The Horn

Trail: York Pond Trail, Bunnell Notch Trail, Kilkenny Ridge Trail, Horn Spur, bushwhack, Unknown Pond Trail

Conditions: Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts

“A cold day for this loop today, but good snowshoe conditions both on and off trail. I put the snowshoes on about a mile in for traction on the well tracked Bunnell Notch trail. Saw a few folks around the cabin and summit. The drifts at the summit had covered the tracks going north, so I zigzagged trying to find them with no sign of the trail. When I did pick up the tracks again, they were way off each time I checked my gps. I chose to follow them anyways since I couldn’t tell the difference when I was on the trail. I was glad to meet 2 others near the Bulge, where the track improved. I bushwhacked north off the Horn to save mileage, but it was pretty steep and deep. I was tired when I reached the pond, but still decided to break trail uphill to U.P.P. for NH100W, and signed in. The woods and snowpack were great, so I continued on to the SE peak, which is recognized and has views. Trying to get back to the trail from here was a challenge, thick steep woods prevented me from going south, so I stayed in the open glades, but had to go way around to the east when I was trying to cut southwest back to the trail. I eventually got there, just had to keep checking the bearing and cutting across the slope instead of going downhill and away from the trail. It was about 6.5 hours for the trip, which isn’t bad considering all the bushwhacking.”

Trail: York Pond Trail, Bunnell Notch Trail, Kilkenny Ridge Trail, Horn Spur, Unknown Pond Trail

Conditions: Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts

“Trail is packed to loosely pack to Cabot. The closer you get to the summit the more wind drifts and loose snow there is. I did snowshoes car to car but you might be able to get away with micro spikes up to Cabot summit. You will be sinking down 3-6 inches pretty often if you do wear spikes. Cabot to horn/bulge and unknown pond was unbroken with no signs of a previous path. I broke a trail but didn’t always stay on the trail but I stayed close. It slowed me down all and didn’t even up finishing until 8pm so I did most of it in the dark. Snowshoes needed if going past Cabot. Theres boot track postholes a half mile on either side of unknown pond then they disappear. Dont blindly follow the postholes, have a map ready for route finding if you need it. Whoever was postholing seemed to have a hard time navigating/staying on trail. A lot of the postholes are waist deep so props to them for even traveling as far as they did, I wouldn’t do that sh*t. Blowdown close to unknown pond trailhead.”

Trail: Logging roads, bushwhack

Conditions: Snow - Unpacked Powder

“From vehicle, snowshoed logging road to a point a bit beyond the power lines. Then bushwhacked NW to reach the SE ridge of the summit, occasionally using logging roads. Having reached the area below the summit, we bw to the N finally finding at spot at 1750' where we could safely reach the ridge leading to the summit. We were almost stopped dead in our tracks by a ledge, but we grabbed a strategically located small tree to pull ourselves up. Followed the ridge up the the summit and the register. Breaking effort - minimal, 6-8" in nice powder up to 14" deep. Grades - mostly easy, some moderate Tree density - open/wide open woods, some young hardwood thickets”