You Are Here: Oak Hill

Another super cold but bluebird day. I think it was even colder this weekend than last, but the sun was shining! I headed to Concord, NH and the Oak Hill trail network. I have been to Oak Hill once before several years ago with my boys on our Fire Tower Quest. That day we did the Tower Trail from Shaker Road with a detour via Dancing Bear Trail on our return. Today I planned on cleaning up the rest of the network besides the actual road access trail which does not connect to any of the trails I was on today. I parked on Oak Hill Road at the Luti Loop trailhead which has room for 3 cars if parked cleanly. I was first one in this morning. I geared up and headed out. There was snow on the ground, but I was able to bare boot the entire hike without any issues. Any ice was avoidable and the snow was hard packed and maybe 2 inches deep at most with plenty of bare ground in between. I carried my spikes with me, but never needed to use them. I headed up Luti Loop to Winn's Way and a pretty scenic vista with benches and a sign showing the mountains out on the horizon. I then worked my way down Visa Way Trail to Shaker Road, across the Lower Trail to Tower Trail, back across Ledges Pass to Vista Way and the scenic vista again. It was here I saw 2 of the 3 people of the day. I wasn't the only one braving the frigid temps! I then took Upper Trail back to Tower Trail. Dancing Bear Trail was the snowiest/iciest portion of the day, but I was still able to bare boot without any issues. I stopped at the cleared viewpoint on Swope Slope until I started to actually feel the cold! I did all of Krupa Loop with an out and back on Ron's Way. As I saw the fire tower come into view, I contemplated going up to it, but decided against it as I was starting to get tired and knew I still had a couple miles left. Krupa Loop was also the prettiest part of the day. All the trails were well maintained and easy to follow. Krupa Loop was a little more "rugged" (I use the term lightly as it's not really rugged at all, just the most technical of all the trails I did) and the light was so pretty as I passed through. I am definitely enjoying Winter hiking with the contrasts of light and snow and the greenery that survives through Winter! Back to Tower Trail and this time I took Potter Ridge Trail, which was the only unmarked trail of the day. It was blazed, but there was no sign at the beginning to indicate which trail it was. I had my peakbagger app and a copy of the trail network screenshot on my phone, so I knew I was going the right way. This was also where I saw the 3rd person of the day, a trail runner zoomed past me as I was taking the intersection. Potters Ridge Trail took me back to Winn's Way with an out and back on Terry's Turn. I'm listing everything here in case anyone trips across my blog and is interested in doing the same thing I did with redlining! I have used other people's trip reports when planning a big coverage day, so I want to be helpful too! From Winn's Way, I doubled back and took Ovenbird Scuttle down to Murray Bluff and headed back up. Ironically the very last trail of the day had the "steepest" climb which I think felt much steeper after 7 miles and 4 hours! I came to a point where the blazes went in 2 different directions and I noticed an old sign that said "Original Murray Bluff Trail - Over the Bluff".. I wondered where that headed but stayed on the path that I thought was the official path as I didn't want to get lost. After a small ways I looked on my peakbagger app and realized I wasn't tracking on an official trail anymore, so the section I was on must be new and was built to go around the super steep climb of Murray Bluff. I figured if I could see where the top of the "Original Murray Bluff Trail" came up, I would take that back down. Sure enough, not far down the trail I saw the other end with a sign much the same as the bottom. I continued back to Potter Ridge Trail to finish that section and then when I doubled back took the "Over the Bluff Trail". I'm actually glad I went down instead of up, it was very steep (for a very short section) and I would have been super gassed climbing up that being already tired! I was a bit concerned coming down that it would be icy as there were a couple of almost straight down sections, but thankfully it was almost bare ground. I was aware that there was some ice hiding under the leaves, but was able to get down without even sliding once! Fun little section and I can see why they built a bypass option! Back to Ovenbird Scuttle and Luti Loop and there was the car. 8 miles total and 4.5 hours elapsed time. We are so blessed with so many amazing trail networks in New Hampshire. It has been so fun exploring somewhere different each weekend!

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