Fogg Hill Conservation Area

 Today I went out with Cameron. I really do enjoy spending time with him, even if it's not his favorite thing to do. After yesterday's adventure with microspikes, today we wore snowshoes.. and probably would have done better in microspikes.. oh well. We headed for the Fogg Hill Conservation Area in Center Harbor. A series of 3 trails maintained by the Lakes Region Conservation Trust. There is a nice kiosk and map at the parking area on Piper Hill Road. The trails are blazed, but there are no signs at the intersections, so watch for the different colors on the trees. We started on the Fogg Hill Trail blazed in yellow which weaves easily to moderately up Fogg Hill. About a tenth of a mile from the summit, the orange blazed Bog Trail leaves to the right. We found the terrain to be either bare ground, ice, or a very hard packed crusty snow. Fogg Hill Trail had been broken out, but Bog Trail had not. Some older footprints from time to time, but we were breaking trail for the most part, which was a little tricky in the hard, crusty conditions. Bog Trail descends moderately at first, which was interesting in the ice. I opted to butt slide down the steepest section and inadvertently cut my hands in several places on the sharp edges on the way down. Nothing major, just a little blood. The trail doesn't really go past anything interesting or to anything interesting, just out to a road where no parking is allowed, a basic out and back. The trail does turn a couple of times, so be careful to watch for the orange blazes. We did the out and back and once back on Fogg Hill Trail went up to the summit. The summit is a nice sort of open area with a big split rock. With it being Winter still and no leaves on the trees, we had some peekaboo views over the Lakes region which was nice. We sat and had a snack before heading back down. The Bear Pond Trail leaves a couple tenths from the parking area and is blazed in blue. It leads a little way down to Bear Pond. Short and sweet. These past 2 days have really shown me that I am not a fan of "Spring hiking". Either be snow packed and good coverage for spikes/snowshoes or be bare! Alas, this is New England. Several more weeks of "Spring hiking" ahead!

Strava Activity

Kiosk at Piper Hill Road trailhead

the end of Bog Trail

waiting for Mum to catch up

approaching the summit

peakaboo views

Fogg Hill summit

Fogg hill summit

end of Bear Pond Trail