Forest Society HQ in Concord

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests headquarters is in Concord, about a ten-minute ride from the State House off of exit 16. Follow signs for "conservation center", and you'll find the headquarters on Portsmouth Street. Stop in the foyer at the main building to pick up a map with the title Merrimack River Outdoor Education and Conservation Area, then drive another quarter mile down Portsmouth Street to a parking area and trailhead on the left. Don't expect the map box at the trailhead to be stocked.

The Forest Society trail network at this property runs along the Merrimack River (photo shows view upstream to I-93) and includes a pine plantation, a silver maple forest (forming the natural archway in the photo above), floodplain, and a river cove with a canoe landing. The traffic sounds from nearby I-93 are easy to ignore. In this drought, the river is quiet, but the sharply-cut banks indicate how high the Merrimack can run in a rainy season.

I stayed here longer today than I had intended, stretching a quick lunchtime walk into an hour. The trail is flat & sandy; no boots required. The bugs are out, so bring your insect repellent. This is an undramatic, peaceful spot for a walk, and it's open from dawn to dusk.

Mason: Parker's to Rail Trail

I took my husband up on his invitation to join him and his running buddies in Mason NH this morning. Beautiful day, lots of sun, 40 degrees or so at 8 a.m. We agreed to meet back in the Parker's Maple Barn parking lot at 9:30, and I left the runners to follow their own paths. I walked toward the rail trail that runs through Mason from the Massachusetts border north to Wilton and then west to Greenville.

Mason has hills. Not steep hills, but hills nonetheless. Brookline Road heading northwest from Parker's makes a steady climb up to County Road and continues fairly level to a sharp left turn. At that point, I went straight onto unpaved Scripts Road, a dead end with no-parking signs all along one side. It's surprising how often no-pavement and no-parking add up to a trailhead.

About ten minutes on Scripts brought me to the dead end with enough space for a few cars to park. A stony little trail disappeared into woods on the right, and I followed it knowing that the rail trail had to be close by. Two minutes later, there it was. A sharp right would have taken me north; I stayed left. You can see from the photo that this is a decently-maintained trail. It's wide as a boulevard, with unremarkable but pleasant woodland scenery. It must make a great snowmobile trail in winter. Equestrians are welcome, though the Scripts Road trail entrance is not the place for a horse trailer. Several other town roads cross the trail and I suspect some parking is available at each intersection.

I turned around 45 minutes into my walk, which took me only a fraction of a mile on the rail trail. I know from long-ago hikes on more northerly segments of the trail that I could have walked in peace all day if I'd had the time. I'm sorry I couldn't stop today at Pratt Pond, probably the prettiest spot on the Mason trail.

Although close to town roads, the trail's peace and quiet are remarkable. Aside from a plane passing far overhead, the only sounds were birdsong and wind in the trees until a pair of runners (hey! I knew those guys!) passed me.

The walk back to Parker's was of course mostly downhill, and I went into that wonderful restaurant for an excellent breakfast with my husband. As is usually the case with Parker's on a Saturday morning, there was a short wait for a table. Believe me, it's worth it. (Try stuffed French toast and a mug of maple coffee. Trust me.)

Mine Falls Park: Home of the Gate City Striders

OK, so the park isn't officially the home of a running club, but members spend so much time at Mine Falls Park that it's sort of home-away-from-home.

If you have avoided the Mine Falls area out of concerns for personal safety because it's an urban park, you might want to try the trails late in the day on Wednesdays between now & October. Gate City Striders (GCS) use the park and the adjacent NHS-South track for weekly workouts at 6 p.m., giving you plenty of company on the trails for an hour or so. You can park in the Nashua High School-South lot, behind the school, near the track.

By the way, I've used these trails for years, in all seasons, at all daylight hours & occasionally at dusk. I have not been accosted at any time. The creepiest near-encounter I  had with a suspicious-looking character was in the east end of the park, behind the now-renovated mill buildings, a decade ago when they were still pretty derelict. The character disappeared as soon as a group of half a dozen Striders came into view on their Wednesday run.

I'm responsible for my own safety, so of course there's risk, which I try to mitigate by carrying assorted devices. I usually let someone in my family know where I'm headed. I actually feel more at-risk in urban parks than on remote trails. I don't let the risk scare me into staying home.

Come check out GCS in any case. Fine folk, in my experience.

North Country View

I spent this uncommonly warm April day driving upstate to Bethlehem, Littleton, and finally Lancaster. This is a blog about southern NH trails, but today's trip was pleasant enough to rate a mention. I took this photo from the auto road up Mt. Prospect at Weeks State Park in Lancaster. The road is closed to auto traffic until sometime later this spring, but pedestrians may leave their cars at the base of the road and walk to the top. This is the view of the Presidential Range from one of the pull-offs along the way.

This has been a very dry winter and spring. As the photo shows, the Presidentials have far less snow cover than is typical for this time of year. I drove through Franconia Notch on my way north, and Cannon's ski trails are merely streaked with snow. (The ski area shut down for the season some time ago.) On the eastern side of the notch, only Lafayette had a snowcap, and it looked unimpressive. The bright side to this drought - and it is definitely a drought - is that the bugs haven't come out yet. I was out for several hours today and wasn't bitten at all.

I didn't walk all the way to the summit on this trip, but I encourage readers to do so if they get a chance. The summit's fire tower is unique. Instead of the usual metal skeleton, this one is a flagstone tower. This is an active firespotting station, and if you're lucky, you'll be there on a day when it's staffed & the cab is open to the public. As you'd expect, the views are outstanding.

The entrance to Weeks State Park is on U.S. 3 in Lancaster, about 2 miles north of the Whitefield town line. Details are available at the NH Parks & Rec web site here.

Dry spring = dry trails

Nearly snowless winter & dry spring have left trails near Merrimack in good shape. It's very dry & fire danger is high. Those same conditions have kept bugs away so far, although that can't last for long.

A few of my recent walks:
Pawtuckaway from parking lot near main entrance: I got most of the way to the fire tower before a still-healing fractured toe made me turn back. Some mud, easily bypassed. Main road is still gated and is likely to remain so for at least a couple of more weeks. While the park is not yet staffed for the season, there's now an iron ranger in the parking lot where you can pay $5 for admission. That's a bargain for this huge park with so many features.

Rollins State Park: The auto road up Mt. Kearsarge is still gated, but pedestrians can enjoy the paved road that comes within a half mile of the summit. Some tree litter remains on the road, but there's obviously been some early-season cleanup going on.

Horse Hill in Merrimack: I'm loving these few bug-free weeks on the trails here in Merrimack.

Mine Falls in Nashua: All trails clean & clear. The canal and river are at dramatically low levels.

Get out & enjoy everything. Keep your DEET handy, though. We'll need it soon.