Turtleback Mt, Bald Knob Trail
Submitted by Pat
Stats
Mountain: Turtleback (2,203)
Date: March 11, 2017
Weather: Windy and very cold, single digits
Miles: 9
Trails: Bald Knob Trail — Turtleback Mt. Trail — Bald Knob Cutoff
It’s 3° when Nancy and I pull into the Shannon Brook trail parking lot and gear up to hike the Bald Knob Trail, part of the Turtleback Mt. Trail, the Turtleback Mt. summit spur and back on the Bald Knob Cutoff. Nancy suggesting that we hike on this cold and windy day comes as a challenge and I think of these trails as “safe”.
At the last minute I pack a balaclava and an extra face mask…just in case. We begin the hike on a trail already well flattened by snowmobiles, which then turns to ice with occasional clear ground. I offer the face mask to Nancy and she declines. My face is exposed, my eyes watering, nose streaming and I question how long skin can be exposed before frost nip sets in.
Nancy says she feels uncomfortable but relatively warm, considering the conditions. I, too, feel relatively warm. She finally accepts my offer of borrowing the face mask and doesn’t take it off for the rest of the day. I put on the balaclava but my glasses fog up immediately so I take it off. The wind is behind us. That keeps us going. We don’t know what walking into the wind is going to feel like, but right now we’re OK.
We miss the turn off to the Bald Knob Cutoff. It’s well marked but we have our heads down as we hike up the Turtleback Mountain Trail. We have to move at a brisk pace to stay warm and I actually take off my gloves a couple of times to cool off. I finally give in, take off my glasses and put on the balaclava which I wear for the rest of the hike. The climb up the Turtleback Mountain Trail feels long. I ask Nancy if wants to turn around but she persists.
We finally come to the .5 Mt. Turtleback summit spur trail and we walk a mixture of hard, deep snowpack and bare ground. People have barebooted and postholed the hell out of the trail. Why not wear snowshoes? Postholing like that can’t be fun.
When we reach the rock that leads to the Turtleback Mountain summit, I feel relieved. We take a few pictures and head back down. When we reach the intersection of the Bald Knob Trail, we look at the map and decide that the route via Bald Knob is shorter so off we go.
Bald Knob, at 1,800 feet, is an open knob of rock that rises steeply from Rte. 171. Again, we take pictures and turn around. For the first time we are walking straight into the wind. OMG! I have to cover my eyes in order to get past a totally exposed section of the trail. Jesus, it’s cold! Googles would have been a good idea. I can see how they would be essential above tree line in the Presidential Range. With this kind of wind, we wouldn’t even consider hiking above tree line in the Presidentials.
The hike back to the car is quiet except for the sound of our microspikes crunching into the ice. We move down the rest of the Bald Knob Trail as quickly as we can. There’s nothing we want more than taking off these damn masks and getting into a car with heated seats. We practically jog the last half mile.
As soon as I get to the car, I take off the balaclava and my gloves. My phone is stone dead from the cold. I plug it in, start my car, and get into Nancy’s Jeep. Unfortunately, I don’t turn the fan for the heater up so my car is very cold when I finally leave Nancy’s car and get into mine.
Another couple of trails done toward our Ossipee Range patch!