Ossipee Rim Traverse, with Trail Bandit and Mary (May 16)

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Amicus

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 28, 2005
Messages
1,145
Reaction score
112
Location
New England Avatar: Bay Circuit Trail
Trail Bandit had been talking since last summer about a hike that would follow the perimeter of the Ossipee ring-dike all the way from south to north. He planned a route over the inner rim, from the grounds of Castle in the Clouds to the various summits of Faraway, and then a long bushwhack curling northeast over unnamed summits before reaching Bald Mountain, then on to Mt. Whittier and east to Gilman Valley Road, off Route 25 near its West Ossipee junction with Route 16.

Today suited the three of us and the forecast wasn't bad, so we met at GV Road, spotted a car and drove to the hikers' parking area by the bottling plant at the Castle in the Clouds. We took the Castle road to its enclosed spring, then followed a string of herd-paths NNE that took us in nearly a straight line to the Faraway Outlook on the High Ridge Trail. That soon took us to the old Tom Plant carriage road to the high point on the Faraway ridge, which a utility now uses to service its radio towers on the high-point plateau. The utility has done a lot of clearing along the side of that road recently, which exposed some of Tom Plant's stonework, from c. 1915.

From there, a distinct herd-path leads you about .75 mile to "Faraway No.," which also sports radio towers, and a gravel heli-pad to boot (which had recently been used). It has much better views than the summit plateau, especially to the N and SE. At that point (nearly 3 miles), our herd-paths ended. That's when your 'whacking begins. We dropped down and then back up to another rocky knob at 2,690, at which point the perimeter ridge that runs north over Roberts and then the Faraways trifurcates. One sub-ridge runs NW to Black Snout, while another proceeds N to Johnson Mtn. We took the third, NE over four summit bumps to Bald Mtn, then Whittier on the north edge of the ring-dyke. Those bumps lack names, but the first three at least rate elevation "x's" on the USGS topo - x's 2,064, 2046 and 2,294. (The last before Bald is also c. 2,290.)

Terrain varied and this 'whack had it all: boulders and well-browsed brush, bugs and blowdowns, bogs and sudden ridges to surmount, sweet view-rocks and shin-stabbing sticks. We saw no moose or bears but they left fresh calling cards all over the place. The ring-dike's volcanic origins could be seen in a field of jointed boulders and rocks that looked like the workshop of a skilled stonemason, and by igneous intrusions here and there. The best views are from south-facing ledges - x2,046 has a fine spread of them. Bald Mtn. hasn't been bald for decades, I'd guess, but it has a summit jar, on the SE end of its wooded plateau. The last before us to sign were 1HappyHiker, Keith D of the AMC and Steve Smith, on their hike from Bayle last November.

By the time we ended the long, rough run-out east from the wooded summit of Whittier to Gilman Valley Rd., we all felt that more would be superfluous. Our total miles were 11.3, while vertical feet of 3,850 ft. (per my GPS) shows what happens when you decide to go up and down all day. This is a great way to take in a big chunk of the Ossipees, but not an easy way.

Not a great day for photos, but I took a few anyway.
 
Nice job, guys! Sorry rocket the gimp couldn't join you - Faraway North looks particularly enticing!
 
Bald Mtn. hasn't been bald for decades, I'd guess, but it has a summit jar, on the SE end of its wooded plateau. The last before us to sign were 1HappyHiker, Keith D of the AMC and Steve Smith, on their hike from Bayle last November.
It’s good to hear that the jar on Bald Mtn is still intact!

Fantastic trek that you guys did, and an excellent TR.

By the way, not far from the summit area where the jar is located, Keith found a small north-facing ledge that has some great views.
It’s sort of obscure and hard to find, but by any chance did you guys happen to come across this?
 
Hi 1happyhiker,
I have been on this route twice and came up over a ledge similar to the one you described on my first visit but missed it this time. (I thought it faced south west.) The dip between Bald and the next hill to the SW is a big expanse of bare, glacier scraped rock. If you are out that way, don't miss it. After some discussion, it has been decided that the route we took should be known as the 6 Bs route. (Brush, Boulders, Blow Downs, Briers, Bogs, and Bugs). Who would think that beavers would take up residence in the col between Bald and Whittier. It is a hike that might be nice if there were a trail but I doubt that there will ever be one, at least not in my lifetime.
 
Last edited:
By the way, not far from the summit area where the jar is located, Keith found a small north-facing ledge that has some great views. It’s sort of obscure and hard to find, but by any chance did you guys happen to come across this?

I don't recall such a feature, but by that point we no longer cared about views. Bald Mtn. was our fifth "summit" in our long and taxing 'whack from Faraway North, and we still had Whittier and the long run-out down its east slope to Gilman Valley Road awaiting us. We were feeling it! Weather was also a factor - clouds darkened steadily over the afternoon and rain looked likely.

I should add that this was the second visit to Bald by Trail Bandit and Mary. They did a very similar S-N traverse a couple of winters ago, on well-consolidated late-winter snow that they tell me made for easier footing than we experienced. They couldn't open that jar, some of the remains of which we saw near yours.

If I were to revisit Bald, I would probably follow the route from Bayle that you described in your interesting Report last November.

P.S. Just saw Trail Bandit's reply. "6 Bs Trail" sounds good to me. File it under "worth doing, once."
 
Last edited:
In looking at your photos, I just happened to notice that you came across the very same boulders that we also came across during our November whack. How weird is that?!:eek: I mean, it’s not like they are on a trail . . . it’s a bushwhack!

Anyway, below is the photo I took of these boulders which is nearly identical to your photo. Bizarre!
OddBoulders.JPG
 
Last edited:
Anyway, below is the photo I took of these boulders which is nearly identical to your photo. Bizarre!
OddBoulders.JPG

Wow! Truth stranger than fiction! While I didn't reread your TR, I remembered it from last November, including that you too had a picture of some igneous rocks. It didn't occur to me that they were the same ones! That aspect of our hike had a particular interest to me, as I have been reading about the interesting origins of the Ossipee ring-dike in the Roadside Geology volume for NH (and VT).
 
Strange people meet the same objects in strange places. It is pretty neat that you both noticed and photographed the same rock out of the zillions of rocks that are out there. I also want to make sure that all readers realize that there is no trail. If you plan to go, I would recommend the method we used. We loaded a track along the ridges and summits, into a GPS and followed the line. We also put in a waypoint where we spotted the car. Ok it is cheating but I think that it would be a long journey using a map and compass.
 
Geologist Wanabee's Comments

I recently purchased NH Geologic map for Chocurua which shows corner of Ossipees youz guys hiked so now I can pontificate in new and scholarly directions.

The top of Faraway Mt ridge is comprised of Moat Valcanics. The Moat Valcanics continue around as Black Snout and Johnson Mt like an outer ring. There's an even more outermost ring comprised of something termed Albany Porphyritc Quartz syenite. There's a boundary between MV and Conway Granite located right near summit of Bald Mt. All these are different flavors of plutonic and volcanic origin rocks. Top of Bald Mt is in Moat Volcanics which includes Basalts, Andesite, and rhyolite which as name implies are volcanic members. The two outer rings are close to being continuous and are volcanic type rocks. The inner magmatic core of the Ossipees is Conway Granite. If this sounds confusing, it is.

When you dropped off Faraway Mt ridge down to the minor ridge at 2000' elevation you dropped on to the magmatic inner core of Conway Granite. Luckily it's cooled off or you guys would have burned your feet. :eek:

I suspect the marvelous stone mason's rectangular blocks were the Conway Granite since your narritive implies you saw it along the 2000' elevation connecting ridge leading to Bald Mt. Great stuff!!! Wish I coulda been there.

BTW ... Did you happen to come across remains of Jimmy Hoffa?
 
I suspect the marvelous stone mason's rectangular blocks were the Conway Granite since your narritive implies you saw it along the 2000' elevation connecting ridge leading to Bald Mt.

We encountered those remarkably regular rectangles roughly halfway between Faraway North and Bald Mtn. - south slope of "x 2,064," as I recall.
Those igneous rocks that caught the eyes both of 1HH and me came along several hours later, on the ledges just south of Bald Mtn.

There is also a little "geological map of the Ossipees" in the Roadside Geology volume, I'm sure much less detailed than yours. It does show that "Moat volcanics" zone we crossed, however, and that thin outer ring of "Albany Porphyritc Quartz syenite" we crossed. I even imagined I spotted some, south of Faraway Outlook - a greenish rock not so dissimilar from granite.
 
The greenish rock was just regular rock covered with moss.

Not that greenish rock - most surface rock in the Whites, at least if it faces north or is well-shaded, acquires a verdant tinge. This was a band of rock that was "pale green all over," even facing the sun. Superficially resembling granite, it seemed to have a different texture. (Caveat: I had read just such a description of that syenite band the night before, in Roadside Geology, and I am highly suggestible.) This didn't seem worth calling you back to mention, and I brought it up only in response to Jazzbo's post. I need a Rock Guide like the Audubon etc. bird, tree and flower guides.
 
Top