I headed out with Cameron for a couple of short hikes to check off my redlining spreadsheet. First we visited Great Hill in Nottingcook Forest in Bow. Parking is roadside at a kiosk on S Bow Rd, room for several cars. There is a small trail network for Nottingcook Forest, but as the AMC South Trail Guide only references Great Hill, those are the trails we explored today. Well maintained and well marked (as there are lots of private trails that come in along the main trail, each intersection is clearly marked). We started on Hamilton's Path and quickly reached an intersection with Great Hill Loop and Walter's Way. We did Great Hill Loop first. The actual summit of Great Hill has been cleared by logging and is expansive with 2 benches to sit and enjoy the view. There are lots of cairns and blazes, so for the sake of redlining it was a little confusing to ensure we got the 3 official trails off the summit, but using an online tracker we were able to complete the loops with no problems. We spent a little time enjoying the summit views before heading back down. Short and sweet. Would be a nice place to see a sunset if you lived locally. Being in a residential neighborhood, I imagine it gets that sort of activity often.

This was labeled as a Monadnock outlook on the trail

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Bradford Bog

While driving home from Skatutakee Mountain, I saw a sign for an exit to Bradford and casually mentioned in passing to Laura that there was a little 0.5 mile trail I needed to come grab for redlining in Bradford. She, being the most awesome person she is, said "let's go"! I quickly looked up the address and we headed for Bradford Bog. Having not read anything about it, I had no idea what we were getting into, other than it was very short! Initially we had a hard time finding the trailhead, we were on the right street, but actually got out and started walking at an area called Bradford Springs.. which of course didn't turn out to be the right place.. eventually we drove a little further down the road and there is an obvious kiosk with Bradford Bog right on it. We parked and headed down. The trail is 0.4 miles long and is a wooden boardwalk the entire way. Passing through areas with certain plants marked with wooden plaques. It is very pretty and thankfully was dry, so the boards weren't slippery. We came to a left turn with a sign marked "Viewing Platform" and headed down that way coming out to an elevated platform that looks over the bog and to the mountains surrounding. It was quite surreal, really felt like Narnia and being in the middle of nowhere. Another girl came along then, so we just turned back and headed for the car. There was a sign at the left hand turn that said "boardwalk not maintained beyond this point". I wasn't sure if I needed that for redlining, so we headed a little way down before it got too wet and muddy.. turns out we didn't need it, but it tacked a little extra on our walk for good measure. Another trail checked off my list.

Strava Activity

Skatutakee & Thumb via Cadot Trail

Today was basically perfect. The weather was amazing. Laura and I decided to do Skatutakee via Cadot Trail. I had been up there via Harriskat Trail just under a year ago, and while I had loved it, it was a very, very muggy, buggy day.. so I wanted to go back without the bugs, and I needed Cadot Trail for redlining, so that was our goal for the day. Since Laura had never been up there, we also went over to Thumb Mountain. The AMC South Trail Guide says that Cadot Trail is lightly maintained and could be hard to follow in places. Parking is in a roadside pull off at the trailhead on Old Dublin Road in Hancock. There is room for only a couple of cars as signs clearly state not to block the gate. We were the only car on arrival and there was 1 other when we returned. The first 0.9 miles follows an old road and while we didn't see any markings, it was very easy to follow. I had read there are old faded blue blazes, and we did eventually see 1 on a tree right as the trail turns off the road, but we weren't looking for them either as the road was simple enough to stay on. As the trail leaves the road and turns into the woods, there are 2 white disc blazes that were easy to see. From this point to the summit, it is well marked with white discs, however there were definitely a few times we had to stop and locate the next one. In a few places, the footbed isn't well established, so following the blazes was essential. However that wasn't overly difficult and we had no issues keeping on trail. Before we knew it, we were at the summit of Skatutakee Mountain, and although a little hazy, we had mostly clear views across to the Wapack Range. We took a few pictures and headed down Thumbs Up Trail over to Thumb Mountain. There was some off trail mess with blowdowns and trees, but the trail itself was in great shape. It descends a little steeply at first, but then moderates and is like walking through a magical forest. I do really love this hike. With Spring hiking and the green on the trees not developed, we had beautiful sunlight streaming through the trees. We reached the intersection of Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down trails and were greeted with a large symphony of peepers in a pond right at the trail junction. What was odd was they were very loudly chatting then all stopped at exactly the same time and it was silent. I've never experienced that before! We headed up the short, steep climb towards the Thumb summit, which reads worse in the guidebook than I feel like it is and again, before we knew it, we were at the summit where this is a great little granite set up with benches and a cairn/firepit. Just beyond the summit are some open ledges with wonderful views over to Monadnock and beyond. There was a family with some sweet little kids enjoying a break on the open ledges, so we went back to the firepit and sat and had a snack. Once the family left we went and stood on the ledges for a while. It was so peaceful and quiet, we both said it felt like a magnet was pulling us to stay. Neither of us wanted to leave. Naturally we did and we had timed it perfectly. Several groups were making their way up as we left. We backtracked the way we had come up with no issues at all. It was such a great day.

Strava Activity

Laura on the summit of Skatutakee

views from Skatutakee summit

Skatutakee summit

Thumbs Up Trail

Ledges on Thumb Mountain

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Sweet Trail & Jeff's Hill

Today was Easter Sunday. Mother Nature turned it out today. A glorious day of sunshine and perfect temperatures. I wanted to get some miles in today as I hadn't been able to yesterday, and I knew I'd be having some "sweet treats" later with my family. I opted for the Sweet Trail in Durham/Newmarket. I hadn't heard of this trail until I started redlining the AMC South Trail Guide, and it's right in my backyard almost! Ironically I saw a friend run it yesterday and she confirmed trail conditions were good. I decided to start at the Newmarket end on Bay Rd at the Lubberland Creek Preserve parking area. From here I almost immediately detoured off the Sweet Trail onto Jeffs Loop Trail to head up and over Jeffs Hill. There is a small spur called Channell Loop that goes near the summit where a memorial bench dedicated to the Channell family can be found. I rejoined the Sweet Trail and headed off for Durham. The Sweet Trail wanders through the Lubberland Creek Preserve and Dame Forest. It is a typical forest trail with rocks and roots, but no major elevation change, which was nice. I was able to make good time. You can see water of some sort for a large part of the trail, be it wetlands, marshes, ponds.. it was nice to hear the birds enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and not have any bugs out yet! There was a little mud, but it was easily avoidable. I took all the little side spurs, one even had a lovely wooden bridge to a bench. There are several options for leaving cars along the way so you can either car spot, or start at various points along the trail. It was busy today, but thankfully not so much that we couldn't all keep our space. The trail is well marked and easy to follow, even on the small road walk section, which is a dirt road, there are blazes along the trees. The Durham end of the trail enters Longmarsh Preserve. I opted to take the Blue Trail over to Longmarsh Road, to make a lollipop of sorts for my turnaround point. Heading back, from the kiosk on Longmarsh Road, I took the Sweet Trail, which turns right off Longmarsh Road at about 0.5 miles and then I just followed the Sweet Trail all the way back to Jeffs Hill. This time, instead of taking the spur to the parking area, I continued on the Sweet Trail, crossed Bay Road and took the additional 0.3 miles to Great Bay Estuary. Back at the car my watch read 9.98 miles, so I did a couple loops of the parking lot to make it an even 10 and called it a day. Another gem discovered thanks to redlining!

Strava Activity