It was a gorgeous day to get out into the woods. I headed to Gilmanton to explore the Cogswell Mountain Conservation Area. Parking is at the Gilmanton Year Round library, which amazingly had a porta-potty with running water and flush!!! The trail starts across a small mowed thruway in a field and into the woods. There are 4 maintained trails in the network and 3 of those also double as snowmobile trails. I started by ascending to the East Peak via the blue blazed, East Summit Trail. I was amazed how well maintained the area was, and the climb didn't feel so bad at all. The summit has a lovely open area with a bench overlooking Crystal Lake. I then continued on the newly created connecting section from the East Peak to the main summit, that is not yet marked on the map, but is well blazed and maintained. This was strictly a hiking path and was easy to follow. This descended down the East Peak before climbing back up to the red blazed Main Summit Trail, which was another snowmobile corridor and wide. The entrance to this section wasn't easily seen from the red trail, so if going in the opposite direction, when the trail took a sharp left turn to make the final climb with a Hiking Trail sign on a tree, look for the the double blue blazes indicating the start of this trail to the right. From here it was a short climb up to the main summit, where there was a picnic table and a short path down to another bench overlooking the lake. The trail continued very briefly beyond the picnic table to the true summit, which was viewless but marked with a large cairn. I descended down the Main Summit Trail to the orange blazed Beaver Loop, which was a super pretty trail that went alongside an unnamed pond with Route 140 on the opposite side. No beaver activity viewable today. Back on the red trail, I went the very short distance back to the blue trail and ascended again, this time to the yellow blazed Summit Connector. This alternated between being a grassy snowmobile trail and more technical hiking trail. This was the only area where it was somewhat buggy too as it was a bit wet in the middle section. Back at the red trail and I descended straight back down to the car. Another really lovely area, super well maintained with some great views. I'm discovering so many new places in this updated edition of the AMC South Guide.

Intersection of Blue and Red trail

true summit on the main peak

lovely open area along the red trail

Saturday, August 9, 2025

Kuncanowet Town Forest

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!

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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!

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