Hiked by: Tim and Valerie on August 25, 2007. North Twin Trail to North Twin Spur to summit of South Twin, then back the same way.
Conditions: The forecast was for 80 degrees and sunny, with isolated PM thunderstorms. Instead, it was 66 degrees, completely cloudy, with drizzle throughout the day and eventually real rain.
The drive north through Franconia Notch had prepared us for the worst this morning. All the mountains were shrouded in clouds. We started the hike around 9:15AM from the Haystack Rd parking lot. There was a beautiful little hummingbird buzzing the car as we got our gear prepped.
At the first crossing of the Little River (at 0.8 miles), we had some discussion about how to get across it. The river seemed high from the thunderstorms overnight. The trail description indicated that there was a half-mile bushwhack up the east side that would completely avoid the first and second crossing (at 1.3 miles) of the river. It is actually quite a real trail at this point, not a bushwhack at all. We took that rather than make the two crossings. It was easy to follow and had just a couple muddy spots to be avoided.
The third and final river crossing at 1.9 miles was more manageable. No issues getting across there. Then we started to climb a bit away from the river. It didn't get too steep at first, but it is a long, steady climb from that point forward. From about mile 3.0 to 4.0, the trail was mostly loose rocks with some boulders thrown in. Add some water due to the clouds that were hanging over us, and it wasn't a very fun trip. As we got closer to the top - around the 4-mile mark, the clouds got thicker and the terrain got less steep.
At the first viewpoint, we had a couple hundred yards of visibility (just a guess).
We arrived on North Twin and headed to the view just past the summit. It had taken us 2hrs 45 minutes to go 4.3 miles. Tiny trees and clouds, as far as you can see... which wasn't very far at all. It was a hard walk for no view. We didn't stay long. The combination of wind, cold and dampness from the clouds was very chilling.
We made the trip over to South Twin... the "down" from North Twin was steep and slippery, but we were very surprised at the gradual and comfortable trip up South Twin.
We stopped just below the summit of South Twin on the return trip to have some lunch. It was about 1:15PM at that time. The clouds were still going by us really fast. We sat behind a giant boulder to try to shield ourselves from the wind. We were only 5 or 10 minutes off the summit of South Twin, but looking back, we really couldn't see the summit at all.
Then, we headed back over to North Twin, and continued on the long trek back to the car. The couple miles down to the river were still slow, as expected. Tim spotted this Spruce Grouse sitting right in the middle of the trail.
Once we crossed the river, we moved with much haste. Rain started in earnest about 0.8 miles from the car, so we donned the Gore-Tex and continue as quickly as we could on the wet rocks.
Out of the woods at 4:45PM and the temperature at the parking lot was still 66 degrees.