Kath
New member
Took a chance on the weather forecast for Sunday, and hoped that the sky would clear enough for some decent views later in the afternoon. The ride from Exeter was gorgeous and sunny until we turned west off of Rt. 16 in Ossipee. From there, we could see huge dark clouds hanging over the Lakes Region. I still had faith in the weathermen, so Old Lurp and I set out on The Shaw Trail from Rt. 171 in Melvin Village. We got an unusually late start, due to turning the clocks ahead that morning (and simply being lazy heads). There is a large sap collecting operation going on in the lower section of the trail…lots of buckets about. The trail has deep tire tracks where someone has been going in to collect the sap. The snow is real soft and wet here, with occasional bare patches. Before too long the snow deepened and we strapped on our snowshoes. The trail closely follows Fields Brook. There are a couple of forks, but stay left, following the red blazes, and sticking to the brook. The blazes are few and far between at times, and just when you think you may have gone astray, you’ll come across two or three red spots all bunched together. In less than a mile we passed a small spring house on the left, where plastic pipes were moving water down the hill, and entered the Lakes Region Conservation Trust boundary. Post-holing had become an issue now and it had started drizzling rain. I don’t think this trail gets much use, so it was not packed down as much as I would have hoped. The snow deepened as we moved further up the trail, becoming mushier and heavier as well. There are three brook crossings on the Shaw Trail, all manageable at this time. Soon after the third crossing, the trail angles up away from the brook (heading northeast) and becomes increasingly steep. At this point, our progress slowed to a snail’s pace. The post-holing was extremely tiring – like walking through wet cement with a five pound weight on each foot. I kept recalling that commercial “I lift things up and put them down” over and over. When the trail finally leveled off, we were pleased to find ourselves at a junction with the Black Snout Trail. Exhausted, we decided to take a quick break here before heading off to Black Snout. After refueling and charging our batteries, we travelled southeast on the Black Snout Trail, which is blazed with white. The going was much better now with a much easier grade and cooler temps making the snow a bit crustier. In .2 mi. we reached the side trail to Black Snout. The side trail is .5 to the summit, and is a lovely walk, winding around the cone with plenty of views to the south. Looking north gives you an up-close view of Mt. Shaw. Back on the Black Snout Trail the path hooks north/northeast and soon ends at a junction with the High Ridge Trail, blazed in blue. A couple of snowmobiles had just passed though, packing the trail down quite nicely and from here it was a piece of cake to the summit of Mt. Shaw. It had started snowing gently, and we can only imagine what a spectacular view we might have had on a clearer day. Nonetheless, we were still awestruck by what we could see. Mt. Cocorua was most obvious, but we could only make out Mt Washington vaguely through our binoculars. Our ascent had taken much longer than we had anticipated, so we did not dilly-dally much at the top. Retracing our steps, we were hoping that we had packed down the trail enough on the way up to make going down easier. This theory might have held up if it had been a colder day. But the rain and warm temps had further softened the snow during the day and the going was still pretty tough on The Shaw Trail. We were surprised to see how much melting had taken place on the lower section since that morning. We were even more surprised at how quickly we managed to make it back to the car. This doesn’t make much sense, but…our ascent time=4 hrs, descent Time =1.5 hrs. Weird, huh?? We usually don’t have such a disparity. All in all, a nice hike. I’d like to go back again on a clear day in fall, and perhaps visit some of the other smaller peaks in that area. For this hike, I used a trail map that I purchased from the LRCT for a few bucks. It’s a very good topo map showing more than 75 miles of hiking trails on protected land. Thank you, LRCT, for protecting and maintain these trails!
One last question that I am curious about: At the second brook crossing, there is a hand-painted sign nailed to a tree that reads, “John Jr., Love Mom & Dad”. (see photos) I can only speculate as to the meaning, but does anyone know the real story behind it?
Thanks, Kath
Pics here:http://community.webshots.com/album/579906995ocpCNe?vhost=community&start=0
One last question that I am curious about: At the second brook crossing, there is a hand-painted sign nailed to a tree that reads, “John Jr., Love Mom & Dad”. (see photos) I can only speculate as to the meaning, but does anyone know the real story behind it?
Thanks, Kath
Pics here:http://community.webshots.com/album/579906995ocpCNe?vhost=community&start=0
