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I had just talked with my best girlfriends about pictures I had seen of folks hiking out west and how "buttery smooth" the trails always seemed to be.. I know that's not even close to always being the case, and the altitude is something else entirely, but it always looked so lovely with those nice smooth trails.. so different to our trails here in NH. Fast forward to Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway Section 8. I parked at the Wilmot Town Hall and was planning an out and back of Section 8, which is logged at roughly 4.1 miles each way. From the Town Hall, head up N Wilmot Rd a couple tenths and meet up with the Greenway as it exits Pinnacle Road. The trail continues on Beaver Pond Trail just a pinch past Pinnacle Road and marked with the SRKG White Trapezoid blaze. I was instantly met with a very mucky mud pile. It was impossible not to get your feet very wet and muddy and I hoped this wasn't a precursor for the rest of the hike. Thankfully that really bad piece only lasted a few hundred feet, and then the trail turned buttery smooth.. just like how I dreamed about! I was amazed! There were off and on sections of mud for the next couple of miles, but nothing near that beginning section. Beaver Pond Trail is 0.9 miles long and passes through short swaths of previous logging which provided some peek glimpses of nearby Bog Mountain. I had been following along and stopped to apply bug spray as the bugs were pretty bad, when I noticed a side trail with SRKG blazes.. I followed it and it descended very, very briefly to a view over what I'm imagining is Beaver Pond. There was even an old seemingly forgotten bench! I made a mental note on my return to take this side path and see where it went. Continuing on, the trail gently rolled up and down before taking a 90 degree left turn and joining Patterson Farm Trail. This appeared to perhaps be a snowmobile trail in Winter, but amazingly had a swath cut in for the path that looked like it was mowed! It was grassy for a while before coming more of a woods trail. The buttery smooth dreaminess continued however descending briefly before a moderate little climb up then some rolling gentle terrain. I had read on a trail description that there was a long steep descent to Eagle Pond Road. I could feel the descent, but it was very gentle and I wondered where that description had come from. With just about a quarter mile to go, I found it.. just not long, but it was steep, though switchbacks made it easy going and the smooth trail was still in tact. Nothing like what I had been anticipating, however I did think about coming back and how unwelcome that climb would be on tiring legs. For now I was happy to reach Eagle Pond Road, it was a bit more rolling than I had thought.. but the road was hard packed dirt. Easy going terrain. Followed that for about a mile, passing a big camp near the end right on the pond which was a hive of activity, must have been a new week of campers coming in. Just before hitting Route 4, the Greenway turns left onto the Northern Rail Trail and follows that for a short ways. At the point the Greenway leaves the Rail Trail there were a large number of blazes, pretty hard to miss.. but gratefully there as the path is not at all obvious. It climbed steeply up the embankment, and was a bit sketchy with trash and some debris before coming out into a small grassy area with a lovely view over to Mt Kearsarge, cutting through some more greenery and popping out on Route 4. Head down Route 4 just a few hundred feet before carefully crossing and heading up New Canada Road. The trail description of New Canada Rd being uphill, is completely factual! A steep road up, though thankfully more hard packed dirt, so nothing technical at all, just physically tiring! The worst part was this was the buggiest section of the whole day. In fact I stopped and put on my bug net, it was that bad. The climb up is just about a mile. I was going to stop and have a break when I reached my turnaround point at the Ragged Mountain trailhead, but the bugs were so bad, I immediately turned around and headed back down. I retraced my steps exactly. The trail isn't marked well coming off New Canada Rd, crossing Route 4 and taking the connector path to the Rail Trail. Look just after the guardrail, there is a blaze hidden in the greenery. Coming off Eagle Pond Road and back onto Patterson Farm Trail is well marked, but as an added observation point, the trail begins just after the Danbury town line sign. I was right with my earlier observation about that steep little climb being unwelcome. The bugs had also become significantly worse. I had kept my bug net on, but they were biting as well, so even though I was getting really tired, I was motivated to keep moving. This time as I reached that side path near Beaver Pond, I followed it. After the bench it wasn't really marked, but there was a faint trace of path, and it basically brought me back to the trail a few hundred yards down from where it diverged off. In reading the trail description, I think that truly is the path, it has just become obscured over the years with people cutting it off, however I'd recommend following it if you can find it to get the lovely view over Beaver Pond! This "detour" (not really a detour) is barely a tenth of a mile long if that, no additional distance than cutting it off really. I continued to retrace my steps back to the car at the Wilmot Town Hall. If it had not been for the mud and the bugs, it would have been a perfectly dreamy day. Not what I expected at all!

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