Today was a bit of a rollercoaster of a day. I headed way north as the temperatures were forecast to be scorching. I had read various trip reports about Dixville Peak, most folks hike up to Table Rock and then pick up the Cohos Trail. I had also seen that there was an ATV trail on the other side of the mountain that seemed accessible by vehicles. This was my plan. My first hiccup was when Waze couldn't locate the street I had seen on GoogleMaps that connects to the access road up to the summit. So I punched in a nearby campground and figured I could just get there and find the road myself.. I got to the campground, could see the wind turbines on the summit of Dixville Peak and started to look for West Branch Clear Stream Rd. Couldn't find it anywhere. Went up and down a couple of times, located a road that was denied access by large boulders and wondered if that was it. Of course, I also had zero cell service, so I couldn't pull up any maps on my phone to compare my location. I finally had a signal while parked at the campground and called my husband, who texted me a screenshot, but of course I couldn't download it. So I headed back to Errol and a gas station hoping there might be cell service. I was able to pull up a GoogleMaps satellite image, which very clearly shows the more well used ATV trails, and also tracks your location (and did so even when I had no signal!) I headed back toward the campground and determined the road with boulders was in fact the road I had wanted to go up.. I wasn't about to give up having driven 3 hours to get here. I noticed another ATV trail on GoogleMaps several miles down the road that appeared to meet up with West Branch Clear Stream Rd, so I took a chance. I found that easily and carefully looked at the signs at the entrance, none of which said vehicles were restricted.. then proceeded. I went very slowly to ensure if I encountered any oncoming ATVs I'd have time to move over. Despite it being primarily an ATV trail there were some surprisingly smooth spots in a lot of places, interspersed with some rougher areas. Having no idea how far this was going to be, I drove and followed my location on the GoogleMaps image. I had read that there was a gate just below the summit and that access was by foot only. So once I reached the gate, initially I was undeterred, parked the car and headed up. However when I got there, not only was there a gate and lots of signage indicating not to go further, there were also some large fences, which I had not read about previously. An ATV ended up coming up as well and I spoke with the driver who said the trail was closed for the year due to a washout. A couple more ATVs arrived but no one attempted to go past the fences. I considered trying to walk it anyway, but was a little afraid of getting lost, the trail being super dangerous etc. So after all that trying to find my way up to this point and the elation at having figured it out, it was quite the bummer to reach these obstructions. I took a few pictures of the area and reluctantly headed back to the car. I was roughly 0.1 miles from the summit. I posted about it on the NH Fire Tower Facebook page and several others mentioned that you can in fact go past the gate and walk up.. however it was also determined that the fencing seems to be relatively new, which was what threw me off. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't try to skirt the gate, as the way I had been looking at going was in fact the wrong way.
 |
| First views of Dixville Peak from Rt 26 |
 |
| Fencing and gates at the top of the road/ATV trail |
 |
| view looking down the closed ATV trail |
 |
| fencing at the top of the ATV trail |
 |
| view from where I had parked |
 |
| so close, yet so far.. summit of Dixville Peak |
 |
| the ATV trail/ access road to the summit |
 |
pretty views on the drive back down
|
The day was not a complete loss, I had already planned on visiting Jodrie Hill on my way home as previous trip reports had shown this to be a very quick bushwhack also on the NH Fire Tower list. I had scouted GoogleMaps for access as this hill is surrounded by private residences. Some folks had gone up from Jodrie Lane, but I followed one report in which they accessed via open fields on Milan Hill Road. This seemed to have the shortest amount of actual bushwhack in the woods. I even went so far as to look at tax maps for Milan to make sure the fields were not obviously private property. They didn't appear to be on land with a residence, and once I arrived at the location there were no signs posted against trespassing. I parked in a pulloff across the street and quickly made my way up the open fields to the wooded area. I definitely felt uncomfortable as though I was trespassing, so I tried to be as quick as possible. The woods weren't too difficult to navigate, although it was very hot, sweaty and buggy. I had my map open to try and ensure I hit the high point, as well as using visual to locate what looked like the high point. There was a definite "hill" area in the middle of the woods that I aimed for. Completely surrounded by woods, there was nothing to see and no artifacts of any former tower. In my attempt to make sure I hit all possible high points, I actually came out on the other side of the wooded area, which was clearly someone's backyard as there was a house right there, but the views were so beautiful, I quickly snapped a picture and ducked back into the woods and back to the car. So at least I can check off 1 fire tower on the list for the day.
Strava Activity
 |
| Open fields from Milan Hill Road |
 |
| Jodrie Hill summit |
 |
| popping out of the woods and back across the field |
