Sunday, May 3, 2009

COCKERMOUTH FOREST - BALD KNOB & MT. CROSBY: 4/30/09

The Society for the Protection of NH Forests (www.spnhf.org) owns a secluded 1,000 tract north of Newfound Lake known as the Cockermouth Forest. Several marked trails traverse this area, providing quiet, pleasant hiking with access to several good viewpoints - Bald Knob (2050 ft.), a spot called "The Ledges," and, via an osbcure trail, the summit of Mt. Crosby (2238 ft.). Signage is minimal but the trails are fairly well-blazed, and (except for the Crosby spur) they are described in some detail in the AMC Southern NH Trail Guide.

The trailhead, marked by a sign for "John F. Woodhouse Trail," is in Groton on North Groton Road, 2 miles north of the junction with Sculptured Rocks Road. Parking is about 0.1 mile downhill on a woods road that starts by the sign; this road is a little rough but is usually passable.

Past a gate there's a decrepit wooden bridge over a brook; a sign says it's unsafe and I took it at its word and hopped rocks across the brook. For the first mile the trail was a mellow walk up a grassy old woods road, with stone walls lining the route much of the way.




Yellow markers showed the way.




After a mile arrows pointed left onto another old road.




At 1.6 miles the route to Bald Knob veered left onto a footpath which was a bit obscure in places but easy enough to follow. Never seen a fire extinguisher on a trail before.



After some steeper climbing and a mild ledge scramble I emerged on the open ledges of Bald Knob, two miles from the trailhead. Newfound Lake could be seen to the south...




...and Mt. Cardigan and its many spurs to the SW.




Around the corner other ledges looked north to the southern White Mountains beyond the slopes of nearby Tenney Mountain.



I'd seen the great views from Mt. Crosby before, just a half-mile north up the ridge, and knew a somewhat obscure trail led there. It was hard to find the start of the trail; a small cairn marked the spot where it dropped down a cut between two ledges to a rock-lined hardwood col.



In the col was an old trail sign. Apparently another obscure path ascends to this col from the east side.



It wasn't hard to follow the trail along the ridge, though there were a few spots where you had to pay attention. Along the way there were a number of old trail markers from Camp Mowglis, which over the years has maintained many trails in the Newfound Lake area.



Shortly bfore reaching the summit I crossed an excellent outlook ledge, with a fine view north to the Carr-Moosilauke-Kineo-Stinson area.



The summit, which is included in a parcel of state land, is marked by a commemorative plaque.



The top was also the afternoon station for a fellow I had met earlier over on Bald Knob. Sean Moriarty of Durham was conducting a raptor survey for the environmental consulting company he works for. Nice work - eight hours on a sunny summit counting hawks! The day before he had done the same on Tenney Mtn. The day's tally included osprey, broad-winged and red-tailed hawks, and plenty of turkey vultures.




After a long summit stay I headed back to Bald Knob and then down into the woods. On the way out I made a loop on the Little Pond Trail, another pleasant woods road walk leading past the cellar hole of an old homestead. I continued out on the Little Pond Spur and made a short steep climb on the very obscure (but well-marked) Ledges Spur. At the top there was a view of the long Elwell Trail leading up to the Cardigan spur called Firescrew.



Nearby there was a glimpse of boggy Little Pond. I didn't have time to hit the pond on this visit, but it does have a nice sitting ledge on its shrubby shore.



For some relatively easy hiking (1100-ft. climb to Bald Knob), the Cockermouth Forest has much to offer.

7 comments:

  1. This is a great description and review of the hike. I hiked this mountain as a kid, actually as a camper at Mowglis. I have always wanted to hike it again, and will have try it now with my family. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hiked this area today, a few comments:
    * The unsafe bridge seems to be fine now
    * The trail to the col from the E is the old Mowglis Trail up Wise Brk which I hiked years ago - probably in an old AMC guide
    * There is also a yellow-blazed trail W from the col
    * From Mt Crosby I went down the yellow trail described on FranklinSites which is very steep and will not hold up well with traffic - where it hits the logged area there was either a 4-way junction or a 3-way with an extra blaze
    * I was able to stay on the yellow trail well beyond where the author on FS lost it but finally gave up as I was running late and went down the next major skid road. This came out at a huge log yard farther up the main gravel road from where the yellow trail left
    -rs

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the update, Roy. We took these trails out of the 3rd edition SNHTG because of the impending logging operation - the SPNHF folks weren't sure what the trails would be like afterwards. Sounds like they came through OK.

    Steve

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve,
      Trails from the parking lot have been altered somewhat since the logging so 2nd edition is not quite accurate to either Little Pond or Bald Knob. I've hiked both and once you skirt where they logged (and did good cleanup), trails are very nice. The new steward for the forest has been hard at work and trails are better marked than ever before.
      Heading back to Little Pond this am and will take notes if you want specifics. My husband GPSed trail 2 weeks ago when we hiked it.

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the info, Suzanne - good to hear the trails are back in order. I'll have to spend a day in there before we do the next (4th) edition of the Southern NH Guide. That is a nice area in there.

    Steve

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve, feel free to contact us at The Forest Society when you update your guide. We have this posted on our Guide To Our Lands on the Forest Society website. www.forestsociety.org

      -Wendy Weisiger, Forester SPNHF

      Delete
    2. Thank you, Wendy - we'll probably start working on the revision this spring.

      Steve

      Delete