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