It was a gorgeous day to get out into the woods. I headed to Gilmanton to explore the Cogswell Mountain Conservation Area. Parking is at the Gilmanton Year Round library, which amazingly had a porta-potty with running water and flush!!! The trail starts across a small mowed thruway in a field and into the woods. There are 4 maintained trails in the network and 3 of those also double as snowmobile trails. I started by ascending to the East Peak via the blue blazed, East Summit Trail. I was amazed how well maintained the area was, and the climb didn't feel so bad at all. The summit has a lovely open area with a bench overlooking Crystal Lake. I then continued on the newly created connecting section from the East Peak to the main summit, that is not yet marked on the map, but is well blazed and maintained. This was strictly a hiking path and was easy to follow. This descended down the East Peak before climbing back up to the red blazed Main Summit Trail, which was another snowmobile corridor and wide. The entrance to this section wasn't easily seen from the red trail, so if going in the opposite direction, when the trail took a sharp left turn to make the final climb with a Hiking Trail sign on a tree, look for the the double blue blazes indicating the start of this trail to the right. From here it was a short climb up to the main summit, where there was a picnic table and a short path down to another bench overlooking the lake. The trail continued very briefly beyond the picnic table to the true summit, which was viewless but marked with a large cairn. I descended down the Main Summit Trail to the orange blazed Beaver Loop, which was a super pretty trail that went alongside an unnamed pond with Route 140 on the opposite side. No beaver activity viewable today. Back on the red trail, I went the very short distance back to the blue trail and ascended again, this time to the yellow blazed Summit Connector. This alternated between being a grassy snowmobile trail and more technical hiking trail. This was the only area where it was somewhat buggy too as it was a bit wet in the middle section. Back at the red trail and I descended straight back down to the car. Another really lovely area, super well maintained with some great views. I'm discovering so many new places in this updated edition of the AMC South Guide.
Strava
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| Intersection of Blue and Red trail |
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| true summit on the main peak |
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| lovely open area along the red trail |
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