W1/HA-084 Rose Mountain

I had a car for a full day, so I decided to make the most of it and get four summits. This was the first of the day. I drove to The Pinnacle Trailhead on Mountain Road in Lyndeborough. This is the spot that most people on peakbagger seem to use. There isn't much room to park here, and I was barely able to get the car off the road. It might be better in the summer.

Parking was a tiny pullout on the side of the road.

The trail starts out as an old jeep trail, but quickly turns into single track. A short distance up I found a map on a tree, which implies that this entire hike is on land open to the public, however I'm still not sure who owns all of it.

The best trail map I found.

I made good time up, but missed the turnoff for Rose Mountain and ended up on top of the Pinnacle. After wandering around a bit looking for the trail, I realized that it had turned off below the summit. I headed back down and got on the proper trail. The ridge was fairly flat. There was a small bump to go over Lyndeborough Mountain, then the climb up to the summit of Rose.

Forest below the summit.

On the ridge I passed a sign for the Piscataquod Land Conservancy, who appear to own the land around the summit. The trail takes a very large switchback to get up to the summit. I got bored, so decided to just go straight up through the forest. The woods are open here, and it is not very steep, so it was pretty easy. The summit is fairly open, with limited views. 

View towards the Monadnock Region.

I setup the antenna and got on the air. I got a few contacts on 40, then went up to 20. Here I managed to work Spain and Sweden. There was a good breeze on top, so I got cold quickly. I packed up and retraced my steps back down. I decided to take the small spur to the summit of Lyndeborough Mtn since I was already up there. There weren't any views from the top. Back at the car I headed up to the trailhead for Crotched Mountain, the next summit of the day.

Trailhead: Pinnacle Trailhead, Mountain Road, Lyndeborough. Other trailheads available.

Website: SOTA Site. Piscataquog Land Conservancy. PLC Map of Rose Mtn

Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.

Route: Take Helens Trail to the Summit Trail.

Red Tape: None.

This appeared to be the highest point on the mountain.