Northern New England - Early Spring Hang Ponderings

[tjm]

How about the weekend of March 12-13th? Just throwing a date out there. Sawyer Pond sounds great to me. I personally would prefer a nice hike in (4.5 miles is very reasonable). What do others think?

This would be a winter trip with some trail breaking in potentially deep snow [waist deep ?] but, with enough people to share the trail breaking, it would an awesome overnight.

Historical Temperatures for Conway NH for March 12-13th
High 37 *F
Low 15 *F

The Sawyer River Road is closed at Rt 302 so it would be approximately 5 miles and 1200 feet of elevation gain.

We would probably be breaking trail after the intersection of the road with the Carrigan Notch Trail [2 miles in] or from the Sawyer Pond Trailhead [3.75 miles in].

Rt 302 would definately be the way to approach it, as opposed to coming in from the Kanc or Bear Notch Road. I don't expect those trails see much winter traffic.

The good news is that the 1200 ft elevation gain is a consisntently distributed so the steepness is pretty much the same for the entire trip.

[tjm]

http://forum.hike-nh.com/viewtopic.php?p=33155#33155

[Tobit]

Good points tjm. When I first suggested hiking in from the Kanc, I was basing this on wishful thinking that we wouldn't see much snow this year. With all the snow we have up here now, I don't see any significant melting starting before the end of March.

I broke my snow shoes on my last trip out and experienced terrible trail conditions so, if we do something in the middle of March that requires shoes, I probably will not be able to attend. However, I am always up for any bare-bootable excursions.

[jofish]

I was just suggesting a date to get things rolling... the lack of positive response means we should look at some other dates to make this trip happen. How about mid-to-late April? Other suggestions?