Pillsbury State Park Ponds Loop - Kittredge Hill

 I use a random number generator and a spreadsheet with pre-planned hikes to decide where I'm going to head most weekends. This week's lucky recipient was Pillsbury State Park. I had a pre-planned hike that required a non-Winter start, as the road to park is not plowed as far as I needed to go. Half Moon Pond Road in Washington is a gravel road, and turns Class VI beyond the intersection with Martin Road. I had read you could continue all the way to where the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway crosses, so I took the chance. It ended up being not that far and was doable in a mid to high clearance vehicle with care. I was surprised to find a car already there and carefully pulled in behind so as not to block either the trail or the road. Luckily as not too long after a truck came tearing down Half Moon Pond Rd probably not anticipating anyone being around. I later read that trucks have been known to drive recklessly down this road, so take care should you be in this area. I headed down the Greenway which descended down a Class VI road in the direction of Frog Pond before turning off into the woods at a marked junction. I have found many sections of the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway to be lush forest with amazing pine needle trail that is just heavenly to walk through. Today was more of that. The trail crosses a stream with a bridge and then begins climbing up Kittredge Hill. The only downside to my hike today were all the mosquitoes that decided to join me. I ended up wearing a bug net for most of the hike as I got sick of swatting them away. The climb up Kittredge Hill is moderate but the footing is great. Just under a mile from the car I passed Ridge Link Trail to the left. This would be where I would pop out on my return. There were a couple peakaboo views over to Lovewell Mountain as you got higher in sections where previous logging had taken place. The summit is wooded and the true summit is several hundred yards off trail, currently under a large blowdown. I continued on the Greenway which descended then ascended over a higher, but unnamed bump until the trail met up with Bear Pond Trail. Just under 3 miles from where the car was parked. I took the left onto Bear Pond Trail, which I ascended several months ago on my hike to Lucia's Lookout. This is a snowmobile trail and was damp, muddy and somewhat overgrown, as snowmobile trails tend to be in Summer. As the trail descended, the grass gave way to more of a Class VI type trail. Having remembered what a slog up it was on my first time here, I opted to go down this time. Good choice. Views of Bear Pond appear near the bottom of the trail. This was the only trail that was somewhat bug free for me today for some reason! I met up with Five Summers Trail which I turned left on and made my way through the campground at Pillsbury State Park. Here I saw my first people of the day. From here I picked up Mad Road Trail. To find this trail, I continued straight through the visitor parking area at the playground, there is a path through to the parking area for Sites 26 & 40, cross this and you will see Mad Road Trail directly in front of you, beginning at a gate/bridge and dam. Another snowmobile trail, like Bear Pond Trail, it was damp and muddy in places but easy enough to navigate around those areas. About 1.4 miles from the dam, I turned left on Ridge Link Trail and ascended back up to the Greenway. Ridge Link Trail was not blazed that I noticed, but was easy enough to follow if not a bit rustic and less maintained than the rest of the park. Back on the Greenway, I descended and headed back to the car. At the bridge over the stream was a family who had overnighted at Max Israel Shelter on Lovewell Mountain doing a small section hike. They were the only other hikers I saw all day. 

Strava Activity

where I started off Half Moon Pond Rd

true summit under all that debris

climbed up to the small cairn on the true summit

Lovewell Mountain peeks through

the heaven that is the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway

top of Bear Pond Trail

Bear Pond

zoomed in view of previous picture

Honey Hill, Mt Caesar, Bear's Den Natural Area

 With heat still ever present and my fitness not back to where it had been, I opted for 3 smaller hikes on my redlining spreadsheet, rather than 1 big one.. that way I could rest in between and enjoy the air conditioning in my car! I started with Honey Hill in Swanzey. There is a small parking area with signs. The hike begins by crossing a field behind the parking area, between 2 private residences and into the woods. The first section is blazed in very faded green blazes, but is obvious. A couple tenths in, it joins a blue blazed trail, which follows an old woods road. It's a steady but gentle incline on this section. The trail takes a left onto private land, which allows hiking and wanders through lovely open hemlock forest. About a mile in, a yellow blazed trail heads right. The sign is a bit hard to see if you're not looking for it, but once on the trail, it's well marked and easy to follow. I opted to take yellow up, as the guide book says it's the steeper of the 2 options. Call me crazy, even though I'm really slow on steep sections, I tend to prefer to go up steep and down gradual. My knees prefer it! The yellow trail meets back up with blue and after a couple long switchbacks reaches the summit, which has been cleared and has a view over to Monadnock. My weekend has consisted of looking over at Monadnock! I took blue back down.. the only thing to note on this hike, as the blue blazed section ends and you pick up the green.. there are no signs and it's difficult to tell as the old woods road continues straight ahead. Ultimately if you miss this turn, the old woods road ends in the field you cross back to parking anyway, but it looked wet and muddy.. whereas the green connector trail follows alongside on drier ground. 

Strava Activity

where the trail enters the woods on the other side of the field

trail turns left onto private land

lower intersection of blue/yellow

tired resting spot along the yellow trail

Honey Hill summit

zoomed in view of Monadnock from the summit

upper intersection of blue/yellow

My next stop was Mt Caesar, which was literally about a mile down the road from Honey Hill. The trail network has been updated since the AMC South Trail guide was published, which I wasn't prepared for.. but was pleasantly surprised to find. There is a parking area in between Simeneau Lane and the Mt Caesar cemetery. The trail begins opposite the parking where a picnic table and kiosk are. Quickly you enter the cemetery and cross through a couple of rock walls, there is a blazed tree in the cemetery to guide the way. That was a first! Once through the cemetery is where I realized the trail network was more developed than I had thought. I saw a red blaze off to the right with a trail sign Tower Trail. Without knowing where the trails went, I just followed the pre-downloaded tracks I had, which continued straight on an old carriage road blazed with blue/yellow markers. Into the woods and the lower section was a little muddy very briefly before another trail went off to the right. Marked Quarry Trail with silver blazes. Had I known these trails are basically connector trails to Tower Trail, which also went to the summit, I'd have planned better and completed them all.. however I didn't, so I ended up doing a loop and will have to go back and grab those connectors another time. Continuing on the blue/yellow trail, the second connector trail.. where the blue and yellow split veered right and was named Theresa's Trail. I stayed on yellow which was named Elijah's Epic Summit Trail and headed straight up! It was a short but very steep climb just under half a mile to an overlook. The overlook had a view to Monadnock to the left and straight ahead over Honey Hill and some other surrounding bumps. The summit was a little further beyond the overlook and had the same view, though a little more restricted. There is also an FAA beacon on the summit for a nearby airport, plus a bench to sit and relax. There were a number of trails leading off the summit, but only red and yellow were blazed, so after consulting my trail download, I headed straight ahead from where I had come up and started down the red trail. Now realizing this was the Tower Trail, I just followed this all the way to the bottom. This trail was much more gradual, following what appeared to be an old jeep road. It was eroded in some sections but easy enough to get around the worst of it. I passed the other end of both Theresa's Way and Quarry Trail but stayed on Tower Trail to the bottom. 

Strava Activity

you can see the blazed tree on the right

bottom of Tower Trail before realizing I'd descend that way

Quarry Trail

Theresa's Way

view of Monadnock from the overlook ledge

views the other direction from the overlook ledge

Tower Trail down from the summit

a marked intersection along Tower Trail with an old woods road

the other end of Theresa's Way

the other end of Quarry Trail

 My last hike of the day saw me at Bears Den Natural Area in Gilsum. Another place I'd never know existed (as would be the case for all 3 today) except for the AMC South Trail Guide. There is a large parking area along Rt 10 for this one. The trail starts on the far left side of that parking area. I was the only car today. The trail is about 0.5 miles long and starts with a gentle climb. Almost immediately a trail heads off to the right, I've read that is rather difficult to follow, so being my 3rd hike of the day and being just about done, I wasn't in the mood to find out if that was true or not. It's not mentioned in the trail guide, so I didn't need it for redlining. I did see where it met back up with the orange blazed trail though. Just beyond that intersection the trail descends where a huge boulder is on the left with a giant pothole. The trail then continues up and down over some seasonal drainage areas (all dry today) until it reaches a huge area of boulders covered in moss and leaves (that made them look like they had hair!) A lot of the boulders have fallen in a way to create caves.. that I had zero interest in exploring, especially with spider webs and what not covering their entrance. I climbed around the very entrance to this area and took a few pictures before backtracking to the car and calling it a day. If it hadn't been my third hike of a very hot day, I may have spent a little more time exploring.. but I got what I came for, which was to hike the trail for my spreadsheet, so I didn't linger. It was a cool place though, that felt millions of miles away and the tall trees make it somewhat dark and it felt rather enchanted!

Strava Activity

start of the trail from the parking area

some of the up and down of the trail

these pictures do no justice on how large and tall this area was