Last Wednesday I met Cymbidium on a Wednesday Group hike, and since we both hike mid-week, and are both in snow avoidance mode, we talked about hiking together some time. We settled for hiking Sentinel, Canaan and Flagg in the Ossipees.
After a long drive we started up Sentinel Mtn. The trail started off gently, but shortly before the summit it became extremely steep. In that area of fairly open woods different hikers had taken different paths, and there was really no clear trail. Once on the summit we were rewarded with excellent views to the south, with Dan Hole Pond in the foreground, and Lake Winnipesaukee and the mountains around it in the background. Cymbidium's photos from the hike are here.
After the first summit the trail dropped steeply (but less so than the ascent) and soon rose again to another ledge with similar views. Beyond that ledge we found a lean to that was sagging in the middle.
The Canaan Mountain Trail was quite wet in places, and meandered in a strange way, leading us to wonder whether it had been designed by a drunken moose
There was an inexplicable drop of about 100 vertical feet, which had to be regained
We finally met the Mount Flagg Trail and followed it up to the west of Canaan Mountain. Looking at the map it had seemed to me that the best bushwhack to Canaan Mountain would be going due east at about 1,950 feet. But the entire section to the west of the mountain had very unattractive dense saplings. We decided to bag Mount Flagg first and decide what to do about Canaan on the way down. A good decision, as at about 2,100 feet we saw a cairn, clearly indicating where others had started their bushwhack. We continued up Mount Flagg, sticking to our plan to do the bushwhack on the way down.
Nice views on Mount Flagg, where we had our lunch.
The bushwhack was quite easy on the way to Canaan Mountain, wide open woods with very reasonable footing. Some rocks and slightly denser woods near the summit, but nothing really difficult. We found a couple of knobs, one of which did have restricted views to the south. On the way back we took a slightly more southerly course, and ran into a thick patch before navigating back to our original route.
From there it was an uneventful return to the car, and the long drive back.
We had done the hike to bag these peaks on the Ossipee 10 list; when I got home I checked the list and found that the list only has peaks with trails to them, so we did not need to do the bushwhack!
After a long drive we started up Sentinel Mtn. The trail started off gently, but shortly before the summit it became extremely steep. In that area of fairly open woods different hikers had taken different paths, and there was really no clear trail. Once on the summit we were rewarded with excellent views to the south, with Dan Hole Pond in the foreground, and Lake Winnipesaukee and the mountains around it in the background. Cymbidium's photos from the hike are here.
After the first summit the trail dropped steeply (but less so than the ascent) and soon rose again to another ledge with similar views. Beyond that ledge we found a lean to that was sagging in the middle.
The Canaan Mountain Trail was quite wet in places, and meandered in a strange way, leading us to wonder whether it had been designed by a drunken moose
There was an inexplicable drop of about 100 vertical feet, which had to be regained We finally met the Mount Flagg Trail and followed it up to the west of Canaan Mountain. Looking at the map it had seemed to me that the best bushwhack to Canaan Mountain would be going due east at about 1,950 feet. But the entire section to the west of the mountain had very unattractive dense saplings. We decided to bag Mount Flagg first and decide what to do about Canaan on the way down. A good decision, as at about 2,100 feet we saw a cairn, clearly indicating where others had started their bushwhack. We continued up Mount Flagg, sticking to our plan to do the bushwhack on the way down.
Nice views on Mount Flagg, where we had our lunch.
The bushwhack was quite easy on the way to Canaan Mountain, wide open woods with very reasonable footing. Some rocks and slightly denser woods near the summit, but nothing really difficult. We found a couple of knobs, one of which did have restricted views to the south. On the way back we took a slightly more southerly course, and ran into a thick patch before navigating back to our original route.
From there it was an uneventful return to the car, and the long drive back.
We had done the hike to bag these peaks on the Ossipee 10 list; when I got home I checked the list and found that the list only has peaks with trails to them, so we did not need to do the bushwhack!
