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Important Notice About the Ossipee Mountains and Trail Access (Updated July 23, 2010) |
Ossipee, NH, Tuftonboro, NH
Trailheads, measurements, times, distances, and maps are all approximate and relative to the hike(s) as shown below.
Looking up Mountain Trail
A rarity for me, today's hike was a traverse. While our planned route could have been done as a loop with a somewhat reasonable roadwalk, I thought it was a decent idea to do a carspot, as some earlier weather forecasts (which would prove to be incorrect, surprise?) had predicted afternoon thunderstorms.
After spotting vehicles at the beginning of McDuffee Road, we parked at the Mountain Trail (Sentinel) trailhead - only a mile plus by air, but a good 20 or so minutes by open road.
The Mountain Trail segment went by fairly quickly, as we ascended to the Sentinel Ledges in nice, sunny weather. Though a little bit hazy, the lake views were nonetheless great.
After spending some time at that summit, we took a seldom used (though well blazed) trail from Sentinel Mountain over another set of ledges, then continued up the Canaan Mountain Trail. Near a height of land on this trail, we did a bushwack up to the summit of Canaan Mountain - other than the final part of the ascent, the bushwack was fairly straightforward. Though wooded, the summit of Canaan Mountain provided some nice lake views.
Rather than backtrack, we did a thicker bushwack over to the Mt. Flagg Trail. From the trail, it was a short walk up to the ledges and then to the summit - excellent views from both.
The next stop was Mt. Shaw. While well blazed, the Gorilla Trail doesn't appear to get much traffic, as ferns and grass are growing tall. The views from the summit of Mt. Shaw were excellent - a great place for a quick lunch.
After Mt. Shaw, we decided to head over to Black Snoot for some lake views. From there, we backtracked to the Black Snout Spur Trail junction and headed down the Thunderbird Trail. The Thunderbird Trail was well blazed, though a bit wet up high due to the recent rainy stretch. The upper portions of the trail were rather steep, though down low the trail became a more gradual woods road.
Near the bottom of the trail/woods road, we checked out a neat waterfall - certainly a bit impressive with the increased waterflow of late.
After reaching a gate at the end of the trail, we did the roadwalk down McDuffee Road, back to our spotted cars. A great hike with, despite the forecasters best attempts in previous days to deter us, great weather.
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The Mountain Trail trailhead
Looking southwest at the Belknap Range from the ledges of Sentinel Mountain
Looking down the trail between the Merrowvista Ledges and Sentinel Mountain
Looking southwest at the Belknap Range from Canaan Mountain
Looking up the Mt. Flagg Trail at the Mt. Flagg ledges
Looking north at the northern Ossipees and the eastern Sandwich Range from the Mt. Flagg summit
Looking up the Gorilla Trail on the way to Mt. Shaw
Looking at Ossipee Lake from the Mt. Shaw summit
Looking up the High Ridge Trail near the summit of Mt. Shaw
Looking southwest at the Belknap Range from Black Snoot
Back to Sentinel Mountain Profile
Back to Canaan Mountain Profile
Back to Mt. Flagg Profile
Back to Mt. Shaw Profile
Back to Black Snoot Profile
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