Trails Used

Mt. Roberts Trail, High Ridge Trail, Faraway Summit Spur, Faraway Mountain Trail, bushwhack, Turtleback Mountain Trail, Oak Ridge Trail, Pond Trail

Trail Conditions

Notes

Today's hike finished my redlining of the western part of the Ossipees (and had much more views than my hike last weekend). First I hiked up to Mt. Roberts - I'd done this several times before, but I don't recall ever doing it without any snow on the trail. The views from the ledges were excellent. Even higher up, there was only a tiny amount of ice, and it was easily avoidable. After enjoying the view from the summit of Roberts, I headed along High Ridge Trail. This is an old carriage road with gentle grades, though it does have some rocky sections and all the fallen leaves can obscure the rocks. It first dips into a shallow col and then rises gently toward Faraway. The trail runs right by a high-altitude marsh that seems to be the source of Shannon Brook - that was nice to see. The junction with the Faraway Summit Spur is unsigned but obvious, and the spur has a few wet areas but is easy to follow. The summit of Faraway is a large clearing with no views, but it did have a solar-powered tower of some sort. I saw more people than I was expecting during this part of the hike - I guess we all wanted to take advantage of such cool, clear weather! The viewpoint along High Ridge Trail past the spur was very nice, and then the trail does a long switchback to lose the necessary elevation to reach the top of Faraway Mountain Trail. Since I had redlined this portion of Faraway Mountain Trail last weekend, I decided to do a little bit of bushwhacking to avoid all the switchbacks. It turned out to be pretty straightforward - it never got too steep or thick - and I made it down to the junction with Cold Spring Trail in about 25 minutes. I may have surprised a group of hikers who were ahead of me at the top of the trail, never saw me pass them, and then somehow encountered me eating lunch at the junction when they arrived there. From there, I redlined the rest of Faraway Mountain Trail over to Turtleback Mountain Trail, and then hiked that over to the start of Oak Ridge Trail. Oak Ridge Trail was a nice easy, gradual climb to a viewpoint and then a gradual descent. Disconcertingly, I encountered two different groups of hikers in this area who seemed to be looking for the waterfalls on Shannon Brook. I informed these hikers that the series of falls are actually below Shannon Pond, not above it, and tried to point them in the right direction. This was an enjoyable hike - slightly more strenuous than the hike last weekend, but more varied and with better views, and I still got 5 new miles of redlining. Fun day!

Parking

Spots available at the parking area at the end of Ossipee Park Road at both 9 AM, when I arrived, and 2:45, when I got back.

Water Crossings

The Ossipees are normally good at providing bridges for river crossings, with one glaring exception - the crossing of Shannon Brook on Pond Trail just above Shannon Pond. This was a rock hop, and I got one foot wet going across since there were no dry rocks to step on. On the way back (I was just redlining this one little section), I found a way to rock-hop slightly downstream of the actual crossing. But I found the lack of a bridge here to be very odd, since a lot of much smaller crossings have bridges!

Wildlife

None. Not too surprising since it was below freezing in the morning.

Trails Used

Mt. Roberts Trail

Trail Conditions

Parking

Plenty of parking this morning.

Wildlife

No issues today.

Trails Used

Mount Roberts Trail

Trail Conditions

Notes

Nice day to be out. Saw three or four groups of campers coming down as I went up around noon. View to the north from the summit is filling in. Ledges were dry and easy.

Water Crossings

none

Wildlife

No bother

Also on this trip

Trails Used

Mt. Roberts Trail, High Ridge Trail, Black Snout Trail, Oak Ridge Cut Off, Upper Bridle Path, Lower Bridle Path

Trail Conditions

Notes

Great hike overall. Met one other hiker on the High Ridge Trail, we were both surprised to see another hiker up there on a weekday. Lots of people on the Mt. Roberts trail.The upper part of the Oak Ridge Cut Off was basically a stream running down the trail till I hit the Upper Bridle Path. All the other trails were dry enough to miss most of the mud and water from the previous day's rain.

Parking

Parked at the LRCT trailhead.

Water Crossings

All water crossings were easy to hop over.

Wildlife

Still some black flies, one got me.Lots of mosquitos. With the high winds bugs were not much of an issue.

Trails Used

Mt. Roberts Tr.

Trail Conditions

Notes

Lots of signs of recent storms, leaves and branches down, we cleaned up some woody debris that we encountered. Looks like lots of water ran over the carriage roads in spots from the rain, may be a future erosion problem. Flowers galore: pink lady slippers, columbine, bastard toad flax (actual name), false sassparilla, blue bead lily and more! A few spots of snow off trail in the woods in the last tenth before summit. Great views even on a gray day. Probably saw about 10 people on trail today. Lowers lots actually had more cars so other trails may have been busier.

Parking

Ample parking this morning at hiker lot at Castle in the Clouds.

Water Crossings

None

Wildlife

Black flies in spots, some butterflies

Trail Conditions

Notes

A little snow where the trail goes thru the evergreens, but spikes were not needed.

Trails Used

Mt Roberts Trail, High Ridge Trail, Faraway Mtn Trail

Trail Conditions

Equipment

Notes

Mostly dry on the trail with some icy spots 1/8th of a mile from the summit. Micro spikes worked well.The high ridge trail still has quite a few areas with monorails with a mix of blue ice, could inches of granular snow and in some spot knee deep post holes. The Faraway Mtn trail was 95% dry trail. All of the water crossings were rock hoppable.

Parking

Parked on off of Ossipee Park road. no issues.

Water Crossings

Minor rock hopping on some water crossings.

Wildlife

None yet

Trails Used

Mt Roberts Trail

Trail Conditions

Equipment

Notes

I did not bring along my Hillsounds with the thinking that the most expansive icy areas would be in the flat hollow between the last lookout to the lake and the top. I was thinking careful foot placement would be ok. There was patchy snow/ice from the trailhead up to the last view of Lake Winnipesaukee. Easy to navigate this. The problem was that the expansive icy area went beyond the flat area going somewhat uphill for a ways. It is way too icy to go safely up/down this part and traction is the only way to navigate all this.

Parking

good parking

Water Crossings

None

Wildlife

a few Flys

Also on this trip

Trails Used

Mt. Roberts Trail, High Ridge Trail, Faraway Mountain Trail, Turtleback Mountain Trail, Bald Knob Trail

Trail Conditions

Equipment

Notes

Definitely saw it all today over this almost 18 mile trek. Conditions were terrible and slow going. I bare booted up to Robert’s and that’s where the fun started. I put on my snowshoes (Dion’s worked perfect here) & broke trail for about 10 miles over to Faraway, up to Shaw where I changed into spikes, but then I needed them for Turtleback as well. Yay spring! Someone ahead of me post holed the entire 9 miles that I broke trail to Shaw. I have so many questions. Coming out was very muddy, entire sections of where the trail is a road is collapsing, many breaking ice, bridges, very slippery mud. Lots of water on trail at lower elevations. Still lots of snow up high, some drifts as high as 4 or 5 feet still on the High Ridge Trail. Still somehow one of the best days ever! I got to meet cookies on top and I’ve been reading her trail reports for a while, and it was great to know where the name came from. Your dog is such a sweetie! Hope to see you out there again!