Out to Dunbarton today to Kuncanowet Town Forest. The drive in was actually really pretty, and the trailhead is at the end of a small street of lake houses. Almost feels like you're not in the right place, but right at the end, a dirt road leads to a circular parking area with kiosk. I was the only car at 830am, and remained the only car all day! Judging by the bugs present at the kiosk, I geared up with bug spray and headed out. There is only 1 entrance point to the trails, so my goal was to get them all in one go if possible. It was a warm one, and the bugs were relentless, which did take some of the joy out of the day, but I got it done in just under 8 miles. I headed out on Hobblebush Trail, which was really lovely. It followed along a marshy area. At Mill Pond Trail, I turned left. This trail was wide and started nicely, but once past the first intersection with Pond View Loop, it became a bit more overgrown and muddy. Thankfully the mud was mostly dry for me today, but I can imagine after some rains, it's really quite messy. I continued to a bridge and then reached my first small spur signed Mill Sites. This seemed lightly used, but as was the case with the entire network, was well blazed and easy to follow. A short walk out to a cellar hole. Back on Mill Pond Trail, I continued to Gum Tree Trail. I took the left here to follow in an anti clockwise direction. Gum Tree Trail as a whole was a rolling up and down over several small bumps, nothing crazy and no views. The trail itself alternated between clear and obvious, to not discernible at all with leaves and rocks, but remained well blazed the entire way and I had no issues with navigation. The one named bump along the way (per Peakbagger) is Kuncanowet Hill, and the true summit appeared to be just off trail, so I did wander over to bag that. In the middle of Gum Tree Trail, is a short trail called Stone Wall Trail, that follows.. yep, a stone wall. This gives the option to shorten the loop. I did an out and back on this. Back on Gum Tree Trail, towards the bottom there is a spur to Gorham Pond. It dropped steeply at first, for a very short distance, then continued down to the pond. The closer to the pond, the trail became really quite overgrown, but was still blazed all the way to the very end, so I kept following for the sake of redlining. Back on Gum Tree Trail, I took the very short spur to the tree the trail is named after.. I think.. I couldn't see any blazes beyond a giant tree that was surrounded by very soft ground that I also imagine is very messy after rains. I continued on Gum Tree Trail back up to Lost Lake Loop. I needed to grab the section between the 2 branches of Gum Tree Trail, so I did an out and back on that, before continuing around Lost Lake Loop. This was lovely as well, though more rolling ups and downs and I started to get quite tired here. Between the heat of the day and the bugs driving me mad! I retraced my steps on Mill Pond Trail back to Pond View Loop and took that around past Stinson Mill Pond and back to Mill Pond which I followed all the way back to the kiosk and my car. Another lovely area, I just love exploring these unknown to me places!

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Rose Mountain

Another area to explore that I had never even heard of. I headed to Lyndeborough to hike to Rose Mountain. There are 2 ways to get to Rose Mountain, I opted for Helen's Trail to Summit Trail. The trailhead is unmarked on Mountain Road in Lyndeborough. There is a pull off for a few cars. I was surprised to see 4 cars already there. The trail immediately starts climbing to the first small peak, The Pinnacle. Much of this route is along a snowmobile corridor, so the trail is a little wider. There are blazes, but relatively sparse in places, but the trail was easy enough to follow. I would recommend having a map of some sort however, as there were a lot of offshoots, since most of this is on private land, and I didn't really find many of them marked, so without a map it could get confusing. The climb up to The Pinnacle was on the steeper side. The summit is open but there are no views due to trees. There was some rock slab and a tiny peek a boo view, but today was so hazy there wasn't really anything to see. The trail then descends a little to a small view area with a large fire pit. From here, although you are going up and down, it is very, very mild. The majority of the ascent was getting up to the Pinnacle. I did find it start to get quite buggy from here and had to don my bug net as swatting just became too annoying. Lyndeborough Mountain was the second peak. There is a snowmobile sign pointing the way up about 0.1 miles. Again, no views, but wide open slab with trees all around and another big fire pit! Continuing towards Rose Mountain, I joined Summit Trail and climbed the gentle ascent to the summit. Another wide open space, still no views, but there is a 0.15 mile spur from here that takes you to an open area where there are views over towards Monadnock, Crotched Mountain and the Wapack area. There is a giant cairn along this spur at a small viewpoint. And yet another huge fire pit at the end of the spur. Unfortunately today with the Canadian wildfire smoke, I could barely see anything, so I didn't really linger. I backtracked the way I came, however before the ascent to the Pinnacle, there is an unmarked path to the left that the Guide describes as closed, but open.. it was easy enough to follow, even some random blazes in the middle of it. Got a bit more rustic as it continued down, but was still easy to follow. This bypasses returning over the summit of the Pinnacle for a quicker descent, rejoining Helen's Trail not too far from the road. I'll have to come back and do Summit Trail proper, which I actually don't mind revisiting this area. I enjoyed it!

Strava Activity

trailhead on Mountain Road

The Pinnacle summit

viewpoint just below Pinnacle summit

firepit at the viewpoint

there was a little signage at some of the intersections

spur to Lyndeborough Mt summit

fire pit on the summit

end of the spur

just before the intersection with Summit Trail

Summit Trail intersection

Rose Mountain summit

along the spur to the view ledges

view ledges off Rose Mountain

view heading back down Summit Trail from Rose Mountain

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Holbrook Hill

Finally had a chance to dive into the new AMC South Guide 6th edition that I've had for several weeks now. Lots of amazing new places to explore. Holbrook Hill in Bedford was no exception. Honestly some of the most meticulous trails I remember seeing. It was like someone had been through and had leaf blown the debris from the trail proper. They were so clean! I opted to start at what they call the Main Entrance on Joppa Hill Road. There was a roadside pull off for a couple of cars and a kiosk. The guide describes 2 trails in this area, but there is now a third, that I used to create a loop. It was 2 loops essentially with a little out and back on each end and in the middle. I took the right branch of Lo Flo Trail (blue blazes) from the kiosk and followed that around until I reached Holbrook Hill Trail. Turned onto Holbrook Hill Trail (orange blazes) and followed that up and over the summit of Holbrook Hill. The only scenic thing in this area is along this section when you cross over a bridge dividing a pond from a boggy area. These trails are multi use and it felt like they were designed with mountain biking in mind. Long straight aways and hairpin turns created a very mild ascent. You barely realize you are climbing (to be fair, I only did around 470 feet of gain over 6 miles, you really aren't climbing much). The summit is marked with a little circle around a rock formation with a mailbox and sign in notebook and a cairn. This is also the highpoint for the town of Bedford. I continued on Holbrook Trail and descended down the backside to an alternate parking area on Back Mountain Road. Backtracking, I picked up the newer white blazed trail, marked on their website as the Thomas & Robert Shirley Trail. This created a loop and prevented having to go back up and over the summit. This trail connected back with Holbrook Hill Trail not far from the bridge over the pond. I continued back to Lo Flo Trail, this time taking a right to complete that loop. The section from here back to the kiosk was the most "technical" of the entire area, in that it was really the only area with any substantial rocks and roots, and a few manmade rocky sections that were likely designed to help when the trail may be excessively wet.. which it was not today. There is a short spur along this section of trail, that led to another small parking area on Joppa Hill Road. Several areas on all 3 trails had significant mountain laurel plants. I read that peak bloom is in June, I can only imagine how beautiful it must be. Even still, the lush greenery creates a mini oasis even without the flowers. It was a gorgeous day out, temps were pleasant, I would have liked a bit more of a breeze, but the trail is completely under tree cover, so it's not like I was in direct sun or anything. Bugs were mild. Enough to be somewhat annoying, but not enough to warrant the bug net. Overall, a really enjoyable area.

Strava Activity