Cardigan Mountain - Cathedral Forest/Vistamont Trails

 I've not been out in a month due to family commitments.. and while I cherish each and every one of those moments, I've missed the trails, so it felt good to get back out and continue exploring. I haven't been up an actual mountain in a really long time, and have mostly trails in the Cardigan and Monadnock areas left to hike on my quest for the AMC South Redline patch. I decided to head to Cardigan and grab a few sections there. It had been raining the past couple of days and was misty and sprinkly on my drive up. I managed to avoid any actual rain, but had some wet trails to contend with. Nothing impossible, just some extra care taken on those rocks and roots. I never seem to have good luck with parking at the AMC Cardigan Lodge, and this weekend was no different. Even though I arrived just after 8am, the lot was completely full and cars were even parking down the road despite the very obvious NO PARKING signs. Turns out there was a large group of Boy Scouts from CT who had been camping. I saw several cars parked just outside the AMC Cardigan Reservation sign, where there aren't any signs against parking, and hesitantly turned around to find myself a spot there. This would only had about a half mile dirt road walk each way. I geared up including bug spray as it was rather mosquitoey and headed out. Just as I got a few hundred yards from the car, several of those campers passed by leaving. I hightailed it back to my car and headed for the parking area to grab one of those empty spots. Feeling better about this, I headed back out again down the Manning Trail, and onto Holt Trail. The section to Grand Junction is just under a mile and is really quite pleasant. A very gentle ascent initially, then across Bailey Brook on a bridge before hitting the more technical area with quite a few rock steps. The trail follows along Bailey Brook and there are some lovely cascades. At Grand Junction I turned onto Holt-Clark Cutoff/Cathedral Forest Trail which was about 0.7 miles. The grade was a little steeper now, but not as bad as I had anticipated. I was going really slow though, cognizant of the fact I need to rebuild mountain fitness, but I felt pretty good overall. At Clark Trail, I turned right. Very easy grades at first, the trail takes a right hand turn alongside a big rock cliff covered in moss and starts the climb in earnest. Made just a bit trickier today with the wet rock, overall it still wasn't as bad as I had expected. I was pleasantly surprised. At the Hurricane Gap intersection there is a lovely little bench at an overlook. Unfortunately today it was socked in with cloud, but that's OK, I have been here before and seen the gorgeous view. I continued up Hurricane Gap Trail which was fairly eroded in places. The AMC High Cabin is along this trail, and was a flurry of activity this morning as some campers were cleaning up preparing to head out. The view is cleared in front of the cabin which must be gorgeous at sunrise/sunset when the skies are clear! At the end of Hurricane Gap Trail, which was technically as far as I needed for redlining, I did take a left turn and head up the short tenth to the South Peak summit, despite knowing there would be no views. My second time on this summit and I had the same conditions both times! It was moody though as the clouds cleared ever so slightly and I could occasionally see the Cardigan summit as I had my snack. Descending the clouds cleared even more and back at the cabin and also the bench, I had more of a view, which was lovely to see. Back on Clark Trail, I continued past Cathedral Forest down to Vistamont Trail. The trail beyond Cathedral Forest definitely seemed less traveled, but was still well maintained and easy to follow. At the Vistamont intersection, the trail heading off towards Skyland Trail was completely obstructed with a huge blowdown, but as I wasn't heading in that direction today it caused me no issue. I took Vistamont back to Cathedral Forest and Holt back towards the car. Instead of a complete retracing of my steps, at the newly opened All Person Trail, I decided to follow that as the last time I had taken this trail it was still under construction. Unfortunately this was the buggiest portion of my day, so I didn't stop to read any of the story pages along the route. Back at the car, I was feeling pretty good and as I had parked right at the Woodland Trail entrance, I decided to head in and do the Nature Trail. I knew nothing of this trail other than it existed and I had passed it when I had done this section of Woodland Trail a couple years ago. After crossing a wooden bridge that is in need of a little repair on the ramp, but still able to be crossed, the first entrance to Nature Trail came up soon after. I decided to start here. The trail sign says 0.5 mile loop, and it did end up being just about that. The first part was low and wet and muddy with lots of bog bridges. All day, I had been very conscious crossing any wooden bridge, knowing the wood would be slick in the wet and had done alright up until now. Stepping from one bridge to another, I went down hard. Annoyed with myself, I got up and continued, now just ready to be done. The lower portion of the trail was a little more rustic, but still easy enough to follow. It basically meanders alongside the brook which travels alongside the road to the Lodge. In fact, you could see the road for almost all the length of the trail. I saw 2 little placards along the way, I had thought there may be more of those as is often the case on a "Nature Trail". Once reaching the lowest point along the trail right at the road, the trail turns in and surprisingly had a short, steep little climb, though good footing made it no issue. From here on back to Woodland Trail, it was a very pleasant walk through the woods. Once back at Woodland Trail, I returned to the car for a successful day bringing me to 94.3% on my redlining spreadsheet!

Strava Activity

My initial parking spot was here

Heading out from the Lodge

This short section of Clark showed signs of storms

but quickly got lovely again

This is where the real climbing begins

no views on the way up

AMC High Cabin

view from the cabin on my way up

South Peak summit

view from the cabin on my way down

looking over at Skyland Trail from the cabin

views on my way down

Vistamont heading towards Skyland blocked

Woodland Trail

the bridges that took me out

Bear Mountain Trail - Newfound Audobon Society

 I was on a time constraint today, it was raining and I'm not available tomorrow. Bear Mountain Trail seemed to fit the bill. Even if it did take almost as long to get there as I was out on the trail. I wasn't sure what to expect, there's not a lot out there on this trail besides the description on the Newfound Audobon website. I knew it was about a mile long and had some elevation gain to it. I had expected it to be somewhat rustic, perhaps a bit hard to follow. It was the exact opposite. Really well maintained and blazed and overall quite pleasant. Parking is about 3 tenths from the trailhead, around the corner on Cross Road. There is a sign for Hebron Marsh and Bear Mountain Trail parking. I pulled in, it's basically a field, and someone was out with a metal detector! It had rained the entire drive up but magically stopped as I started out. The trailhead is right on West Shore Road, marked with a sign and blaze and immediately heads uphill. The trail meanders up and around through Newfound Audobon property, crossing a brook that leads to Newfound Lake, 3 times. I had thought it might be a tough crossing with all the recent rain, but it was actually very small, with the third crossing barely having a trickle. There was a lot of small debris from the most recent storms, and I spent a lot of time on my ascent moving as much off trail as I could. A few large blowdowns crossed the path as well, with a couple being stepovers and 2 being skooch arounds, but nothing impossible or even difficult. A few short, steep pitches kept the heart rate up, but there is nothing technical about this trail. At about 1 mile from the road, a lollipop intersection is marked with a yellow blaze on a tree and 2 yellow blazes on each side. I opted to go left as the trail description on the website described, which was a short steep climb up to the height of land. The map references a lookout and I saw an area that probably was said lookout over Newfound Lake, however the trees have grown up pretty much obstructing that view. I had a peekaboo view today with the leaves still being down. The loop follows the property boundary line. I heard voices and thought someone was coming up the other direction, but no one did, and then I saw a neighboring road through the trees, so I must have heard someone on the road. Completing the loop back to the intersection was muddy and messy. A completely different experience from the rest of the trail. This section was only about 0.3 miles. Back at the intersection and I retraced my steps back to the car. The minute I got back in the car, it started raining again! 

Strava Activity

parking on Cross Road

trail head on West Shore Road

zoomed out to see from street view

intersection for the lollipop

peekaboo view from the "lookout"

Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway Section 13

 After a glorious start to the week including a Total Solar Eclipse, ending in rain, I knew the trails would be messy. I decided to go back and finish Section 13 of the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway. I parked at the Stoney Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in Newbury alongside Chalk Pond. I geared up throwing in my spikes just in case (they were not needed) and headed out on Chalk Pond Trail. At about 2 tenths, the trail veered right and started to gently climb. The conditions alternated between wet, very wet, super ridiculously muddy and beautiful and dry. There was one small section where a re-route around one of the muddiest spots is not marked. I was knee deep in mud when I looked up and saw a blaze off to the side. I backed up and could see where the path went, but it was not obvious at all initially. Thankfully I had only gone a hundred feet or so, and as I had been expecting muddy conditions I wasn't upset. The trail continued to gently climb up to a high point passing one very small patch of snow. I saw more snow off trail, but this was the only patch I had to cross all day. There were also some water crossings that ordinarily were small, but with all the snowmelt and rain were extra today and at times it was impossible to not walk through. My boots held up though and kept my feet dry! The trail started to descend slightly and at about the 1.1 mile mark met up with Baker Hill Road. The trail then followed Baker Hill Road downhill for half a mile. This is a paved road, but was quiet and follows alongside a golf course. At the first right, Haynes Road, turn right. This was not marked going in this direction, but there was a blaze on a pole opposite the intersection marking the way for those coming down Haynes Road. The real uphill begins here. Haynes Road is 0.4 miles long and is paved. At the end a gravel driveway begins and bears right with a gate. Kings Hill Road, which is a Class VI road heads straight. This was a true Class VI road and was very eroded in places as well as very wet and rocky. There was a nice ridge alongside the eroded sections most of the way, but even that was very soft in places from the excess water. The trail climbs to a point about a quarter mile from the Kings Hill summit before starting to descend. I followed another 0.7 miles or so, which was some of the most eroded section I encountered all day reaching my turnaround point at a large split boulder in the trail, where I had reached a couple weeks ago in all the snow. Much different today. I stopped for a quick snack before backtracking exactly the way I came. I just have 3 more sections to complete on the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway!

Strava Activity

start at Stoney Brook Wildlife Sanctuary

trail veers right in Stoney Brook Wildlife Sanctuary

the only snow I had to cross

expanded water crossing after the rains

one of the nice and dry parts

end of the trail at Baker Hill Road

road walk on Baker Hill Road

right on Haynes Road

start of Class VI Kings Hill Road

this nice section hiding slippery mud under the leaves

very eroded

my turnaround point

Wantastiquet-Monadnock Trail - Stones Mill Road

 We had a massive snowstorm this past week. My little town looked a bit like a war zone with tree debris and in the vicinity of 16 inches of snow. We were without power/internet for over 24 hours. My trend of wanting nothing to do with Winter hiking continued, so I checked the town by town snow totals for the areas I have left on my redlining spreadsheet and took a punt on the Keene area. I parked at the Beals Road trailhead for Pisgah State Park. I packed snowshoes and spikes just in case and headed off down Stones Mill Rd. The conditions were alternating between dry, wet, very wet, muddy and snowy. The snowy conditions were never more than a few inches at most, so I was able to bare boot the entire way. I was surprised to see a set of tracks on the trail already. I can't imagine this is a highly traveled trail unless you are either redlining or hiking the W-M Trail. There were also some jeep tracks on all the roads where vehicles were allowed. Some of those sections were really "off road" and I was amazed that a jeep was able to navigate, must have been quite the adventure. A couple tenths down Stones Mill Road, the W-M Trail bears left onto Draper Road. Just under half a mile down Draper Road is the Draper Tent Site. I wasn't sure where exactly the tent site was beforehand, just knew it must be along here somewhere due to the name. Luckily the footprints I was following also explored the tent site as I was looking down so intently to avoid rocks and deeper mud/water I almost walked right past. The tent site is about 0.2 miles from the trail and has a logbook and brand new privy. The next half mile was downhill and the messiest part of the day. Lots of water and mud and trees down in places. Nothing that impeded progress, just slowed me down a bit as I was careful with my footing so as not to slip. At the bottom it was so wet, I wasn't sure if it was an actual water crossing or the trail was flooded. A large tree down made it a bit tricky to see which direction the trail went as there was a cross road, but I had a pre-downloaded track which kept me on course. The trail veered right onto Hinds Road and here it really was flooded. At this point, I was over trying to be careful with my steps and just walked right on through the water. It was only a couple hundred yards, and my waterproof boots held up pretty well. A bridge crossed an inlet and then it was dry. The trail briefly joined Old Swanzey Road, which is residential, then veered left onto Old Chesterfield Road, which is a Class VI road. After one tenth, the road heads left and in another 3 tenths the trail turns left at an intersection I almost missed again as there is currently a large tree down in front of the trail, which initially I thought was blocking access.. it probably is, for jeeps, but at the last moment I caught a blue blaze on a tree indicating the W-M Trail heading in that direction. From here to my turnaround point, the trail was all snow, but never deep. It also gently climbs to a highpoint before descending down to a beaver dam. I was surprised to see that the trail actually crossed right over the beaver dam, that was a first for me. Prepare to get wet feet on this section. I was very nervous that the dam would hold me, but it did and I continued another tenth or so before coming to another pond that had a large log bridge crossing. I decided to make this my turnaround point as I was starting to tire and figured this was an easily discernible point to return to from the opposite direction! I crossed the log bridge, then backtracked to Old Swanzey Road. Not really wanting to climb back up the messy section, I decided to road walk back along Old Swanzey Road to Stones Mill Road. This only added about half a mile and was much easier going. These roads are both hard packed dirt road and quiet. 

Strava Activity

Parked at Beals Road trailhead

headed down Stones Mill Rd

Left onto Draper Rd

Draper tent spur

some of the varied conditions

that's the trail!

bridge on Hinds Rd

left onto Old Chesterfield Rd

left at this tree into W-M Trail

this section was all snow

cross the dam

my turnaround point

view from the log bridge