Pisgah State Park - Fail

 Some days you just have to cut your losses and call it a day. Feeling adventurous I headed back to Pisgah after seeing that the trails were open to snowmobiles and some had been groomed, with the intent of doing an 8.5 mile loop. I parked in the Rt 119 lot and headed up to Reservoir Road. All started out great, the trail was soft in some spots, but mostly packed. Some Friends of Pisgah volunteers passed me on a snowmobile doing trail recon for debris, then 2 snowmobilers passed by. Those were the only folks I saw until the end of my day. I actually enjoyed Reservoir Road in these conditions, it felt more like a trail than an actual road. I arrived at Dogwood Swamp Trail to find a Closed sign. I wasn't sure if it was just for snowmobiles, there was no indication, and it looked pretty official. Also the trail had not been touched, so the thought of breaking trail for over 3 miles was less than enticing. I considered my options and decided to head up Reservoir Trail (having done it over the Summer, I knew it was a decent little climb) to Hinsdale Trail. Knowing this was also a snowmobile trail, and having heard it's less than ideal in non-Winter conditions, I figured why not. Once up the hill, I arrived at the intersection of Reservoir Trail and Hinsdale Trail and started down Hinsdale Trail, only to encounter another Closed sign. Again, with no indication of whether it was only snowmobiles, I took a look down the trail and could see lots of mud/standing water so I cut my losses and headed back down to the car. On my way in, I had passed 2 ends of a blue blazed trail. Not marked on the map, I hadn't followed it, but on the Reservoir Road end, there was a sign saying "Foot/Ski Trail to Rt 119" so I decided to take that as an alternate back. This trail wasn't broken out either, which was fine, except a few hundred yards in, I lost the blue blazes. I followed a few trees with blue flagging tape, but it was tough going in the unbroken snow and lots of trees down..  not long after I lost that as well. Thankfully I wasn't far from the road, so I cut back over and just took the road back. I wonder if it's easier to follow in Summer! I did pick up 1.5 new miles on Reservoir Road, but I'll have to redo it when I come back and complete the trails that were closed. Oh well, no complaints about a lovely walk in the woods. 

Strava Activity

Pisgah State Park - Part 2

 Winter has arrived. Some might say finally, I do not fall into that group. I used to love everything Winter. I have reached the age where yes, it does make a very beautiful scene, but it's too much work! ;) Thus, I really tried to find the area that received the least amount of snow during this past storm. I opted for the Monadnock area and Pisgah State Park. The decision was a good one. I parked at the Visitor Center on Old Chesterfield Road and was surprised to find no other cars. It also looks more like a house when not open, but the large kiosk sign and gate had me confident I was in the right place. I packed snowshoes, but started in spikes. Old Chesterfield Road is exactly that, an old road and I was pleasantly surprised to find tracks - thinking the park was still closed for snowmobiles. It turns out, the tracks were for an active logging operation. I passed the Doolittle Trail intersection and some historical markers, though with all the snow there was nothing really to see at these sites. The logging tracks went as far as Jon Hill Road, beyond that I was first tracks the rest of the day! With only a couple inches on the ground, I opted to continue in my spikes. I stayed on Old Chesterfield Road, passed the Broad Brook Trail intersection and followed to Snow Brook Trail. Turning here, the trail crossed through a logged area before heading back into the woods. The snow cover was thinner/stickier here and it started balling up on my spikes, so I took them off and actually kept them off the remainder of the day. There were some really wet/muddy sections along here, sometimes I was able to skooch around, sometimes I was in the muck.. thankfully the snow cleaned it off as I was walking. I turned onto Orchard Trail and did an out and back to Jon Hill Road. Back on Snow Brook Trail I followed to Old Spofford Road. There is parking here in the Summer, but the gate is closed in Winter. Snow Brook Trail follows right alongside the road briefly before meeting with Jon Hill Trail. I followed Jon Hill Road back to Old Chesterfield and returned to my car. All the trails I was on today are snowmobile trails also (when allowed) so they were all wide with easy footing. Jon Hill Trail in particular was really wide and I followed deer tracks most of the way, which was fun imagining them having fun out in the snow! Nothing scenic to see on these trails, but the snow really did make for an enchanted Winter wonderland. With another incoming snowstorm, I imagine these trails will be busy with snowmobile traffic soon enough!

Strava Activity

it just looked like artwork to me

beautiful scene along Orchard Trail

Snow Brook Trail showing the love

Jon Hill Road

Lyon Brook Trail - Hospital Community Trail

 Laura and I headed back to New London for my second to last hike of the New London Conservation Commission Trails. I was somewhat hesitant as the only trip reports I could find referenced some not so favorable sections, and I wasn't sure what conditions would be like with the recent thaw/freeze cycles we had been experiencing. I decided to park on Parkside Road, the northern terminus of Lyon Brook Trail. I had also seen a digital track of someone who had done the Hospital Community Trail from this exact spot, even though the map on the NLCC website shows it ending in a different location. Turns out, they have opened an extension of the Hospital Community Trail that goes from the original ending spot to Parkside Road, thus it was perfect for us to be able to do an out and back on both. We were the only car parked and as we were gearing up, we saw someone coming out of the trail with his pup. It ended up being Brandon Baker, who I am familiar with through the trail racing community. He mentioned he was one of the maintainers of the Lyon Brook Trail, and thus any hesitation I had left, as I knew if he was one of the overseers, then the trail would be in fine shape. This turned out to be true. My guess is the folks who had less than great things to say had experienced the trail in Spring or after some rains, as it does follow Lyon Brook for much of the way, and I can imagine gets rather wet/muddy at times. We decided to wear spikes, which was a great choice, with a light coating of crusty snow most of the way. There were just a few short sections where snowshoes may have been the better choice, but not long enough stretches to be a massive hindrance. The trail winds alongside Lyon Brook basically through the center of New London. There is an access point to the Knights Hill Nature Park very soon after the start of the trail (which I had done last March) as well as Woodward Park. The trail crosses Lyon Brook several times and there are lots of well maintained bridges to do so, including a short suspension bridge called "Maxes Bridge". In the middle of the trail, it exits onto S Pleasant St. The trail follows the road for about 0.1 miles, takes a right onto Frothingham Road, follows that to the end before passing through a gate, which does have a detour sign, should the gate be closed. We found it open. There are some trailers and many solar panels in this area, the less than scenic part of the trail. Beyond that is a gravel road, which was of course snow covered for us. This section was a little less packed down, and was where snowshoes might have been beneficial, but we did OK in spikes too. The trail re-enters the woods and follows Lyon Brook again down to Brookside Road. Cross Brookside Road, staying alongside Lyon Brook. Brookside Road is a horseshoe shaped road, so a second crossing is required, with one last short section leading to Route 11. Even though you are never really far from civilization, at times you couldn't tell and it was just a really pretty, easy walk through the woods. It had started lightly, but consistently raining when we were on the road walk section, so we never really lingered anywhere along the trail. Once at the end, we retraced our steps to the car. From here we crossed Parkside Road to enter the Hospital Community Trail. A 0.6 mile connector to New London Hospital and Newport Road. The new cut section passes through some woods and open spaces that has evidence of clearing before reaching a powerline swath. The trail had previously ended at this point. From here you just follow the powerline swath up to the short connector over to New London Hospital or up to Newport Road. You can see the end of the trail the entire length of the swath, which was a good thing.. we found it a slog in a couple of inches of unbroken snow and a very slight incline up.. which seemed much more than it was on our tired legs, so to see our destination was encouraging. There is nothing remotely pleasing about this trail, but I'm sure it makes for a nice change of pace if you are visiting someone in the hospital and need to get some fresh air. Once we reached Newport Road, we turned around and headed back to the car. 

Strava Activity

Entrance from Parkside Road

exiting to S Pleasant St

turning onto Frothingham Road

end of Frothingham Rd and through the gates

down the gravel road

and back into the woods

first crossing of Brookside Rd

entrance from Brookside Road

entrance after second crossing of Brookside Rd

Rt 11 entrance

not sure what this was, but we took a picture

entrance from Parkside Road

looking up the power line swath

Newport Rd entrance

New London Hospital entrance

you never know what you'll find on the trails!

Pleasant Lake High Trail

 I went into today's hike thinking it would be straightforward.. however that wasn't exactly the case. I arrived on Whitney Brook Road and found the kiosk, but there didn't appear to be an official parking area. The area had snow on the ground, but it wasn't too high that I could pull off the road near the kiosk. I drove up and down a few times just to make sure I wasn't missing anything and decided to just park at the kiosk. The NLCC website for Cook Trail shows an interpretive loop trail, but it does reference some other trails marked in various colors. Since their own website only showed the one trail, that was my intention for the day, one side of the Cook Trail up to Pleasant Lake High Trail, do an out and back to the Langenau Loop intersection, where I had reached a few weeks ago, then back via the other side of the Cook Trail loop. The kiosk actually had a map showing the trails with all their associated colors. I took a picture but still had the intention of just doing the interpretive loop. There was snow on the ground, but like yesterday, it wasn't enough to require traction of any kind. I carried my spikes and snowshoes just in case. What I found as I headed down the main trail from the kiosk was a mess of trees/trails with painted blazes on them. I tried making sense of the colors vs the map I had just taken a picture of, but nothing seemed to match. I headed in the direction I thought fit best for the interpretive loop, and did see a couple markers that would indicate that was the case.. but nothing stayed consistent. All the trees seemed to have orange paint marks, with some other colors randomly here and there. There was a lot of debris from recent (and maybe not so recent) storms, and I wondered if during non-snowy seasons, it all made more sense. I had a downloaded track of a previous hiker who I thought had done Pleasant Lake High Trail (and they had for the most part) so I just picked trails that headed in that general vicinity. The trail climbed with gentle grades and I could see what appeared to be a cleared section ahead. Knowing there was an overlook on the Pleasant Lake High Trail, I figured that was it and continued on. My assumption was correct and I came up to a bench overlooking nearby Mt Kearsarge. I continued on now Pleasant Lake High Trail, which was marked with both orange and green paint marks. There were a lot of blazes, so at least on this section, it was easy to follow.. that being said, I was looking down so much following some previous tracks, I wandered right off trail before realizing I hadn't seen a blaze in a minute.. I backtracked and saw where I had gone off, no idea where that person had gone! The trail descended through some big boulders and through a powerline swath before reaching a pond with another bench! I do love that NLCC is generous with their resting options! On the other side of the pond was a road. The foot traffic took a left onto this road, which I did also. Back into the woods and the trail started a really decent climb up. I was not anticipating such a climb, but surprised myself with how good I felt. Continuing up, I had seen that many people had taken a spur near the top, and saw that it was marked with orange paint marks. I followed and it came out into a field with an amazing view across to Kearsarge. I continued across the field until I realized there was a house right there, so I stopped and took pictures before heading back. I did put on spikes at this point, as the steep climb had been a little icy and I figured it would make descending easier.. in retrospect, that was a bad choice as the snow was so sticky it just kept balling up underneath. From the field I descended a little, and came across a bridged brook crossing that was super pretty with frozen cascades. The trail then climbed back up to my turnaround point at the Langenau Loop intersection. It really was a pretty day, the sun was hitting between the trees giving everything a real enchanted feel. I backtracked and when I got to the pond with the bench, I realized I had actually skipped a bit of the trail by following the road to the left. The trail had continued straight across the road and into the woods, so I did a little loop to grab that piece I had initially missed. The day was starting to get long by now, so I considered taking one of the Cook Trails straight back to the car from the powerline swath, which would have missed the last couple tenths of Pleasant Lake High Trail that I needed, but I ended up going with my original plan of Pleasant Lake High back to the car... however, once I was back at the overlook bench, I lost the green paint marks. Try as I might, I just couldn't find any, so I started back the way I came up. A couple tenths in, I took a right onto one of the other marked trails, thinking it might be it, but from here it just got even more confusing. I think I saw paint marks in every color, even purple, which wasn't shown on the map. I was mentally done at this point, and just wanted to be back at the car, so I took any trail that seemed to head in the right direction. Eventually I could see the road through the trees, but was really surprised when I popped out to find myself a couple tenths down from where I had started. I'm hesitant to call these trails complete, but they after consulting with some fellow hikers, who also found it a very confusing area, I'm calling them done!

Strava Activity

Kiosk on Whitney Brook Road

map at the kiosk showing all the trails

lots of colors

view from the overlook on Pleasant Lake High Trail

the first sign I saw coming from Whitney Brook Rd for this trail

zoomed in view from the field looking behind the house

view from the spur near the house

more views from the field near the house

my turnaround point

lots of memorials lately

well marked, at least in this area!