Mt Percival

(2212)

Trail: Percival Trail

Date: Saturday 1/1/2000

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 4-miles round trip Time: 2 hours to summit. 4 hour total,

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: 40 degrees, partly cloudy, dusting of snow, 20% ice on sumit dome

 

Happy New Year!

You’ll find the trailhead exactly 5.8-miles on Rt. 113 from Rt.25. on the left .3-miles after the Mt. Morgan parking lot. There is a barely noticeable dirt driveway with a 4″ X 8″ yellow sign on a tree about 30 feet in. The trail is a nice 2-mile moderate stretch with a short rock scramble at the top. In the winter the rock scramble can be a bit tricky, (I think that’s why most people hike Mt. Morgan, but we like the views from Mt. Percival better. The summit is an awesome open knob with great views. To the south, spectacular views of the lakes region, possibly none better in the Whites. (In the picture behind Gabe the white patches aren’t fields, they are the Squam lakes. To the north, you’ll see views of countless 4Ks. This time of the year with the leaves off the trees, gives views of the lakes for most of the entire hike.

This photo is facing north. (It doesn’t do it justice.)

The summit has two paths to it, one over a cliff scramble, and one through a cave formed by crevices between boulders. We tried to do the caves but they were just too cold and covered with ice. Remarkably, we didn’t meet anyone on the entire trip. Later, as we passed the Mt. Morgan Trail parking lot it was full to overflowing onto the road; we counted 38 cars. Our original plans were to make a loop up Percival over on Crawford-Ridgepole to Mt. Morgan and down the Morgan Trail. Not knowing how icy the Ridgepole might be, we decided to back track the Percival trail to the car; we had no idea of the crowd over on the next summit.