You Are Here: Sweet Trail & Jeff's Hill

Today was Easter Sunday. Mother Nature turned it out today. A glorious day of sunshine and perfect temperatures. I wanted to get some miles in today as I hadn't been able to yesterday, and I knew I'd be having some "sweet treats" later with my family. I opted for the Sweet Trail in Durham/Newmarket. I hadn't heard of this trail until I started redlining the AMC South Trail Guide, and it's right in my backyard almost! Ironically I saw a friend run it yesterday and she confirmed trail conditions were good. I decided to start at the Newmarket end on Bay Rd at the Lubberland Creek Preserve parking area. From here I almost immediately detoured off the Sweet Trail onto Jeffs Loop Trail to head up and over Jeffs Hill. There is a small spur called Channell Loop that goes near the summit where a memorial bench dedicated to the Channell family can be found. I rejoined the Sweet Trail and headed off for Durham. The Sweet Trail wanders through the Lubberland Creek Preserve and Dame Forest. It is a typical forest trail with rocks and roots, but no major elevation change, which was nice. I was able to make good time. You can see water of some sort for a large part of the trail, be it wetlands, marshes, ponds.. it was nice to hear the birds enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and not have any bugs out yet! There was a little mud, but it was easily avoidable. I took all the little side spurs, one even had a lovely wooden bridge to a bench. There are several options for leaving cars along the way so you can either car spot, or start at various points along the trail. It was busy today, but thankfully not so much that we couldn't all keep our space. The trail is well marked and easy to follow, even on the small road walk section, which is a dirt road, there are blazes along the trees. The Durham end of the trail enters Longmarsh Preserve. I opted to take the Blue Trail over to Longmarsh Road, to make a lollipop of sorts for my turnaround point. Heading back, from the kiosk on Longmarsh Road, I took the Sweet Trail, which turns right off Longmarsh Road at about 0.5 miles and then I just followed the Sweet Trail all the way back to Jeffs Hill. This time, instead of taking the spur to the parking area, I continued on the Sweet Trail, crossed Bay Road and took the additional 0.3 miles to Great Bay Estuary. Back at the car my watch read 9.98 miles, so I did a couple loops of the parking lot to make it an even 10 and called it a day. Another gem discovered thanks to redlining!

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