Mooers Loop Trail - Parker Mountain

 I had the day off and a couple spare hours to hill this morning.. so I couldn't go far, and I'm still not cleared to do much.. I have hiked Parker Mountain in Strafford many, many times.. but I have never connected the Mooers Loop Trail from the intersection with Link Trail to the Strafford Town Forest.. for a couple of reasons, the main one being I had the impression it was overgrown and potentially difficult to follow due to lack of use. Thus I was surprised to see a trip report this weekend showing the trail as clear and the author saying it was easy to follow! So I decided to go check it out.. it felt weird actually turning into the Strafford Town Forest lot after having driven past hundreds of times.. there is room for quite a few cars and the trail begins beyond the gate and is marked with a signpost. It begins as a wide road and wanders through the forest before starting to climb the side of Parker Mountain. Not only was I surprised to see how clear and easy it was to follow naturally, it was also blazed with orange blazes. I had the impression it was going to follow this road all the way to the intersection, so I was surprised to see double blazes and a cairn showing the trail taking a 90 degree turn into the woods (had I read the AMC South Trail Guide more recently, it describes all this perfectly). I started down this trail but it felt like it was returning to the parking area, and I thought "perhaps this is why the trail is called Mooers Loop - it was possibly an actual loop. So I turned back and returned to the "road". Not realizing that was in fact the trail, I continued on the road where it quickly became overgrown and eventually petered out. This is what I had thought it would be like the entire way. I started to bushwhack through the woods, while following a digital track, but there was a lot of debris and it wasn't fun, so I decided to backtrack to the blazes and just follow that wherever it was going to lead me. Lo and behold just as I made this decision, I looked up and saw an orange blaze off in the distance and made the realization that was the correct trail all along. I backtracked and went into the woods. The trail from here became more of an actual trail, with rocks and roots and lots of leaves. Thankfully it was well blazed and easy to follow where the leaves covered the path. There were a couple of tiny stream crossings but no issues crossing them. The trail climbed a little more than I had expected and with the leaves down I had peakaboo views of the surrounding area. It was totally different than how I remembered coming in from the "upper" trail head many years ago. I was pleasantly surprised with how enjoyable it was. Before I knew it, I was at the Link Trail intersection, my turnaround point, having done the remainder of the trail several times before. I turned around and retraceed my steps back to the car. This completed the Parker Mountain area for me, and I now have just 0.5 miles to complete on the SE NH tab of the redlining spreadsheet for the AMC South Trail Guide (but I'm saving that for last!)

Strava Activity

it's almost like someone has come through and cleared the leaves!

where the trail turns off the road into the woods

me continuing on the "road" after the double blazes

the road petered out and I was in the woods - this is not correct

back tracked and on the actual trail again

my turnaround point at Link Trail intersection

Birch Ridge Community Forest

 I'm just about 6 weeks post surgery and haven't been cleared for anything strenuous, but wanted to start working on regaining my fitness. I decided to head back over to Birch Ridge Community Forest in New Durham and explore some of the trails on the other side to where I was earlier this year. This area has a large parking lot at the end of Birch Hill Road. I was surprised to see the kiosk map seemed outdated versus the map they have online.. which I was to learn is because the trails on the online map are still under development! Cabin Trail starts from the parking lot at the gate next to the kiosk and is a wide, easy to follow trail just under 0.5 mile long that connects the parking area to the snowmobile network at the Powder Hill snowmobile club cabin. Here there is a gorgeous view over Merrymeeting Lake and the surrounding mountains. I picked up Scenic Loop Trail from here, which goes down beside the cabin to an open field with 2 standing stones. Initially I went the wrong way, seeing large cairns that I thought were guiding the way, in fact they were in the complete opposite direction. Stay to the very left of the field here. Scenic Loop Trail follows a snowmobile trail in a lollipop with views across the lake (at least during this time of the year it was great with all the leaves down) for roughly one mile back to the cabin. My initial plan was just to do these 2 trails and call it a day, however it was gorgeous out and I was feeling good, so I decided to tack on a little extra. At the cabin, I took a left onto Snowmobile Corridor 22 and followed that past a private residence and up the side of the logged Birch Ridge. I started to wonder if I would be able to tell where Birch Ridge Trail was as literally just about every tree was gone. I turned a corner on the trail and saw a sign post with no sign and figured that must be the trail and it was still being built. There was a road clearly heading up the hill, so I started to follow that, but then noticed a snowmobile blaze on a tree to my right and what looked like a trail amidst a thin line of trees left standing. I backtracked the short distance I had gone on the road and followed the trail. This was marked with orange and pink flagging all the way and was easy to follow. There were peakaboo views over the lakes and surrounds, but no open views. The first couple tenths were through the logged area and basically paralleled the road. It actually met back up with the road and I started to follow again, before realizing that deadended. Again I noticed some flagging tape in the trees to my left, so I backtracked to where I had met the road and noticed the trail continued straight across and into the woods.. still flagged with orange and pink flag tape. The woods were thicker here and the walk was really pretty. I came upon a fork and wasn't sure which branch I should take, but opted to stay to the left, which gently climbed up and to the "summit" of Birch Ridge in a small clearing. Here I came up on SELT blazes again and followed the blue blazes (Fall Line Trail per the map) back down to the parking area. A short way down this trail I came up on a tree with a double flag tape marking and a trail, so I'm assuming had I taken the right branch of the fork, this is where I'd have ended up. Fall Line Trail was short and a little steep, and completely covered in leaves, which made footing a little tricky. I stopped for a moment to text my husband and heard rustling leaves. Assuming it was someone coming up the trail, I looked up and was completely surprised to see a medium size black bear run across the trail about 30ft in front of me! My first actual bear sighting while hiking! At the bottom of Fall Line Trail a tree was down and it was a little overgrown, which I thought might be tricky to spot if coming up from the parking area. Just below this was a cairn and 2 blue SELT blazes with arrows, so if coming up look for those to indicate the start of Fall Line Trail. I went left here (not actually realizing I could have gone right) and quickly met up with South Ridge Trail and was back on Birch Hill Road a couple tenths further down from the parking area. I took a right onto Birch Hill Road and walked back up to the car. 

Strava Activity

Kiosk and start of Cabin Trail at the parking area

The cabin of Cabin Trail

views from the cabin

zoomed in view of Winter north of us

stay to the left here

looking down Scenic Loop Trail, I thought that was the top of the loop

in fact it was not, all private rights of way are well marked

this is the top of the loop on Scenic Loop Trail

another private trail down to the lake

one more private trail, all well marked

this sign is on the back of the rocks if coming down from the cabin

back up Scenic Loop Trail to the cabin

here I took a left onto Snowmobile Corridor 22

where Birch Ridge Trail leaves the snowmobile corridor

initially I started up this road

then noticed the snowmobile blaze and trail in this thin line of trees

after meeting back up with the road, the trail continues straight across here

looking down Fall Line Trail from where I came out on the flagged section

the bottom of Fall Line Trail needs some maintenance

if coming up from the parking, look for this cairn and blazes for Fall Line Trail

walking back on Birch Hill Road to the parking on the left