I had grand plans of tackling something a little more adventurous, but woke with a bad cold.. so played it safe and headed back to Troy to start exploring the Cheshire Rail Trail portion of the Wantastiquet-Monadnock Trail. This section stretches from downtown Keene all the way to Troy. I did 4 miles out and 4 miles back from Troy Depot to the point where Webb Depot Rd goes under the trail. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I had anticipated. It was basically a flat, straight line which was perfect for me today. Conditions were a mix of bare ground, ice or a sugary thin layer of snow which provided great traction and I was able to bare boot the entire way. The icy sections either had bare ground on the sides or just enough snow to provide good grip. The first mile coming from Troy was residential, and then as the houses were left behind the trail runs alongside the South Branch Ashuelot River for the rest of the stretch that I did. This section of the trail also runs close to Route 12, so river on one side and road on the other.. sometimes close, sometimes a bit further away. Sometimes you are level with it, sometimes way above and even below it at times. This provided enough variety to keep it a little interesting. About 2 miles in I started seeing some ice formations on rock alongside the trail, which was super pretty. Each time I'd think "wow this is great" a bigger and better one would appear.. then somewhere around mile 3 I hit the jackpot. There is a section of the trail that goes through a tunneled out rock and the ice formations here were beautiful! It almost seemed like a hidden gem that no one knew about! The sun shining in was providing wonderful ambience as well, which lifted my spirits just as I was starting to get tired and carried me through the rest of the hike (walk).
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