A Harlan Calef Isinglass Preserve East

Laura, Vanessa and I wanted to take advantage of a reasonably warm and sunny day and headed out to explore the East side trails of the A Harlan Calef Isinglass Preserve that Laura and I explored the West side trails a couple weeks ago. There isn't a formal entrance on this side, a small sign on a tree and a chained old road. I imagine in non-Winter conditions there is ample road side parking, but today in the snow, we had to creatively park a little further down to make sure we were safely off the road. The trails on this side are well blazed and signed and contain a couple trails that meander down to the river. Starting on River Trail, we followed that to a fork. Keeping left, we did an out and back to the end, which is at the river. Back at the fork, The right branch is now Marsh Trail which follows alongside (you guessed it) a marsh We kept on Marsh Trail at the intersection with Ledge Trail. We'd do that on our return. At the end of Marsh Trail, we turned left onto Big Rock Trail and followed that, keeping left at the intersection with Big Rock Loop and followed to the end, again at the river and at the aptly named Big Rock.. which was snow covered and hard to distinguish as a rock, but we climbed up to get a nice view down the river. We did Big Rock Loop, including the out and back on Corner Trail, which just followed along the river and back to Big Rock Trail. Back onto Marsh Trail, but this time taking Ledge Trail, which climbed up a small incline to a lookout that is grown in over the river. Finishing Ledge Trail, we rejoined River Trail and back to the car. There was a couple of inches of snow on the ground today, but we were able to bare boot with no issues. All that came in just under 2 miles. A perfect way to spend an hour in the sunshine. 

Strava Activity

 

Gonic Trails

 I had visited this area a long time ago with my family. Now with it being part of the Barrington Town patch, I needed to revisit and properly pick up the trails. There is a very small, but really quite great network here on Waste Management property. I imagine in the heat of Summer, if the wind is blowing in the right direction, there might be a bit of an odor, but today was perfect. Some snow on the ground, but the trails were well worn down and I was able to bareboot the entire way. I parked in the main lot and started first with the yellow blazed Isinglass Trail. This was a wide carriage way all the way to the falls. The one negative to this trail network is it's downhill to the falls, then uphill back to the car. I'd say the Isinglass Trail was the least steep. Although the parking area was quite busy, I had the falls to myself. There are lots of rocks to climb around on and a makeshift ladder and rope swing. I always love a frozen waterfall, so I took an extra minute to enjoy the natural art before continuing on. Isinglass Trail continues beyond Waste Management property out to a smaller parking area further down Rochester Neck Road. Once past the falls, the trail becomes more like an actual trail in the woods, but was still well maintained and marked. The trail follows the Isinglass River all the way and was really quite pretty. I did an out and back to the parking area. The Waste Management property portion of the trails includes 2 loops, red blazed Watsons Way and blue blazed Locke's Loop. I kind of made a spiral out of it and went up the outer side of Watsons Way, down the outer side of Locke's Loop, then back up the inner side of Locke's Loop. The 2 loops merge briefly, so at that intersection, I went back down the outer side of Watson's Way.. the way I had previously come up, and then finished the network by coming up the inner side of Watson's Way.. all in, I got about 6.5 miles and the snow started just as I returned to the car. I really enjoyed this little network, and am definitely enjoying exploring so close to home. 

Strava Activity

Isinglass Trail and Locke's Loop from the parking area

continuing out on the out and back of Isinglass trail

Isinglass Trail at the smaller parking area

along Watson's Way

heading down Locke's Loop

intersection of Locke's Loop and Watson's Way

along Watson's Way

A Harlan Calef Isinglass Preserve West

 Happy New Year! New year, new project.. after 4 years of pretty consistently heading out every weekend, I took a couple months off.. and now it's Winter and I honestly don't have any great desire for crazy Winter hiking. So I'm starting a low key project, close to home and on much shorter, easier trails. Perfect for the season. The town of Barrington has a patch program for hiking the trails covered by the Conservation Commission. I've previously hiked at Stonehouse Pond, but other than that these will all be new to me. To start off, Laura and I explored the A Harlan Calef Isinglass Preserve off Town Farm Road. This is considered the west side of the preserve. There is a parking area about halfway down Town Farm Road with a kiosk. The network consists of 2 trails connected by an old logging road. We were getting a light snowstorm, so everything was covered with a pretty dusting. The Calef Trail starts right behind the kiosk and weaves over to the old logging road. Take a right on the old road and follow that until you reach Beaver Dam Loop off to the left. We took a couple of spurs off the old road which went down to the river. One was marked with a sign but was not on the map, so probably a newer trail, even had a bench at the end to sit and enjoy the view. Beaver Loop was a short trail passing by a marsh/pond area that I imagine has beaver activity in the Spring/Summer hence the name. We followed the logging road to a gate and backtracked. We stopped and explored an old cemetery on our way back. The map references some other points of interest, but we didn't take the time to locate any of those, just enjoyed our first ramble in the woods in a couple of months. Great little network, everything seemed well maintained and we ended up with exactly 4 miles!

Strava Activity

New spur trail to the bench at the river

bench along the Beaver Dam Loop

our turnaround point on the old logging road

cemetery along the old road

another spur trail to this pretty view

Horatio Colony Preserve - Wantastiquet Monadnock Trail

 I had 3 miles left of the Wantastiquet-Monadnock Trail to complete. It was a grey overcast and chilly day. Perfect day for a wander in the woods. I headed out to Horatio Colony Preserve to do an out and back on part of the section known as the Keene Connector. I parked on Whitcomb Mill Rd at the trailhead, geared up and headed out. Horatio Colony Preserve provides an interpretive trail system (without having a trail guide, I didn't know what any of the markers were, but I saw up to Marker #23 on my journey!). There are several trails in the Preserve, but I opted to stay on the Wantastiquet-Monadnock Trail which utilizes the Red Diamond Trail, Ridgeline Trail and Bailey Brook Trail. Straightforward, really well maintained, though a bit more rustic the further into the park you get. I'd say Red Diamond is the most well used section as it's the most clean area as far as debris. It's a short and relatively steep little climb initially up Red Diamond Trail, and once you reach the ridge, there was an old cellar foundation and lovely view across into Vermont. Then the trail rolls up and down past some rock wall formations, but mostly just pleasant woods. Along Ridgeline Trail is a designated camp site for the Wantastiquet-Monadnock Trail. It was a ridiculously winding and long 0.3 miles to reach the cleared area with no amenities, but would serve its purposes if you needed to overnight. The most frustrating part of the day was all the leaves on the ground. So many leaves, it was so deep. I slipped and skidded and tripped and even fell once in all that leaf cover. Going up some of the steeper inclines was difficult as I'd slip back down. I reached my turnaround point halfway along Bailey Brook Trail, where I had reached a few weeks and started to retrace my steps. Once I reached where West Hill Road crosses the trail (Class VI not accessible by vehicle), I looked at the map, and decided to take my chances as the road looked a bit clearer as far as leaf cover. It also looked a tad shorter on the map (I didn't have mileage to know for sure, I was eyeballing it) and would involve a short road walk to complete the loop back to the car. The leaf cover had annoyed me so much, I was willing to risk the condition of this Class VI road and do the road walk. As it turned out, although it was still leafy and had a lot more debris, though nothing impassable, it was definitely the better choice. I was able to make good time and was really, pleasantly surprised about halfway along to encounter a hard packed gravel road, which led up to a communications tower. That's how bad the leaves had been, I was excited at a road walk. I followed it back to Daniels Mountain Road and then completed the loop back to the trailhead. 

I have 2 planned hikes (3 trails and just a couple miles) to complete my Redlining Project of the Southern NH AMC Trail Guide. Unfortunately I'm not going to meet my goal of completing by year end as 1 of the hikes requires good weather and we've run out of that now with the onset of frosty conditions at elevation. I'm OK with this and will put this project on hold until next Summer. I'm proud of myself for having made it this far and being so close to my goal. I'll get it done!

Strava Activity

this was my turnaround point