| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Faraway Mountain (attempt), NH |
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 | Trails: |
Pond Trail, Lower Bridle Path, Faraway Mountain Trail, Upper Bridle Path, Oak Ridge Cutoff, High Ridge Trail, Faraway Mountain Connector, Cold Spring Trail, Settlement Trail, Whitten Trail, Mt. Roberts Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, January 19, 2026 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parking area at the top of Ossipee Park Road was plowed. Ossipee Park Road itself was in good condition as well. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
The major crossings had bridges, and everything else was easy. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Trails were generally in good condition. No blowdowns, and signs were all there (though some of the mileages on them were inconsistent). |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Saw a few. No issues. |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
The goal today was to redline a whole bunch of new trails, and possibly summit Faraway if conditions were good. I went across the dam at Shannon Pond, to the intersection where Turtleback Mountain Trail goes right and Lower Bridle Path continues straight ahead. I continued ahead on the Bridle Path. It mostly followed a wide old road at easy grades, with one bypass through the woods to the right. The trail surface consisted of maybe 4 inches of powdery snow on top of a solid icy base, so I used my Hillsound mountaineering crampons and they worked well. One could also have used snowshoes here. Any tracks on this trail turned off at the junction with Oak Ridge Trail, and the remainder of the trail was untracked. I did the short climb to the viewpoint, which was nice even though it was cloudy so the views weren't that great. The rest of Lower Bridle Path had a couple of ups and downs before reaching Faraway Mountain Trail. This trail is also a wide old road (and was also untracked), that ascended gradually to the next junction, with Upper Bridle Path.
Don't be fooled by its name (as I was) - Upper Bridle Path is NOT another wide old road. It's a footpath through the woods, and it was also completely untracked. Due to that, it required some care to follow in places, though luckily it had enough green diamond blazes that I never lost the trail. As I ascended, the snow gradually got deeper, and I began to break through the solid base more frequently, so about halfway up it I switched to snowshoes and they worked well. The top of the ridge had several minor ups and downs before I finally reached Oak Ridge Cutoff - the Upper Bridle Path took longer than I thought it would. Oak Ridge Cutoff follows another wide old road but was similarly untracked. It starts off gradual and then climbs more moderately up to High Ridge Trail. There were a few small open drainages in this section, which suggest that this may be a wet and muddy section of trail in warmer months.
I had thought that High Ridge Trail might be packed out by snowmobiles, since I've seen them on the trail in the past. But High Ridge Trail was, once again, completely untracked. I started to follow the trail in the direction of Faraway and Roberts, however the trail-breaking turned out to be more strenuous than I had anticipated. In contrast to the trails at lower elevations, High Ridge Trail didn't have as solid a base underneath the new snow, possibly since it may not have warmed up enough along the ridge to have the freeze-thaw cycles that created the solid base at lower elevations. This meant that I was breaking through the not-so-solid base with every step, resulting in strenuous trail-breaking through 12-18" of unbroken snow. If I had needed to do this for only a half-mile, it wouldn't have been so bad, but I would've had to do it for at least a mile and a half to the junction with Faraway Mountain Trail, and then even further if I was going to reach Faraway Mountain. The conditions were just not right for it today, especially since I was hiking alone. I turned around after about 3 or 4 tenths along High Ridge Trail, and went back down Oak Ridge Cutoff.
Oak Ridge Cutoff remained a wide old road all the way down to its junction with Faraway Mountain Trail. It was unbroken, but easy since that good solid base was back now that I had descended in elevation. I hopped on Faraway Mountain Trail briefly, and then descended Faraway Mountain Connector down to Cold Spring Road. Since I now had extra time due to turning around on High Ridge Trail, I decided to redline Settlement Trail and Whitten Trail while I was there. These trails followed wide old roads, and they had a few inches of snow on top of a very solid base, though it wasn't always clear if that base was ice, frozen ground, or possibly even pavement (it sounds strange, but parts of Settlement Trail honestly did feel like there was pavement under the snow, and I've never seen it without snow so I don't know for sure).
I saw three other hikers/groups - two women near the beginning who had done the Oak Ridge Trail loop, two women at the junction of Oak Ridge Cutoff and Faraway Mountain Trail who were heading up to Shaw (I mentioned that High Ridge Trail wasn't packed out), and a woman near the end who had gone partway up Mt. Roberts Trail. Interestingly, all three had a dog with them (that generally had more energy than the humans). It was an amazingly beautiful winter wonderland on the trails, and a great day in the Ossipees! |
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 | Name: |
GN |
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 | E-Mail: |
ghnaigles@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2026-01-19 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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