Bald Knob

Date: May 24, 2009
Trails: Bald Knob Trail --> Bald Knob

Memorial Day has always been a favorite holiday weekend of mine, as it officially kicks off summer. The long weekend provides time off of work to do fun things, so this year, I decided it would be a good weekend for a hike.

A friend from work who grew up in NH suggested a hike near Lake Winnipesaukee , which combined two peaks - Black Snout and Mount Shaw. Karen and I looked it up online and decided that this would be a great hike for the weekend, so we made plans to go on Sunday. As of Friday, it was looking like our hike might not happen, as Karen had come down with a bad cold - but when Sunday rolled around, she was feeling up to it so we headed up into the mountains.

According to what we printed out, it said that the trailhead was difficult to find, and this ended up being very true. Turns out that, in trying to find the trailhead for Mount Shaw, we overshot it a bit and ended up at the trailhead for Bald Knob. By the time we realized we were on the wrong trail, we were already a ways into it, so we decided to keep going and see where it took us. It ended up being a great decision. We got a late start, and Bald Knob ended up fitting our time frame better - a shorter hike, but still difficult enough to give us a good workout and a great view of the Lake.

The hike started off not so fun - rain was heavy at times at the beginning, which led to an increase in the amount of mosquitoes on the trail. Pair this with the fact that both Karen and I had grown out of shape over the long winter, and we had a tiring, wet beginning to our hike, all while constantly fending off mosquitoes. At one point, we reached a slippery, steep rock face, which took us a bit of time to navigate - but slowly and carefully, we scrambled up the rock face and kept on our way up.

The hike got steeper after the rock face, but we noticed the trees clearing as we went further and further up. Along with the trees clearing, the sky appeared to be clearing as well, and after a short push, we made it to a small open ridge, with a great view of the lake. Along with the view, we were able to enjoy the rest of our lunch and were temporarily relieved from the mosquitoes.

After a quick rest and some picture taking, we turned to make the last push to the summit of Bald Knob. This was probably the steepest part of the trail, and we were led to climb eroded tree roots and scattered sets of rocks. We had to take a few breaks to make it all the way up, but once we made it, it was totally worth it. The views from the ridge atop Bald Knob were amazing - and we were lucky to be the only ones on the peak, so we were able to enjoy the peace and quiet while looking out over the lake. By this point, the skies had cleared and we were treated to a nice sunny peak.

After a bit of time spent at the top, we began heading back down. The hike back down proved to be almost just as pressing as the hike up - in particular, the rock face, which had dried slightly, but not enough to make it any less slippery. Karen, who was wearing running shoes with slippery soles, took a bit of a tumble coming down - but toughed it out and kept a smile on her face (and the next day, went to LL Bean to buy hiking boots to make sure it doesn't happen again!). Coming down, we realized how far we had gone - and got to take in some more of the scenery of the first stretch, which we had missed among the rain and mosquitoes.

Overall, it was a great first hike of the season - not exactly what we had planned, but overall, a lot of fun and great scenery. At the very least, it got us excited for a summer full of hikes, and hopefully a few 4000 footers along the way. Over the weekend, Karen and I discussed getting a group together to do Mount Isolation - a 4k in the Mount Washington area which is supposed to be a great hike. Hopefully I will be writing about that one soon!