Sentinel Mountain: Knowing when to call it a day
I haven’t had much luck on my trips when it comes to weather. I have had many rainy days, and this was not an exception. I was trying to make it all the way to Mount Flagg via Sentinel Mountain with my two best friends, but the weather was less than welcoming. I have hiked this trail a few times before, but in the fog, it was like a totally different mountain.
We were a bit tired driving up to the mountain, and had some trouble finding parking for the trail head. My friends, Grace and Audrey, had to go to the campsite down the road to ask where we should park our car, and we were directed to a small spot right at the start of the trail. Our original plan had been to just hike Mount Flagg, which begins at my summer camp, but the trail head was closed because camp was in session, so we needed to improvise. Once we successfully parked, we threw on our rain gear, ate a cliff bar, and began our hike.
When hiking Mount Sentinel, you have to make sure you aren’t hiking on a private trail. There is only one public trail to get up the mountain, and quite a few private ones. The trails are not well marked, so watch that you don’t wander off into someone’s backyard (it almost happened to us, it’s not that hard to do). Once you get to a high enough elevation, the trail starts to become more vertical and less grassy. At this point, you know you are almost at the top.
We made it up the majority of the mountain without much of a problem. It was pouring and dreary, but we made the most of it by singing songs and telling funny stories. There soon came a point when I realized it was going to get even harder, and I had no idea how I was going to break the news to my friends.
We made it about a mile up the mountain when I realized that the trail really picks up the pace at the end. I was ahead of the group, and so when I saw that the trail goes almost completely vertical, I obviously had to take out my phone and film my friends’ reaction, and that is how I captured the best video ever. Grace screamed at the top of her lungs, and Audrey gave the camera the saddest look I have ever seen, it was great. This hike may be short, but it is a monster. The trail goes straight up at the end all the way to the summit.
The views from the summit are usually absolutely stunning, but we couldn’t see two feet in front of us. At the top, we sat down and ate our sandwiches, preparing for the next five miles of our hike to mount Flagg. As we ate, I tried to figure out the next trail we needed to take, but I could not find it anywhere. It was pretty spooky at the top with all the fog, and the second we heard a few twigs crack in the woods, we were out of there. We decided it was not a good idea to continue as we were all exhausted and a pretty freaked out, so we ran down the rest of the mountain and called it a day.
Once we got back to the car, we calmed ourselves down and stopped ourselves from believing that we were gonna be in the next “Blair Witch Project”. Instead of going home, we chose to drive into Wolfeboro. I grew up going to Wolfeboro, so I knew the area already, and I was excited to visit the town again after almost two years. Once we parked in town, we ran into a public bathroom to change into dry clothes and began our new adventure of finding a place for lunch.
We spent the day in Wolfeboro eating pizza at Nolan’s Brick Oven Pizzaria, ice cream and cookies at the Yum Yum Shop, and shopping in all the tourist stores. Even though I wasn’t out hiking, I was still having a really great time, and I am so glad we left the trail before we got lost or hurt.
As much as I wanted to finish my hike, it is important to know when to stop. My friends were exhausted, and so was I (I had hiked the Franconia Ridge Loop the day before), we were freezing and wet, and the conditions were becoming increasingly more dangerous as the day went on. If we have stayed, we might have gotten stuck, lost, hurt, or at the very least, we would have been miserable.
If staying on trail seems like a bad idea, it most likely is. Listen to your gut and understand that you don’t have to finish every hike. It isn’t always about the summit, hiking is about the whole journey. If you don’t make it to the summit, you haven’t failed, you’ve just shortened your journey, and that’s okay.
For Those Who Wander 