For the first time in a long while I was able to hike with both my besties. We set out for a car spot traverse of a section of the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway between Route 9 and Pitcher Mountain in Stoddard. We spotted a car at Pitcher Mountain and headed to the MSG parking area off Route 9. It was a lot of uphill in this direction, but it worked out for the best. We immediately met with a very slight trail reroute due to the recent rains. The trail goes under Route 9 through a culvert, which was flooded out and signs redirected you to carefully cross Route 9 on top. The trail then follows up Nye Road, which becomes gravel, passes a beautiful house on the left and follows onto a snowmobile trail/Class VI road. For just under 3 miles the trail climbs then descends the slopes of what some maps call Dakin Hill and Melville Hill. It was very rocky and at the time we hiked, very, very eroded from all the rain. It was also very wet and muddy in places. This slowed us right down as we had to carefully find good footing. Thankfully there were some short dry places interspersed with the wet and rocky, but overall that section was very rough going. The trail was following Center Pond Road and at the bottom of the descent at just under the 3 mile mark from Route 9, it met with the drivable portion of Center Pond Road which was hard packed dirt. We took the 0.2 mile left onto Protection Road to the Crider Forest shelter, which is on private land. The shelter is in great shape with some flat areas for tents as well. We had a snack and headed back to Center Pond Road, passing some camps as well as Center Pond. I was amazed at how few bugs were out, so even though it was very hot, it was so much more tolerable without the bugs swarming like the last few weekends. Along Center Pond Road, a private residence has a tiny chapel that you can visit with 2 pews and some Gideons Bibles. Often times they have water available for hikers as well. We paid our respects before continuing on Center Pond Road which headed up a decently steep hill for just under half a mile. Hard packed dirt made the going easier. At a sharp right hand turn in the road there are signs for a trail relocation which happened several years ago. The trail now continues down Center Pond Road about half a mile and swings left at a cairn into the Andorra Forest. This was the type of terrain I had come to know and love along the MSG. The trail climbed quite moderately for about half a mile up to the wooded summit of Parker Hill. Heading down the backside of Parker Hill, the trail takes a sharp right and rejoins the original trail from before the relocation and then starts climbing again towards Pitcher Mountain. We passed a beautiful area called Robinson Brook Cascades with several small waterfalls, as well as an original settler cellar hole before the last stretch passed through some blueberry bushes which we snacked on along the way. The trail reaches Rt 123 which we crossed and arrived at our car spot at Pitcher Mountain trailhead. About 8.5 miles and 1500ft of elevation gain on the day.

Kiosk at Route 9 parking area

V checking out the flooded culvert

the flooded culvert under Rt 9

B&V where the road became Class VI

so much erosion

more erosion

random trailside finds

meeting the drivable section of Center Pond Rd

Crider Forest shelter

along Center Pond Rd

a beautiful garden along Center Pond Road

B making a friend along Center Pond Road

where the trail enters the woods off Center Pond Road

entering the Andorra Forest

climbing Parker Hill

Parker Hill summit

Robinson Brook cascades

blueberries

where the trail enters off Rt 123 across from Pitcher Mountain

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Pisgah State Park - Chestnut Hill

We have had horrendous rains the past couple weeks.. sounding like a broken record this year. These have been record breaking bad though, lots of damage and destruction. I chose to head back to Pisgah, even though that part of the state was one of the worst hit. I checked ahead of time and all the roads appeared to be open, and I got there OK. Old Chesterfield Road had some erosion, and a couple large puddles that I had to go through. I saw the most ATVs on that stretch than ever before, loving all the mud I imagine. This week I parked at the Chestnut Hill Parking area, a couple tenths further along from Fullam Pond where I was last time and the end of the drivable portion of Old Chesterfield Road on this side. There is a large parking area and I was the only car. As it turned out, I saw no one all day until the last half mile and that turned out to be Park Manager Kim transporting some wood for future repairs. I had a great conversation with him about some of the trails and as he did the last time we spoke, he built my confidence in a couple of areas I had questions on and I look forward to finishing up the remainder of the park over several more hikes. Today, however, I had a roughly 6 mile loop planned starting on Chestnut Hill Trail. This trail heads up right away from the parking area, but is more of a lingering up than crazy, steep up. I did encounter a little debris along the way, and lots of standing water and mud in places. Nothing that impeded my progress, just made for careful stepping to avoid slipping and falling. It was ridiculously humid today as well, so along with the standing water, the bugs were brutal. Worst I can remember experiencing on a hike. It was a bug net all day hike. At just under half a mile, the trail split. I took the right fork which was Parker Trail. More mud and standing water. Parker Trail is roughly a mile long. It continued climbing at first, then became more of a rolling up and down before ending at Reservoir Trail. I turned right on Reservoir Trail and ever so briefly had a reprieve from the bugs on gorgeous pine trails, repeating steps I had done on an earlier hike. I descended briefly before moderately gently climbing again to meet North Pond Trail. From here the trail, descends pretty steeply in places for a couple tenths, with some rock slab that was definitely slippery from all the rain. It then levels out and becomes more of a wide road. This was the wettest and buggiest section of the day. At about 1.5 miles from Parker Trail I met up with Baker Pond Trail, which was where I had been on previous hikes, however today I continued straight on Reservoir Trail. This continued to be more of a road type trail and climbed alongside some water, which you could hear probably more than usual for about half a mile before starting the descent towards Old Chesterfield Road. Lots more mud and standing water and one nice little vista outlook along this section. Old Chesterfield Road is a wide road that is easy going.. although as was the trend of the day, wet and muddy in sections. I had been on this trail until my last half mile. I passed the newly opened Habitat Trail, of which one end was in a logged area. Beyond North Pond Trail was new for me and there was a section just before reaching the car again where the rains have created a large area of cascades and it was just beautiful seeing the water rushing in all directions. This was where Kim passed me in his ATV hauling wood and then we stopped and spoke back in the parking lot before I headed out. There has been more rain since this day and I have read that Old Chesterfield Road has been washed out in some places. I know Kim and the volunteers will work diligently to get everything restored. Mother Nature has sure been feisty this year.

Strava Activity

Chestnut Hill Trail from the parking lot

I stayed right onto Parker

there was so much moss everywhere!

other end of Parker with very accurate mileage on the sign

right onto Reservoir Trail

if you insist ;) Some storm debris on the left

Intersection of Reservoir Trail and Baker Pond Trail

vista along Reservoir Trail

Old Chesterfield Rd back to the car

Saturday, July 8, 2023

Goshen Trail - Mt Sunapee

So it's still been raining. Pretty sure it's been forever now. Today we caught a break briefly, though the humidity was still very much present and accounted for. I opted to do Goshen Trail on Mt Sunapee. I've heard less than favorable reviews of this trail, and I was on a time crunch with a family commitment tonight, so I figured let's just do it. It's published as 2.3 miles long and is described as an old service road for the ski resort. The trailhead is on Center Road in Goshen, off Brook Road. It is not marked with any trailhead signage, so I had made sure to read several descriptions carefully and had a digital download with me as well. I parked in a small pullout area just before a rotted out bridge on Center Road that was very rocky (in fact I ended up with a flat tire later that night that I'm pretty sure was a by-product of turning my car around in said rocky area). The trail starts across the rotted out bridge and follows Center Road for about 0.1 miles. This was very wet and rocky. I was thinking it was going to be a long 2.3 miles if it was like this the entire distance. At the 0.1 mile mark, Center Road stays straight and an unmarked road turns left. This was dry and sandy and I was happy to see this was the way the trail went. Some faded blue blazes also started from this junction, but still no signage. I was pleasantly surprised that for about the next half mile, the trail was mostly dry and relatively flat. It followed a brook most of the way, and while thankfully no giant mosquitoes like my last few hikes, there were a number of swarming little pests that prompted me to put on my bug net for a bit. At roughly the 1 mile mark, the trail curves left, then right and starts to climb. Here is where the terrain went back to very rocky and today, from all the rain, also very wet and slippery. Foot placement was crucial, and I found many of the areas that looked solid were in fact just mud! I reached a point of not caring if my shoes were wet/muddy, I just didn't want to slip. I only fell once but had a couple of other close calls! To save the sanity, there were a few dry areas interspersed with the wet, but overall, the climb was basically a small river. While never crazy steep, it was enough elevation gain to get the heart pumping. There were a couple peekaboo views through the trees in the lower half of the climb, but the further up you went, it was just an old road in the woods that appeared to also be a snowmobile trail in Winter. There were a few sections that were really eroded on the edges. At the very end of the trail, take a right hand turn and meet up with the service road that doubles as Solitude Trail and the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway. To reach the summit, turn left here and head up a steep climb of the service road, which I opted not to do, having done that section previously. I did go a few hundred feet to a junction of the Upper Wingding ski trail that has a lovely overlook of Lake Sunapee. Heading back down, again the trail is not signed for Goshen Trail, look for a road heading off to the right just after the large sign on the tree for Solitude Trail and the MSG. I retraced my steps back down and about halfway encountered my first people of the day, a couple and their dogs. On that last half mile of flatter/sandy trail there was an abundance of butterflies fluttering around, which I stopped to enjoy several times! Goshen Trail is not one I would recommend unless you are redlining. It's rather boring and looks like it has the potential to be wet and slippery often.

Strava Activity

I parked just to the left of this washed out bridge

turn left here

old faded blue blazes mark the way from this point

a section of eroded trail - much of the trail like this

view from Upper Wingding ski trail

heading back onto Goshen Trail from Solitude Trail

random trail side finds

more random finds

not sure I want to know what they're feasting on

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Pisgah State Park - Fullam Pond

I have all my hikes remaining for the AMC South Trail guide planned out, and a couple in Pisgah State Park can only be done in Summer as the access road is not open to vehicles in Winter. So, today I decided to tackle one of those. I confirmed that vehicle access to Fullam Pond was available after all the crazy rain we've had in the past few weeks, and the park manager quickly wrote back saying it was good to go. The Fullam Pond parking area is a few miles in the park from the Old Chesterfield Road entrance, head straight past the kiosk and visitor center and stay straight at all the intersections. I kept thinking I must have passed it, but eventually some clear signage directed me right another tenth of a mile to a moderately sized lot. The road in was fine with my mid-clearance vehicle, most of it was level hard packed dirt, some rocky areas that I just took nice and slow. I could see the bugs circling my vehicle as I drove in so when I got ready I made sure to douse myself in bug spray and packed it for extra applications. This turned out to be the one real negative of the entire day. The bug spray did not deter them at all, and I did get more than a few bug bites, even through my clothing. They were huge! I started by backtracking down the road I drove in on, turned left on Old Chesterfield Road and walked back 0.6 miles to the Nash Trail gate. I turned left onto Nash Trail, which is a snowmobile trail, although unlike many other off season snowmobile trails, this was in great condition with no overgrown grass at all. Nothing scenic along this trail, just standard lovely woods and the occasional brook, though there was a lot of moss in this area. Not sure if that is normal, or another by-product of all the recent rains. Half a mile in on Nash Trail, I passed the Nash Trail Spur which connects Fullam Pond Trail to Nash Trail. I stayed straight on Nash Trail now and continued another 0.7 miles to a 4-way intersection with Fullam Pond Trail and South Woods Trail. I turned right onto Fullam Pond Trail, another snowmobile trail and followed it 0.6 miles to the Beals Road intersection. This was my turnaround point today. Again, the trail was in great shape and only had the slightest of inclines on my way out to Beals Road. Back at the 4-way intersection, I turned right onto South Woods Trail and went 1.5 miles out to the newly opened Habitat Trail intersection. This was an undulating trail, actual trail this time instead of snowmobile trail, with a couple of scenic vistas. The first was a short spur signed "Big Sawdust Pile".. it literally went out onto a large pile of sawdust that overlooked a marsh. The second was a tenth of a mile side path that was previously South Woods Trail, now rerouted around a wet area, down to a viewing platform over a large pond. It was very hazy today from wildfire smoke coming down from Canada, but was a pretty view all the same. I backtracked on South Woods Trail and at the 4-way intersection again, I turned right onto the other end of Fullam Pond Trail. After a couple tenths I reached actual Fullam Pond and the trail became very, very wet. There is a short section of trail, maybe 2 or 3 tenths of a mile that is on narrow land between 2 pieces of the pond. I thought I might have to get into some ankle or knee deep water at times, but thankfully by taking it slow I was able to sidestep the deep sections with some rock hopping and careful skooching around the edges. There was also a section with bog bridges, as I'm sure even without days and days of rain, it's eternally wet. Once through that, the trail opened up again and was clear and dry. The only section I got confused at, was I saw a side path down to a dam just beyond a sign for Fullam Pond Trail, and thought that was just what it was.. a side path to see the dam, I went and had a look then went back up and continued. By staying straight as I did, I ended up back at the Nash Trail intersection, which I needed for redlining anyway, I just didn't realize that's where I was. Once I realized, I backtracked to the side path and went back down to the dam. The trail goes over the dam (I was very nervous as the water was rushing hard after the rains, but it was perfectly fine) and continues past several side paths to the shore of the pond and eventually back to the parking lot. Here was where I saw the first people of my entire day, a group that had been ATVing in the park and were exploring the pond. The parking lot had been empty when I arrived, but now there was another vehicle and several ATVs parked! Although Pisgah doesn't have a lot in the way of scenic things to view, I've found the trails to be exceptionally maintained and easy to navigate. Perfect for a wander in the woods.

Strava Activity