Friday, June 18, 2021

Pillsbury State Park - Lucia's Lookout

 I will be off the trails for the next couple of weekends due to family commitments, and my company had Friday off as a holiday, so I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and potentially quieter trails and get in a decent hike. I'm dealing with a few medical issues at the moment, so I didn't want to do anything too strenuous just to be safe, but I was feeling like getting in some decent mileage. Pillsbury State Park is on the AMC South Trail Guide redlining spreadsheet, so I opted to head that way and do some exploring. Thankfully now that pandemic restrictions are easing, the State Parks are open again, so I was able to pay my fee and drive into the park, instead of having to park outside the gate and do a road walk. Parking is just over a mile from the main office in a designated area behind the playground. I was the first car there today, though several of the surrounding campsites were occupied. I geared up and headed down a gravel road from the parking area to a gate. The Balanced Rock Trail heads to the left just before the gate, the 5 Summers Trail heads on beyond the gate. The 5 Summers Trail for the most part is a snowmobile trail, so wide and moderate. I followed for 0.5 mile then took the right onto Bear Pond Trail. Also a snowmobile trail, this one was a little damp in places and a bit more rocky. You get a peekaboo view of Bear Pond as you head around and climb reasonably moderately up to join the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway. This was my favorite part of the day. I signed in at the trail register and headed off towards Mt Sunapee, though I was only going as far as Lucia's Lookout. This section of trail was smooth and beautiful passing through trees that were mesmerizing. The footing did get a little more technical in places, but nothing difficult. The ups and downs were rolling, nothing strenuous. I arrived at the spur for the Steve Galpin Shelter and went to investigate. The cleanest shelter I have ever seen! It almost made me want to experience backpacking (almost, but not quite!!!). I continued to the intersection with 5 Summers Trail and headed the final 0.2 to Lucia's Lookout, which was the steepest part of the day. It was much smaller than I had anticipated, but still had some lovely views over the surrounding area. I had read that the better views were off 2 spur paths, one about 90 yards north of the summit.. it seemed like more than 90 yards, but I found it easily enough and the views were gorgeous. Continue on the Greenway, pass an intersection for a trail that was blazed and signed, but not on the map and a little beyond that is an obvious herd path to the left. I took some pictures and headed back to Lucia's Lookout. Signed in at the trail register there and headed down for the 2nd view spur, which is described as 40 yards below the summit. This was a smaller area with a sharp drop off, but amazing views. I stopped here for a snack and took it all in. Back at the summit, 2 hikers had arrived, they would be the only 2 people I saw all day. We chatted briefly and I headed back down, this time taking the 5 Summers Trail. About half a mile from the intersection, the trail takes a left onto the snowmobile corridor and follows it all the way back, just over 3 miles, to the parking area. There were areas of knee high and ankle high grass (snowmobile trails are not my favorite) but thankfully it was mostly dry (unlike my adventure at Cockermouth Forest a couple weeks ago). Near the end of the trail you pass North Pond on the right and a couple hike to campsites. I had contemplated doing Balanced Rock Trail as well, but decided that could wait for another visit. 

Strava Activity




Bear Pond from Bear Pond Trail












view from the spur 90 yards beyond Lucia's Lookout





Lucia's Lookout summit


view from the spur 40 yards below Lucia's Lookout 






5 Summers Trail

North Pond from 5 Summers Trail


Saturday, June 12, 2021

Paradise Point

 The thing with redlining is some of the hikes are really long.. and some are really short. The tough thing with really short ones is you don't want to drive for hours just to hike a couple miles. So these are good "tack on" hikes as I call them. Since our adventures at Slim Baker Foundation weren't overly long or taxing, we opted to "tack on" the trails at Paradise Point, just 20 minutes down the street. Paradise Point is located at the Newfound Audobon Center on Newfound Lake. There are about 2.5 miles of trails if you cover them all. We opted for loops, much like we did at Slim Baker. Heading down the driveway we encountered the Loop Trail first. We took this which led out to Newfound Lake. Wonderful peekaboo views across the lake through the trees. The trail was a little more technical than I had thought for a Nature Center, but wasn't overly difficult. Just more rocky, rooty and damp than I had anticipated. Which then of course brings out the bugs. We bumped into a staff meeting for the Nature Center on the dock. Not a bad place for a staff meeting at all! After finishing the Loop Trail, which ends at the Nature Center, we backtracked to the water and picked up the Lakeside Trail.. which as you can probably guess followed the lake around to a very small area known as "The Point" which was basically a rock that had a wonderful view over most of the lake. There were a couple swimming when we arrived with a little picnic set up, so we didn't go down, but continued onto the Ridge Trail. This trail left the lake and headed up a ridge  through some marshy areas and several different types of tree areas (I'm not a plant person, so I'm not good with naming things). This is the "steepest" portion of trail in the center. Eventually winding back around to the Nature Center, we completed the area by taking the Elwell Trail. This smaller loop also goes back to The Point.. the couple had left, so we were able to enjoy a brief break on the rock with a snack. There was also a really cool tree right near this intersection that was described as the "giraffe tree" on the trail guide. Laura spotted it right away. You can see from my picture where it gets its name. Very cool tree. We finished the second half of the Elwell Trail, which met up with a connector trail and back to the car. By now we were a little hot and sweaty, so an ice cream stop at Idle-A-While store on the lake was in store. A really perfect ending to a much needed quiet day of hiking. 

Strava Activity



the Nature Center


the Giraffe tree

Newfound Lake from The Point

















this tree has grown right over the rock

amazing how trees can adapt