Taking Flight

Coming into this winter, my goal was to finish up the winter four thousand footers in New Hampshire in order to get that patch. That didn't work out; I fell four short due to not being able to get my backpacking trip through the Twin Range in. That might be for the best anyway, as there are two benefits to not finishing this year. First, the Four Thousand Footer Committee probably won't be holding their annual celebration dinner anyway, and I always look forward to that. Second, it raises the possibility that my friend Sylvia will finish her four thousand footers next year and I will be able to join her in celebrating both our accomplishments. Despite not finishing the four thousands in winter, I did get the consolation prize of at least getting my first winter patch by finishing the winter Ossipees. To do so, I had to hike three mountains this weekend: Sentinel, Flagg, and Bayle. The plan was to hike Sentinel and Flagg first as an out and back, and then drive over to Bayle and

This weekend's adventure saw me joining my girlfriend Dragonfly and her cousin on their attempt to finish the Ossipee 10 in winter, the same quest that I started on last week. In order to finish, they just needed three peaks: Turtleback, Shaw, and Black Snout. However, they generously added Bald Knob and Big Ball to their route so that I could get them. The plan was to use a car spot to make the day work. A car spot is when you park one car at one trailhead, and then park another car at a different trailhead, and then you hike from one car to the other car. At the end, the second car shuttles hikers back to the first car. It's an efficient way of doing point to point hikes if you have multiple people. Dragonfly and I arrived at the Shaw trailhead, and then her cousin picked us both up and we all rode over to the Town Line trailhead to start our hike. It was cold at the beginning, but we all warmed up quickly as the Town Line Trail was basically a constant ascent straight up to