Bayle Mountain

Today was another picture perfect hiking day. In researching trails/mountains in the area, I had discovered the "unofficial" Ossipee 10. This list comprises 10 mountains that primarily are on the Lakes Conservation Trust Land Management area. 9 of them could be traversed in one go if desired (would be a long hike, but doable).. Bayle Mountain, the 10th is geographically near the other 9, but access and the trail are a fair ways away. Not sure why it's included on this list, but it is.. so I set out to hike it! I know there is access from various snowmobile trails in the area, but not looking for miles and miles to hike, I aimed for the main access point on Bayle Mountain Road. Once I found Bayle Mountain Road I drove up and down a couple times before deciding on what I thought might be the point I needed to park. It's a very narrow road with seasonal cottages and camps that make parking an issue. I finally found what might be considered a "fork" in the road with room for 1 car at best. So I parked and hoped this was it. I did quickly find the snowmobile gate and trail and set out in what I hoped was the right direction (since the trail went both left and right.. I went right). This was in fact wrong! I walked about a mile before deciding that this was not the right way. No indication of a trailhead at all in sight. So I turned around and retraced my steps arriving back at the gate I had started at. This time I went left from the gate and sure enough, in just a couple tenths of a mile there was the cairn I had been looking for indicating the start of the trail. Oh well, the day was beautiful, no harm, no foul. The trail is short, less than a mile to the summit, but it's quite steep and traverses some boulders and rock along the way. It was fun! The views from the summit were absolutely incredible. Definitely some of the best I have seen. The summit is wide open ledges with lots of corners to explore, and I went around everywhere soaking it all in. Kind of like Piper Mountain, should it be busy (I had it to myself today) there was plenty of space. Some turkey vultures or some sort of birds started circling above my head which kind of freaked me out. They looked big and I was hoping they weren't considering me for lunch. I know that sounds crazy, it was just weird because out of nowhere there were dozens of them flying right over me! I decided to head back down and soon realized, I had no clue where the trail descended! I looked all around and nothing looked familiar. I did see a little cairn, but it looked like it was just perched on the edge of a cliff, so I disregarded it. After trying a few different directions and coming up empty, I looked back at my camera as I knew I had taken some pictures on my way up, hoping for something that might help me figure out where I needed to go. In that moment of near panic, I wasn't necessarily thinking too rationally.. I didn't have great cell service, I was trying to figure out what to do if I was stuck there all night.. in retrospect once I figured it out, I had to laugh at myself. Lesson learned, take a deep breath, it will all be OK in the end. In looking back at my pictures on the camera, it soon became apparent that the little cairn perched on the edge of the cliff was in the fact the trail marker.. and the "cliff" had I actually gone right over to it was ledge and not just a sheer drop. All's well that ends well. I made it back to the car and definitely have fond memories of that hike. I'd love to go back and hike that one again.

Strava Activity

This was the picture I used to finally find my way back down!

hoping that I'm not their lunch

ironically I took a picture of the cairn trail marker thinking it was perched on a cliff ledge!