You Are Here: Langenau Forest Trails - New London Conservation Commission

We had our first big snowstorm of the season this weekend. Many areas saw well over a foot of snow. I knew I'd have to snowshoe, my desire was to find as little as possible, so I wasn't potentially breaking trail in the deep stuff. I did the complete opposite. I headed to Wilmot and the Langenau Forest trails on the New London Conservation Commission trail list. Granite Hill Road was a steep up, but thankfully well plowed and maintained. The trailhead is at the very end of the road, and I found the road was not plowed down to the actual parking area. However, there was a plowed spot for 3 cars opposite the last driveway with a truck already parked, so I assumed it was "Winter parking" for the Langenau Forest and parked myself there also. It was a mild day as far as temps were concerned thankfully, with temps in the 30s and little to no wind. I geared up and headed down the road towards to trailhead. I was grateful for the one set of tracks already broken out, but it was still really tough going. The snow was heavy and wet and made each step a slog. I was honestly ready to turn around after about a tenth of a mile! My initial plan of roughly 6 miles and 4 trails was instantly reduced to 2 trails, and I wasn't sure on the mileage, guessed it was roughly 3. I was now going to do a lollipop. At the beginning of the trail is a beaver pond that was iced over and the sun through the clouds made everything look magical. I had planned on heading up Langenau Forest Trail to Pleasant Lake High Trail and back on Langenau Brook Trail, but when I got to the split, there was a sign that said "Trail" pointing left and that's the way the broken out tracks went. According to my digital download, Langenau Forest Trail went right here, but I thought maybe it was a little further down, so I continued following the tracks. I realized this was in fact Langenau Brook Trail, which was fine, I kept on going and said a silent prayer that the person ahead of me was doing the same loop I had intended! It was very beautiful, but very tough going. I reached the intersection with Pleasant Lake High Trail, which would be a right turn for the loop, or a left turn for my original plan of 6 miles. Wouldn't you know it, the person ahead went left. I knew I could not possibly do that distance, so I reluctantly turned right and started breaking trail myself. It was more uphill than I had thought (and my original plan would have been coming down instead of going up). There were some pretty views through the trees over Pleasant Lake and even a peakaboo view of Mt Sunapee in the distance. A couple tenths in, I was surprised to see someone coming in the opposite direction and was excited at the prospect of a broken trail the remainder of the way... however as I got closer, I realized he was not wearing snowshoes, just bare boots, so while the trail was broken, his tracks weren't overly helpful in the trail breaking department, but were helpful for wayfinding. The trail is blazed with painted blazes on the trees, and some were very faded or covered in snow.. so I was able to at least follow his tracks and not have to spend excess time looking for the blazes. The rest of the way was just through beautiful snow covered trees. The trail descended to join Webb Forest Trail for a few hundred yards before Langenau Forest Trail branched off. This climbed back up, it felt so much more than my Suunto recorded, I felt like I was climbing Mt Everest! Langenau Forest Trail had a lot more storm debris, trees down and low hanging branches from the heavy snow, particularly near the intersection with Langenau Brook Trail, where I had started.. in fact my snowshoe came off as the snow was so heavy! I started to walk on with just 1 snowshoe, knowing I was near the end.. but it was too difficult, so I put it back on for the last couple tenths before arriving back at the car. It was a very beautiful hike thanks to the Winter Wonderland.. but I was very glad to be done! Only 2.65 miles, that took me almost 3.5 hours!

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