Crawford Ridgepole Trail to Doublehead Mountain is a 4.6 mile lightly trafficked out and back trail located near Sandwich, New Hampshire that features a great forest setting. The trail is rated as moderate and primarily used for hiking. Dogs are also able to use this trail.
dog friendly
hiking
forest
blowdown
bugs
muddy
rocky
washed out
Totally forgettable. Access road (Sandwich Notch Rd) is 30 min of dirt road with the deepest potholes to maneuver around. Not fun. Hike not that great either. One ledge with nice view of the lake. Only benefit: not crowded. Will not repeat.
THIS IS THE BEST TRAIL IN THE AREA, THAT FEELS LIKE YOUR 100 MILES IN THE WILD. IT IS ON THE HIGH END OF MODERATE. THE TRAIL HAD MOOSE AND ALOT OF COYOTE SCAT. THE TRIAL IS AS NICE AS THE VIEW ON TOP OF SQUAM LAKE. THIS IS NOT A DOG FRIENDLY TRAIL THE LEDGE YOU HAVE TO CLIMB, IS ROUGH GOING. I WOULDN'T DO IT ON A RAINY DAY. LOTS OF DIFFERENT WILD FLOWERS.
Jessica S.
To even get to the trailhead you'll probably need a FWD/AWD vehicle. It's a steep dirt road with a lot of bumps, rocks and potholes. As for the hike itself, the first mile-ish was very challenging. Be prepared to go straight up some cliffs -- not recommended for those afraid of heights. Once you get past that part it flattens out with some easy up and downs. It's a very pretty hike and I didn't see one other person but there aren't really any good views from the top.
Sandwhich Hill road that this trail was off of was closed for winter. There was a small pullover area though so I parked and walked up the road to the trail anyways. The road was heavily packed down from snowmobilers and very steep.
Nice hike, not a lot of views, but quiet.
Beautiful hike. Steep incline for the first mile but then it evens out on the ridge line. The trail is easy to follow but doesn't look like it sees much use. When you get to the intersection w/ the Doublehead trail definitely take a left and follow it for a short bit. The view from the rock ledge is breathtaking.
Love it!
Interesting seldom used trail. Starts up fairly steeply right from the start. At about 0.7 miles takes a sharp right up a series of somewhat challenging ledge scrambles and then continues steeply to the ridgetop. The next mile is failry flat with a dip down to a saddle and climb back up to the summit of Doublehead. There is an area of puncheons and they are in poor condition; stepping on the end of one resulted in the opposite end rising into the air. There is an interesting view north which includes a great close up view of the ledges of Welch ad Dickey loop trail I highly recommend continuing past the summit to the junction with the Doublehead Trail and following that trail down 0.1 miles to a ledge with extensive views to the south including everything in an arc from the Ossippee Mountians to Mounts Morgan and Percival. The trail is in very good condition. It appears that it gets more use by moose than by people. They are keeping the hobblebush and moose maples cropped back along the trail. There were moose tracks in all the muddy areas and moose poop everywhere.