You Are Here: Broken Ground Trails

Merry Christmas! After a couple of days of eating lots of delicious food, I really felt the need to get out and walk some of that off! We had a torrential rainstorm over Christmas, so I was concerned many of the trails previously covered in lovely, fluffy snow would now be icy slip and slides. I chose to stay relatively close to home on a flat network. I had heard of the Broken Ground Trails but didn't really know too much about them beyond that. Turns out they are a neat little network built on what was proposed as a housing development, but saved for conservation. Tucked in between some of the outlying neighborhoods of Concord, there are 3 main loops and a couple of offshoots. I opted to park on Portsmouth Street and started out on the orange blazed Marsh Loop. There is parking for several cars and a kiosk that looks very nondescript near a powerline cut and state highway overpass. A very small sign indicates the start of the loop up along the power lines. My first and only snafu for the day was as I encountered a fork a couple of tenths up the trail that was unmarked. Per the map I was following, the trail appeared to go straight, so I followed that branch of the fork. Turns out, I chose wrong. The trail was the right branch and cut across the power lines into the woods. No worries though, the trail I was on eventually met up with one of the offshoots and I was able to get back on course and stay there for the remainder of the day. The rest of the trail network is very well blazed and marked. The trail I met up with is the white blazed Profile Avenue Connector trail, which basically is a trail from a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood that connects to the main network. I did an out and back on this, which brought me back to an intersection with 2 of the main loops. From here I took the yellow blazed Pond Loop. The trails were a mix of bare ground and ice in some places to a good 1-2 inches of mostly firm and crusty snow. I had microspikes and took them off and on as needed. Pond Loop follows the woods and meets up with Curtisville Road which it follows for about 0.2 miles before intersecting with the other parking area for the trails. This is a quiet back road and there are no issues walking it for this brief section. I opted to do the red blazed Curtis Loop from the parking area before rejoining Pond Loop and closing out that circle. Pond Loop on this side merges with the blue blazed Nowell Loop before splitting off and creating another circle. It sounds confusing, but with a map in hand, I had no issues following along. I completed the Nowell Loop doubling back over the 0.6 miles I had already done which is in conjunction with Pond Loop. Once complete, I did the second half of Marsh Loop back to the road at which point I picked up the purple blazed Ry's Way Mountain Bike Trail. Some of these blazes were faded and a bit hard to see, but being laid as a mountain bike trail (hiking is permitted) it wasn't too difficult to see the trail at all times. Ry's Way meets back up with Nowell Trail, which I followed back to Marsh Loop and this time took the trail I should have taken at the very beginning of the day back to the car. So, lots of circles and a couple of double ups and I was able to complete the whole network in 8.8 miles. Outside the pond, there really isn't anything scenic along the way, these trails are purely for the joy of being outside and enjoying the woods. 4 more trails I can mark off my redlining of the AMC South Trail Guide.

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