Stonehouse Forest

 After a planned weekend off, I was ready to hit the trails again. I headed for Stonehouse Forest in Barrington. I had visited Stonehouse Pond many, many years ago when it was a meager herd path and a mish mash of snowmobile trails to hike on. It is now a bonafide trail system maintained by SELT. Completely revamped and a really great trail network. For the first time, I headed out without an actual plan. I had a map, and a rough idea of what I needed to do, but really went in with the idea of reaching an intersection and navigating with the map. My goal was to attempt to redline the entire forest in one go. Thankfully, the network is really well marked at every intersection with directions and mileage. This helped me accomplish my goal. I just took each section one at a time until I was done. There are several parking lots to reach the trails, I opted for Merry Hill Road knowing I could do a big loop and not have to do too many out and back doubling up of trails. I made really good time (for me) averaging just over 2 miles an hour. The trails were wet from rain the day before, but not so much that it impeded my progress. It was a grey, foggy day.. but there really aren't any scenic landmarks on these trails, so it was a perfect day to just get the blood flowing. The ups and downs aren't that bad to really slow you down, with just a few steeper pitches, that are all relatively short. The main sight in this forest is Stonehouse Pond with the  ledges overlooking it. I was able to enjoy this area solo where I stopped for a quick snack. Many of the trails are snowmobile trails, good footing and easy grades. I also passed lots of cabins, which I assumed were warming huts for the snowmobilers, I later learned they were hunting cabins as the land was previously a private hunting reserve. One word of caution if hiking during hunting season, wear your blaze orange, I did see 2 hunters actively out, so the need for safety is paramount. I'm pretty sure I say this every week, but the most amazing thing with this redlining journey is discovering new (to me) parks and trail systems. So many hours of work by trail maintainers put in to create these awesome places of recreation for all of us. I'm sure there are more efficient ways of accomplishing this, but 14.75 miles and just over  hours later, I completed every trail. Another successful day in the woods. 

Strava Activity

(my pictures uploaded in reverse order)

Gate for private property at end of Locke Trail

Kiosk at Parking Area on Rt 202

Stonehouse Pond

some cool caves along Ledges Loop Trail

Scenic view at the end of Brook Trail

At the end of Brook Trail at SELT boundary

Parking on Merry Hill Road