I'm letting the dreary near-freezing rain keep me home this New Year's Day. Good for you if you're out. The hike you're planning will undoubtedly be a piece of cake compared to the drive to the trailhead.
No resolutions today, but some things come to mind:
The Pinnacle in Lyndeborough must be the most inaptly-named geological feature in southern NH. The road to the trailhead takes me practically to the top. Even so, this was one of my favorite local trips this year. The fairly flat stroll to the actual “pinnacle” leads to quite a satisfactory panorama. And who maintains this stone wall (pictured above) along the way? I can't go anywhere in NH without finding stone walls, most of them long abandoned and tumbledown. This one, though, is clearly someone's pet project. There's no clearing or other obvious sign of active land use – just this neat and level wall, evidence that someone cares about this land.
Monadnock has never been so appealing to me in so many months of the year as it was in 2006.
Whatever happened to plans for a greenbelt linking Bedford and Merrimack? There was once talk of creating a trail through undeveloped land running south from Joppa Hill Farm. Is this still under consideration anywhere?
The Nashua River Rail Trail's extension northward is delightful. I didn't think there was any way the trail could go on the old rail route, which now goes through a golf course. The simple obvious solution I didn't consider was that the trail could be re-routed to skirt the edge of the course. Biking and walking through a larger part of Nashua off the main roads is easier now.
I said no resolutions. Getting out more isn't exactly a resolution -- it's more like a plan. Time to get out.
