Turtleback Mountain 2203'/ Bald Knob 1801'

Turtleback Mountain Trail/ Bald Knob Trail

8.3 Miles 1729' Elevation gain

Kevin, Judy and Emma

We had gone up to Holderness to hike Mounts Morgan and Percival but found the trails still closed for mud season, definitely overkill at this point. We continued along Rte. 113 in hopes of going to Mount Israel, but couldn't remember the turnoff, so continued to the junction with Rte. 19 and headed south. We eventually found ourselves back at the bottling plant at Castle in the Clouds and decided to cover some more new ground by a trip to Turtleback Mountain. We had hiked much of this trail as far as the cutoff to Bald Knob, which we by-passed this time.

The trees were down low were just beginning to turn out their green shoots and my allergies were haywire, but I enjoyed the hike none the less. I was surprised to find that many early types of wildflowers were still to be found along the trail, though they had already passed further south where we live. Wake Robin Trillium, Spring Beauty and Trailing Arbutus dappled the duff of the forest floor along the carriage roads as we made our way towards Turtleback.

From the summit of Turtleback there were impressive views of Mount Shaw and Black Snout and some of the range further north, including Roberts and Faraway which we had visited the previous Saturday. Little of Winnepesaukee could be seen from here, and when the trees fill in, there will be scant little, if any, view of the Big Lake. There was a cool breeze coming from the east and little sun to warm us as we ate lunch on the summit, but the wind kept the blackflies down, which was a good trade-off in my mind.

On the return trip we took the side trail to Bald Knob, where the sun made an appearance and there were excellent views of Winnepesaukee and beyond to the Belknap Range we had been visiting weeks previous. Again, we had the trails largely to ourselves. Love the Ossipees!