Hamlin Eames Smyth Conservation Area

 Hiking is not always about bagging a peak, of course that's a lot of fun, but sometimes it's nice to just take a walk in the woods. I decided to visit the Hamlin Eames Smyth Conservation Area in Meredith today. My initial goal was to hike the entire parcel, which the AllTrails website had told me would be about 11 miles with roughly 1600ft of elevation gain. I arrived a bit later than I should have to take on this task, and despite 28°F temperatures, I layered up and set out. The trail network here is really well marked, which was a good thing as the fallen leaves really hid the trail a lot of the way. I would have had no clue where to go if the trails hadn't been so well marked. Every intersection (even view spurs) had a wooden sign, many indicating which way parking was as well as the trail junctions and the 4 trails were marked in either yellow, red, white/pink and blue. I took lots of pictures of the intersections to indicate how well marked it all was. I did wander off course a couple times, but realized quickly and was able to locate the next blaze without incident and continue on. There is 1 parking area on Chemung Road, which holds about a dozen cars easily, along with a kiosk and map. All the trails loop out from this point, so you can make the day as long or as short as you'd like. Crocketts Ledge Trail (yellow) leaves the parking lot and I followed it all the way to Crocketts Ledge. I passed 1 lady walking her dog, and that was it until much later in the afternoon. There is a pretty view over Lake Wicwas from Crocketts Ledge. From here, I continued on the Lake to Ledges Trail (red) which descended steeply in some places (an adventure with all the fallen leaves) and skirted the edge of the lake, with 1 view spur that went out to a private camp and a lovely view across the entire lake. From here the trail climbed back up through some massive glacial erratics to White Mountains Ledge, which was signed as Sub-Alpine and to ensure staying on the trail to preserve the environment. Here I came across a very little trace of ice and snow. What makes this trail network really cool is there are a large variety of terrains and trails to keep it all interesting despite no major peaks to climb over. I was lucky in that I didn't really have to double back a whole lot to complete all the loops and trail sections that I had wanted. Just a couple sections here and there. From White Mountains Ledge I descended to the Arbutus Hill Pond Trail (blazed in both white and pink) which crosses into the Barbara Smyth Conservation Tract. This is private land gifted to the town of Meredith and the trail here is definitely a lot more rugged, but still easy to follow. The trail winds around and up Arbutus Hill. I stopped at a small cleared section with a nice view across the higher peaks in the area for lunch. As I continued, I came across another view spur, but this led to a wooded area, the trees have grown up and around the view, but I followed it anyway for the sake of redlining! It was here that I started to realize I was probably not going to reach my goal of finishing all the trails. The AllTrails calculations were a little off, the trails were a little longer and the elevation was definitely greater than I had thought and I was starting to run out of gas. I was also concerned that I would run out of daylight, so while I continued with my original plan I started to mentally think about where I would bail out and return to the car. After crossing back into Hamlin Park, the trail skirts some ponds and beaver marshes and became a lot damper than previously. Here the trail definitely goes up and down and in and out a lot more. I was thankful to have a print out of the map as it started to get confusing (though still well marked). I would recommend having a map in hand if you are going to hike in this park and aren't familiar with the trails. It was here I also started to bump into more people. The trails in this area are wide enough, plenty of space to step out of the way and keep safely distanced. I started out on the Pond Loop Trail (blue) and it was here that I ended up calling it a day. Once I reached the yellow trail again, instead of completing that and doubling back to finish blue, I headed back to the car. All in, I hiked 10.6 miles with roughly 1700ft of gain and ended up about 2 miles short of completing the entire park. I'm still happy with the day and will be back to finish. I am definitely enjoying discovering these new, less popular destinations that still showcase the beauty of our state!

Strava Activity

Stanton Cemetery along Crocketts Ledge Trail

View from Crocketts Ledge

Looking back at Crocketts Ledge

Lake Wicwas

View from White Mountains Ledge

Zoomed in view from White Mountains Ledge

Dusting of snow along Lake to Ledges Trail

Lunch view from Arbutus Hill

Arbutus Pond from a view spur

Another view of Arbutus Pond from a spur

not so sure about the view from this spur

This was all you could see

Double Dammed Pond from Pond Loop Trail

Bald Mountain

 I had 2 hiking buddies today. I was so happy to have my friend Vanessa come along, and she brought one of her friends, Laura.. I don't mind hiking solo, but it's nice to have company as well! Today we headed to Antrim and Bald Mountain. The intention had been to redline the entire area, as there are 2 trails up to the summit plus a spur trail. There are also 2 more trails to another hill nearby that we were going to attempt, but ended up running out of time. No problem, the hill will always be there. It ended up being a grey and dreary day, but the temperatures stayed just cool enough to be comfortable and any precipitation held off. I actually think the muted colors of the day overall made some of the landscape stand out even more. There is a parking area on Willard Pond Road, that will hold quite a few cars as it is parking for both the pond recreation area and the hiking trails. There was 1 car when we arrived, another arrived not long after us, but the lot was full when we returned. With cars from several states! It always surprises me when out of staters know about these smaller places not on any big lists that typically attract the crowds. We passed a few people along our route, it wasn't really until almost the end that the trail started to feel a little crowded, but even then it wasn't bad and we were able to keep our distance safely. We headed towards the pond and started on Tudor Trail. This trail skirts one side of the pond, which made it a little wet and with all the fallen leaves we had to be careful of our footing. This was to be true the entire way, but this section was the wettest. This area was also a little rockier and mossier than the other trails. Tudor Trail led out to a really pretty little peninsula on the pond with several spur paths down to the water and a really great view up to Bald Mountain. Backtracking a little we started the climb up Bald Mountain Trail. Only 0.5 miles to the ledges. Once we reached the ledges, we decided to stop for lunch. Such a pretty view. The actual summit is a little ways past the ledges and is wooded. We continued over the summit and down Tamposi Trail, which was a little steep in places, again just the leaves making it tricky. We reached the Spur Trail, which is in the AMC Trail Guide, but is only identified on the actual trail by a blue blaze. I had read it was lightly trafficked and somewhat overgrown, but it was all that and more when we actually attempted to follow it. The trail started as an old logging road, which was fine, but a couple tenths down that it veers off into the woods as the logging road continues on. I would have missed it altogether except Vanessa and Laura noticed a blue blaze hidden in the trees. This is where it got interesting. We wondered if in the months before the leaves fell if a footbed was more visible, but today there was zero indication of where the trail may have been. We only had the blazes to guide us. This portion of the trail is not maintained in any way, so we were climbing over logs, squeezing between branches, ducking under fallen trees. It was basically bushwhacking, except we had blazes to follow. Another few tenths and we reached what was described on the map as a "scenic view".. and it was, however it was also a former logged clearing that was filled with large holes covered by flattened grasses and lots of signs of moose activity. Beyond this clearing the brush was over our heads. Vanessa and Laura scouted around a little trying to find any sort of hint at where the trail may continue, but we found nothing. As it was mid afternoon by this point and we still had a few miles to cover, we had a quick snack stop and decided to call it on this trail. We didn't want to bump into any sleeping creatures in areas we couldn't see, or get ourselves hurt. I've since learned, the trail beyond this point is now considered abandoned so are calling it done. I'm grateful to Laura and Vanessa for persevering with me on that difficult little section. We made it back to Tamposi Trail much faster than we thought and made our way down to the next intersection where Tamposi Trail either goes down to the parking area, or loops back up to the ledges. We decided to finish the loop, so at least I'd have all those trails complete. It was short, but very steep. I'm glad we did it though. Felt good checking those trails off my redlining spreadsheet. A few slips and slides on the way down and back to the car. A successful day checking off 5.9 miles of trail and hitting the highpoint for the town of Antrim.

Strava Activity

Parking on Willard Pond Road

Vanessa on the Tudor Trail

Looking up at Bald Mountain from the end of Tudor Trail

Ledges for lunch

Vanessa and Laura on the summit

As far as we reached on Spur Trail

The logged clearing along Spur Trail

Laura looking for any sign of where the trail continued

Back up to the Ledges to complete the loop