Wapack Trail through Windblown

A dull photo except for one detail: no footprints. I got to make the day's first trip on this section of the Wapack.

The Wapack Trail in New Ipswich was rerouted a few months ago out of respect for a landowner's wishes, so no more views of Boston from little Stony Top. The Jenks family, owners of Windblown cross-country ski area, graciously worked with the Friends of the Wapack on a re-route through their property so that there's no break in the 21-mile trail.
Windblown has done good business since the blizzard a few days ago. Our area got less snow than forecast, but 10" was still enough reason to get the trails groomed. I could hardly wait to bring my husband & my snowshoes out there. Skiers far outnumbered snowshoers today, and the farther I got from the lodge, the less company I had. Not surprisingly, the best conditions as far as I was concerned came once the Wapack Trail left the maintained ski trails. Out there, I didn't have to worry about staying out of the skiers' set tracks, and I could plod along through the powder to my heart's content.

Note that when there's snow, Windblown charges a trail fee, which for snowshoers is a mere $10. (Skiers are charged $17.) Snowshoe & ski rentals are available there. No bareboot hiking in the snow. There's a base lodge for refreshments and warming-up.
http://windblownxc.com

Pawtuckaway without Crowds

I spent a couple of hours at Pawtuckaway State Park in Raymond yesterday, still waiting on southern NH's first snowfall of the season. Great time for a visit. I came in the "back" way, via Reservation Road in Deerfield, parking at the Round Pond Trailhead alongside a couple of other vehicles. I had no company on my walk to Tower Road and the fire tower. I'd never been to the tower without finding dozens of other hikers there, and I rather liked having the view to myself.

Lots of sunshine, though there was too much haze to see Boston.

Easy hike to Oak Hill fire tower

City of Concord NH hiking trails

 One of my favorite little guidebooks is "A Field Guide to New Hampshire Firetowers" (privately published, 2005 edition), but sometimes the notes on access to the towers are out of date or otherwise unhelpful. So it is with the book's directions to Loudon's Oak Hill, which direct me to an Oak Hill Road trailhead with no parking. The city of Concord and its conservation commission provide a useful alternative: the Tower Trail, with a 10-vehicle parking area on Shaker Road about 2.4 miles from Rt. 132 in northeastern Concord. Look for the sign for Oak Hill city forest. This trail approaches the fire tower from the west.

Stop at the city's web site (link above) to see descriptions of this trail and over a dozen others within the city limits.  Print out a map of your chosen trail from the web. Tower Trail is part of a network on Oak Hill, and while the trail itself is well-blazed and easy to follow, having a map at hand is always a good idea.

All intersections are signed, and the trail is free of obstructions. The few bridges are intact. Oak Hill is still snowless, and the trail itself is ice-free except for a few small areas in the last few hundred yards leading to the tower. The frozen ground is covered with leaves that can be a bit slippery, and the surface is a bit uneven with rocks and roots. (In other words, this is a typical woods walk.) Some of the side trails lead to vistas, according to the map, but I stayed on Tower Trail, where the views are all of the surrounding forest. Not a bad view at that.

The last quarter-mile or so follows a power line straight to the fire tower, which is dwarfed by a pair of cell towers. The cab is unstaffed this time of year, of course, and locked up for the season. I was able to climb to the platform just below the cab, stopping at each landing to wonder just what the fire warden was supposed to survey. I had to get to the platform before the view and the breeze really opened up.  Warner's Mt. Kearsarge dominated the view to the west-northwest. There are hills in all directions, none of them snowcapped yet, though my view was limited by distant haze.

It's about 500 feet of vertical rise from the trailhead to the tower, with a gentle grade.  The hike took me 50 minutes each way, and a more fit walker could undoubtedly cut that time considerably.  The full trail network on the hill covers about 7 miles, so a hiker could easily spend a day exploring the area. There are no facilities at the trailhead.

The trailhead is less than 15 minutes' drive from the State House, and the trail is in great shape. I'll be back.

Good week to visit Horse Hill

http://hhnp.org

A  flexible work schedule is nice while it lasts. Ninety minutes in Horse Hill Nature Preserve in Merrimack this morning made for a good start to the week. The preserve is a five-minute drive from my house, and I'd rather drive to the trailhead than walk there. That gives me more time on the trails and less on pavement.

Today had ideal late-fall conditions, with the temp around 30 degrees, light breeze, and a few flurries. Ground is pretty much frozen, though the streams are still flowing. Bridges are intact.  A golden retriever and her owner were the only other creatures I saw. The trailhead kiosk on Amherst Road reminded me that it's still hunting season, so blaze orange was the fashion accessory of the day. I'm looking forward to coming back with snowshoes in the coming months.

As usual, the map box at the trailhead was empty. Go online (web site listed above) to download one before coming here.

That spiky hill in Goffstown

The twin Uncanoonuc hills in Goffstown are my landmarks for knowing I'm nearly home whenever I come back from even a short trip out of my area. North Uncanoonuc looks forested and fresh, while South has 14 antennae and cell towers on its summit, making it look a bit like a geographic porcupine. I can't complain too much about the towers, since I like having cell service & similar conveniences. Any map I consult calls these the Uncanoonuc Mountains, but when you read that, bear in mind that these "mountains" top out around 1300'.

North Uncanoonuc is always pleasant, with good views, no power lines, & no towers. Today, though, I wanted to check out the trails on South. Goffstown has produced a terrific map (www.GoffstownTrails.com) showing not just the old hiking trails, but also the snowmobile trails that snake over & around both peaks. Mountain Road between the hills has several parking areas for hikers, and the entrance to the Reservoir road off Mountain Road now has a parking area with a map kiosk.

I started up South Uncanoonuc from the kiosk for a short late-afternoon hike, carrying the map I had downloaded & printed. Conditions are typical for November. South's trails are covered with slippery oak leaves, and a few of the boggy spots already have a thin skin of ice. Major trail intersections have either snowmobile signs or trail markers. Most minor trails as shown on the map are easy to spot, though they're unsigned. A power line cut across the slope includes a well-defined trail, which today saw bike traffic along with a few hikers. It was a great day to enjoy the view of Manchester (see photo) from South's summit ledges. I could almost forget that a cell tower was right behind me.

If I had had more time, I could have continued down the other side of South Uncanoonuc on either of two trails that end at Uncanoonuc Lake. A full morning or afternoon could easily be given to wandering these trails and visiting both summits. Bring water & snacks - the closest store & restrooms are on Mast Road, a couple of miles north of the trail kiosk on Mountain Road. There's a paved road from South's summit to Back Mountain Road, and if you want a good workout without going into the woods, you can drive to the summit (no good parking at the base)and walk down to the base & back. But why would I want to avoid the woods on a day like this?

Nashua Riverwalk pushes east

Nashua's Riverwalk is coming online piece by piece, as most trails do. I took a quick break from the job hunt this morning to check out the new stretch, extending from the library to the RR bridge behind BAE Systems. The bridge is a prize, providing one of the city's few safe pedestrian crossings of the Nashua River.

The RR bridge still has an active line, and it has long been a probably-illegal and certainly dangerous river crossing for intrepid pedestrians. A walkway and the rail line now share the bridge, with a fence and a railing defining the walkway. Not exactly a bridge to nowhere, its full value won't be realized until the Riverwalk is complete along both sides of the river near Main Street. My guess is that most of the current users are the lunchtime runners from BAE.

For now, a stairway behind the library leads to a flat path along the south side of the river. The view at the dam, unremarkable now, will probably be quite a draw for Riverwalk visitors in the spring. Spring floods will undoubtedly leave part of this path underwater for days at a time. Five minutes of walking brought me to the bridge.

Crossing the river put me into the parking lot between BAE & Margarita's - not exactly a scenic wonder. I hoped there might be a trail open along the north side of the river, but no such luck. Returning to the library meant either retracing steps or going ahead via the rail line, Main Street, & Pearson Avenue.

For safety, I'd rate this a daytime-only path for solo walkers for now. I'd love to see this get as much traffic as the paths in Mine Falls Park, and with the eventual completion of the Riverwalk, that may yet happen.

Published accounts of the condition of the Nashua River from 40 years ago make me appreciate all the work that has gone into this project. Bridges are particularly expensive to adapt for pedestrian use. My thanks to the McLean Contributionship, which made a $100,000 grant to get this trail link going.

Hands Across the Merrimack (and Manchester)

It took a whole lot of people, headed by Helen Closson, to make a pedestrian bridge out of the abandoned rail bridge across the Merrimack River in Manchester, NH. Closson called the project "Hands Across the Merrimack" while it was underway, and whatever name the pedestrian bridge may be given officially, that's the name I'll remember.

I've been on the bridge before, just for the fun of crossing over the Merrimack on foot. Today, after some business in town, I took advantage of the sunny afternoon to walk the rail trail clear across Manchester's West Side. This is Manchester we're talking about, so "clear across" means about two miles.

Starting from the baseball stadium where the Fisher Cats play on the river's east side, a paved walkway runs parallel to the Merrimack and shortly comes to a fork. Going right would have brought me under the rail trail and onto some private property. Going left brought me around a sweeping curve to the approach of the Hands Across the Merrimack bridge.

I was a bit startled to find a sculpture of a steer just short of the bridge. The plaque mounted nearby noted that the statue was a tribute to workers & entrepreneurs like the ones from the former JacPac meat processing plant located nearby, now the site of a hospital expansion.

Vandalism has become an issue along the trail, judging from some news reports I've read. It looked good today, though. I'm sure that's an ongoing effort by people who care. The trail is paved its entire length, and the pavement's in good shape.

The bridge is at the southeast end of a trail that parallels the Piscataquog River. For now, the northwest end of the trail is near what I call the Kelley Street bridge (Nazaire Biron Bridge on my map) that links the West Side with the Pinardville neighborhood. There's a very hazardous crosswalk on Main Street, but the few other road crossings are in quiet neighborhoods. The trail, like the rail line before it, goes on a bridge over Second Street, avoiding a road that's just as busy as Main Street.

The Piscataquog snuck up on me. I cleared Main Street & followed the trail behind a house where there was a cheerfully noisy party going on. As the music from the party faded behind me, I became conscious of the river's sound, and there it was on my left. A few weeks ago, we had heavy rains, and this river was particularly pesky for the people living along it. Today, though, it was a tame & pretty thing. Several dirt trails ran steeply from the trail down to the river. I stayed on the pavement, worried that I'd twist an ankle trying to negotiate the slope in my sneakers. Other people had no problem.

Eventually, I came to some ball fields, where a softball game was just wrapping up. Soon I was in sight of the ugly red bulk of West Side Arena. The building's homely appearance belies its worth as an athletic facility for what seems like every kid on the West Side. Soon I passed under the Kelley Street Bridge and reached what is now the end of the trail.

Once upon a time, this rail line crossed the Piscataquog near Kelley Street, and then paralleled the river (on its north side now) through Goffstown & into New Boston. Patches of the line have been developed into trails. I've been on one segment in New Boston near where the middle & south branches of the Piscataquog converge -- a beautiful spot. In Goffstown, determined residents have turned part of the old railbed into a trail, and they continue to try to finish the link between New Boston & Manchester.

For now, though, all I saw after crossing under Kelley Street was a fenced-off trestle hung with well-justified "Keep Off" signs. I suspect that tight municipal budgets and concerns about liability will keep that trestle from ever being turned into a pedestrian bridge. Of course, that's what I used to think about the bridge across the Merrimack.

This is not a path I would take after dark, except maybe for a stroll on the bridge after a Fisher Cats game. This is what passes in NH for a big city, with all the mischief that entails. A weekend afternoon in broad daylight, however, is another story. Today was fine.

Spring on NRRT

I don't dare think that we're done with winter yet, but today's 50-degree temps are very encouraging. I headed to Gilson Road in Nashua to see how the rail trail is faring, and I ended up getting all the way to Rt. 113 in Pepperell before heading back home.

We can't declare ice-out just yet. About half the trail has snow cover. In the early afternoon of a sunny & warm day like this one, the snow is soft & crunchy, not too deep, not requiring boots. Travel was much easier for me than for the many bicyclists who were out today, but even they seemed to be having a good time. It was an outdoor kind of day. My guess is that early mornings after sub-freezing nights would NOT be a good time to visit this trail, but once the sun gets up there & softens the surface, no problem. This should be a warm week, so a lot of the snow may be gone by next weekend.

Damage from the windstorm 10 days ago seems to be under control. I saw several places where volunteers had cut up & moved aside branches that had fallen onto the pavement. Snow-free sections of trail are covered with pine cones shaken loose by the wind.

The city of Nashua still has the Gilson Road parking lot chained off for the season, so I parked on the roadside. Many more cars were parked on 111-A.

I had hoped to find the Rail Trail Ice Cream Shop open in East Pepperell, but from across 113, I didn't see the "open" flag flying. Oh, well, another month will take care of that.

Just two weeks ago, I snowshoed in the New Ipswich woods in winter's loveliest powder, and today I'm wearing sneakers for an 8-mile walk. Great days, either way.

Breaking up the workday

Trail conditions were too good to pass up this week. A bit of planning, and I managed to take a few hours midday during the work week to visit Windblown ski area in New Ipswich. I packed both skis and snowshoes, but I decided when I arrived to stick with the snowshoes.

A little piece of the Wapack Trail passes through the property, and I started there, heading to little Stony Top. That's one of southern NH's easiest-to-reach grand views. The packed-powder trail had a fresh dusting from the night before, and I had the trail to myself. This not-for-skiers sign is posted at Stony Top where the Wapack heads south, just before a short-but-steepish (and narrow) stretch.

I veered off the Wapack before it started up Barrett Mountain so I could stay on flatter snowshoe trails. I was the only one on the property in snowshoes, apparently, and the woods were as peaceful as they ever get. A few skiers were on the ski trails, and I was welcome on those as long as I stayed out of the set tracks. About an hour & a half of meandering through the woods on the trails was all I could manage, but it was a great hour & a half.

Windblown welcomes hikers when the ski area is closed, but when there's snow on the ground, they very sensibly expect me to pay for a trail pass and wear snowshoes instead of barebooting it. I'm glad to oblige.

Beaver Brook, good & getting better

Nice to see on the Beaver Brook Association's web site that the BBA may be able to add a few parcels to its holdings soon. See www.beaverbrook.org for details.

The snowy trails are well-packed, thanks to the many skiers, snowshoers, and even bicyclists who have been out & about since all this nice powder fell a week ago. I spent my time today around the wildlife pond in the northern part of the reservation. Though the parking lot was nearly full, the trail network north of Rt. 130 in Hollis is so extensive that visitors can spread out pretty quickly. I had solitude for most of my hike around the pond.

I'd be happy to get back there later this week if time allows, and head further north. I always liked the Tupelo Trail, which relatively few people use compared to the trails south of 130.