highlight along the 4.0 miles down the Gale River Trail was the first snowbridge over the Gale River, which If you're zoning out you'd never know your walking over the river.
- Now came the final 3 miles on the Gale River Road back to the car, yes I'm a bit delayed as I could have just headed right instead of left and cut half the mileage off back to Five Corners. I was pretty beat up and cold but it was time to suck it up! I passed a ranger on a snowmobile and got passed by a dozen snowmobilers including a few that pretty much ran me off the road!
- I made it back to the car a little before dark and immediately stuffed thousands of calories of yummy in my face!

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Mount Lafayette

 Pemigewasset Wilderness

 Owl's Head

 Mount Garfield Summit



Mount Hale, Zealand, South & North Twin Loop

Date of Hike: 9/4/10

North Twin Trail: 1.0 miles
Mount Hale Trail (Fire Warden's Trail): 2.5 miles
Lend-A-Hand Trail: 2.7 miles
Twinway: 6.2 miles
North Twin Spur/North Twin Trail: 5.6 miles
Total Miles: 18.0 miles (5,300 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- My original plan was to meet up with hikers and take the Caps Ridge up Mount Jefferson and then head over to the Sphinx Trail to do some trail work.  However with high winds forecast for the Presidential Range I figured it would be more enjoyable to find another hike to do and hit the Sphinx on a better day.
- Luckily enough I was invited by Bob and Geri to do the awesome Loop hike over Hale, Zealand, South and North Twin Mountains.  Also joining in on the fun was Mike, Chris, and his girlfriend Christine, since there were three Chris's I was called Chris 3, along with Chris 2, and Ms. Chris!
- On trail at 9am, finished at 5:45pm, Temps in the 60's below treeline, 50's above treeline, light wind, with high clouds and good views.
- Last month while hiking solo I was able to do this hike counter-clockwise because the forecast called for better views early in the day.  This time the forecast was for better views later in the day so the route for the hike was clockwise.
- Our first objective was to find the obscure turn-off for the defunct Fire Warden's Trail, the trick is to locate the strongest little tree on the trail and you'll find the old trail! (click here for picture)
- We made good time up the Mount Hale/Fire Warden's Trail through the beautiful Birch glades.  As we gained elevation fog slowly fell into the trees making for a pretty cool atmosphere.
- At Mount Hale summit we relaxed for a few minutes before heading down the Lend-A-Hand Trail.  While descending the clouds started to lift and the sun started to come out and from here on out we'd be hiking in mostly favorable conditions.
- Once we reached the Twinway we took a break on the rocks above Zealand Falls to refuel and fill up on water before heading up the Twinway to Zealand Mountain.  The views from the outlook into Zealand Notch over to Carrigain Notch were great along the way.
- From Zealand the Twinway drops down into a col then back up to Mount Guyot and over to South Twin. One of my favorite places to hike is the short section above treeline on Mount Guyot looking down into the Pemigewasset Wilderness to Owl's Head with the Franconia Ridge rising high above it.
- We made good time over to South and North Twin and enjoyed the fantastic 360 degree views from South Twin and the terrific views of Galehead and the Garfield and Franconia Ridge from North Twin.
- Now was the long decent back to the river, the first part of the decent was steep but then the grades moderated as we reached the third water crossing.  We decided to use the herd path and bypass the first two crossings as Gerri lead the way setting a good pace as we jogged the remaining mile or so.
- We were all excited to finally be back at the car and having completed such a great hike.  I was also excited to have been able to hike with other people who like to hike at a quick pace and have lots of experience that I can learn from.  Last winter Mike and Bob both completed a single season 48 (Bob twice!), Chris and Christine have completed and are training for a marathon, and throughout this hike Geri was our leader making sure we made good time. Thanks guys fro letting me join in on an awesome hike!!

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Hiking through the Birch glades

 on the Fire Warden's Trail

View toward Carrigain Notch from the Twinway

Mount Guyot Summit with the

Franconia Ridge off in the Distance 

High Clouds over the Pemigewasset Wilderness

Owl's Head and the Franconia Ridge