Trip report
Jul 9, 2022 — This loop visits the Squam Mountains High Point, but most people know the hike as the Mount Morgan and Mount Percival Loop. Neither of these named peaks have enough promience to actually be peaks, but they have views while the actual high point does not. I shelved another objective to go for this hike because the contrived features along the loop seemed fun, specifically the ladder section up Mount Morgan and the caves on Mount Percival. A note at the trailhead claimed the route is steeper up to Mount Percival, so I decided to go that direction first (counter-clockwise). You might prefer to ascend Mount Morgan initially instead since that means climbing up ladders rather than coming down them, but there was more scrambling on the way up Mount Percival, so I guess it doesn't really matter much which direction you go. Much of the land is managed by the Burleigh Land conservation easement, but I couldn't figure out the land ownership for the peaks themselves. There's also another trailhead you can use to start the loop that's located a few hundred feet north of where I parked.
I headed along the Morse Trail briefly before intersecting the Mount Percival Trail, which I followed north. There were a couple of cute little scramble-esque sections, but really it's a trail all the way to just before the summit. After a bit over a mile, I reached a sign at the base of some cliffs pointing for "Cliffs" to the right and "Caves" to the left. I chose the caves, but either option leads to the summit. The caves option led through a tight couple of boulder squeezes and had some light Class 3 scrambling on solid boulders. I passed a couple whose northeastern accents were masked only by their squeals of delight as they exclaimed how much they loved this section.
I made it to Mount Percival, which had some nice views toward Squam Lake to the southeast. I continued along the ridge crest by using the Crawford-Ridgepole Trail. It doesn't actually hit the Squam Mountains High Point, so I left the trail for a hundred feet to ascend a slippery slope to get this bump before continuing to Mount Morgan. The unobstructed view toward Squam Lake from Mount Morgan's overlook point is excellent. The trail continued south onto massive slabs of rock, and then suddenly the trail seemed to disappear. I looked around for a moment, confused. And then I saw it, a hole in the ground. I smiled happily at the gimmicky trail before lowering myself into the hole and finding the top of a wooden ladder, which I climbed down. I found the bits of scrambling to be fun, but a bit short-lived for the hype. I continued along the trail and reached a junction with the Mount Morgan Trail, which I took south. This portion of the hike followed a wide trail through the forest, and it was quite crowded.