Long Mountain (3661 Feet), West Long (3661 Ft)

Long Mountain profile, Photo © Bill White

STATE:New Hampshire
TOWN: Odell
DESTINATION: Long Mountain, Middle Peak /Long Mountain, West Peak
ELEVATION: 3661 Feet, 3661 Feet
SUMMIT COORDINATES: Middle Long - N44 40.802, W71 22.791
SUMMIT COORDINATES: West Long - N44 40.194, W71 24.140
TRAIL: Bushwhack
DISTANCE: 6.5 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 1935 Feet
HIKING TIME: 3 hours 30 minutes
SEASON: Fall
DATE: October 19, 2017
WEATHER: Cool and clear. 55 degrees

PARKING: From route 3 in Groveton follow route 110 for 2.6 miles to Emerson Road. Take Emerson Road 2.5 miles to the Y intersection and turn left onto Nash Stream Road. Drive Nash Stream Road 5.0 miles to the junction with Trio Ponds road (unmarked). Merge right onto Trip Ponds Road and follow it 2.5 miles to a gated road junction. Limited roadside parking is available.

View from parking of the gated road entrance

Driving time from Manchester is 3 hours.

USGS QUAD: USGS Percy Peaks Quad

MAP: (Long Mountain, Middle) , (Long Mountain, West)

DESCRIPTION:

Research states to follow the gated road east for 0.3 miles to a hunters cabin (left) and look for a poorly defined fisherman's path on the southern side of the street. The fisherman's path is definitely poorly defined, overgrown and peters out in a clear cut after a few hundred feet. I'd recommend cutting dierctly through the clear cut which brings you to an old and abandoned logging road. This former road (shown on Google Earth maps) was a nicely defined fisherman's path with moderate elevation gain and limited blowdowns to hop over. Other than some muddy sections it was an ideal route. I anticipated the path to peter out at some point but it kept going, and going and going. I was able to follow it 1.75 miles to the height of land near Long Mountain Pond where the trail continued (I'm assuming to the pond) but I broke off and headed through very open terrain towards the West summit of Long Mountain. The open woods contained dead knee tall spruce for the entire .9 mile whack to Long Mountain, West. It was some of the best and most ideal extreme open woods I've ever encountered. The Western summit is marked with a PVC canister at the indistinct highpoint.

From West Long I debated about returning through the beautifully open woods the way I came taking a slightly longer and northerly route around the pond to my next destination but was concerned about wetlands and swampy conditions on the northern side of Long Mountain pond. Instead I proceeded towards the southern outlet and followed the 3400 foot contour (startling a moose) through clean woods towards the pond however it did get a little scrappy as I got closer to the pond. These were the worst conditions I faced all day and the scrappy sections weren't long, frustrating, or memorable enough to complain about. My good luck finding extremely open woods continued the next 0.6 miles to Long Mountain. Long is marked with a "M Long" sign and larger PVC canister.

I descended in a northwesterly direction making a lollipop loop through more open woods picking up scrappier and bigger dead spruce as my approach neared the fisherman's path retracing my steps back to the road. A gorgeous day to hit the woods.

TRAIL DISTANCES:

HIKING DISTANCES
DESTINATION	DISTANCE	TOTAL DIST.
Gate to start of bushwhack	0.25 miles	0.25 miles
fisherman's path to col	1.75 miles	2.0 miles
Col to West Long	0.85 miles	2.85 miles
West Long to Long Mountain Pond outlet	0.8 miles	3.65 miles
outlet to Middle Long	0.6 miles	4.25 miles
Middle Long to Fisherman's path	1.0 miles	5.25 miles
Fisherman's path - road	1.0 miles	6.25 miles
road to gate	0.25 miles	6.5 miles

HIKING TIMES:

HIKING TIMES
DESTINATION	TIME	TOTAL TIME
Gate to start of bushwhack	10 minutes	10 minutes
fisherman's path to col	50 minutes	1 hour
Col to West Long	30 minutes	1 hour 30 minutes
West Long to Long Mountain Pond outlet	30 minutes	2 hours
outlet to Middle Long	30 minutes	2 hours 30 minutes
Middle Long to Fisherman's path	30 minutes	3 hours
Fisherman's path - road	25 minutes	3 hours 25 minutes
road to gate	5 minutes	3 hours 30 minutes

NOTES / COMMENTS:

Long Mountain and Long Mountain, West are ranked 77 and 78 on the list of New Hampshire 100 highest peaks. With 1711 feet prominence, Middle Long is ranked #54 on the most prominent peaks index. I was unable to obtain any views during the open woods bushwhack however, encountered a large moose int the col. Additionally, I would have liked to see Long Mountain Pond but my route kept me far enough away to keep my toes dry. Both summits contain a PVC canister and Middle Long had a summit sign.

Fisherman's Trail 

Open woods bushwhack

3661' West Long

3661' Middle Long