Copple Crown Mountain

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Yesterday I hiked Copple Crown Mountain with Gene. The highpoint of Strafford County is on its slopes, at some indistinct point. I had put it off as long as possible, since it did not seem very interesting.

What a pleasant surprise I had! The trip is about three miles each way (including the side trip to the eastern outlook) with over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. There are very different views from the outlook and the summit. From the former you get to look over wooded rolling hills, with almost no signs of human presence. From the summit you get a view over the lakes, and a spectacular panorama of the Whites from the south.

It is a very long drive from where I live, and I am unlikely to revisit it. But for someone living closer by it is a very worthwhile intermediate hike.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Sounds like a much more fun hiking route than the shorter one from the west side, above the old ski area. Did you see the Beattie's canister (a plastic peanut butter jar) on the Strafford County high point? I looked for a couple of hours in vain this past March.

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Dr. D,

We were not really looking for the Beattie cannister. There seemed to us to be two possible definitions of the county line:

• The red blazes
• The GPS' estimate of where the line on the map was

We followed the ridge crest to both locations. There is a tree on what sure looks like the ridge crest with a red blaze and lots of flagging, we walked around quite a bit. We then proceded a short distance (about a hundred feet) to where the GPS told us the county line crossed the ridge crest, and again stomped around a bit.

I have no real interest in the theology of highpointing. I had a great hike on a mountain in southern NH that I would not otherwise have visited. We made a good faith effort to reach the essentially undefined "county highpoint".

Today we visited Nottingham Mountain, and I ate my first blueberries of the season (about a half dozen ripe ones in a huge blueberry field). To me that was more interesting than attempting to decide which of the three knobs is the highest. In any case, point 1191, quite a bit further north, has the best views of the area.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

For anyone interested in "old lost ski areas" in the Northeast, check out this Website; link below is to the old Copple Crown ski area just down hill to the west of the Strafford County high point.


http://www.nelsap.org/nh/copple.html

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Did you get permission from Copple Crown, if so the 2005 HP convention might like to know who to talk to.

Not that the good Dr. D is associated in any way with said Konvention

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Good point about Copple Crown permission for access to the Strafford County HP for the NH 2005 HP Konvention, as the approach from the old ski area is probably over private land. The slope above the parking area near the top of the old ski lift is not posted, but will investigate further.

When we parked at the turn-around area next to the top of the old ski lift, we met some other folks who were just driving up to reminisce about the old ski area. It was a Sunday afternoon and there were lots of home owners along the road through the old ski area doing yard work, etc., and none of them seemed too concerned about us.