Lyme Corner Trails – October 2018

Our four mile hike today took us into the Lyme Corner Trails in Connecticut. This area consists of Hartman Park, Walbridge Woodlands and Philip E. Young Preserve. We only did about a third of the trails in this complex of preserves, parks and woodlands.

There are four different parking areas for this trail system on Gungy Road. We parked at the Field Entrance. The trails we explored were the Yellow to the Red to the Green Red, back to the Red, to the Orange, a bit on the Park Road (purple) to Orange to Blue to Orange and returned on the Yellow we entered in on.

Our first sight was Lily Rock close to the beginning of the hike.

Our our way to Turtle Rock we meandered about in the woods. There were numerous bridges over small streams throughout the trail system.

Returning to the Red Trail we traipsed across the “bald nubble”.

From here we made our way over to the next sight, an overlook that included powerline viewing.

After the overlook and briefly losing the orange trail, but finding it again, we continued on the orange to the blue trail only to return to the orange to see “the flume”.

The orange trail led us to the yellow trail and back to our car.

We wandered for about four miles in the forest. After our hike we headed over to Niantic to try out a new brewery, Noble Jay. Always good to enjoy a pint after a hike. This was a well spent morning, exploring the forests of Lyme, Connecticut.

October 20, 2018 0

Pisgah Mountain Loop, NH – September 2018

I’ve been eyeing the Pisgah State Park for a few years. When we used to travel up to the White Mountains to babysit a friend’s cottage, our meander home to Connecticut would sometimes take us past this state park. I tucked the name away, thinking when our caretaking run was over, this was a mere 90 minute drive from home, doable as a day trip.

Well the gig is up as they say being caretakers of the cottage up north, time to finally hike this place and get some views in. As we drove through Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts, a fog settled in and we started to become nervous our views would just be clouds and fog. As usual our attitude was “oh well, at least we will get some miles in and enjoy the forest even more.” Well the hiking gods were with us today and as soon as we hit the road leading to the trailhead, the fog dissipated.

Our hike was focused on the Pisgah Mountain Loop, which really is a lollipop hike. We forgot our printed trail map at home, but luckily the trailhead kiosk supplied us with one. Though the one at home was much easier to read and gives a great description of what you will see on the hike, we made due with the one offered at the kiosk.

The repeat part of the hike started on Kilburn Road.

Throughout the hike we would encounter areas of webs, for me it looked like woodland fairies had dropped in to decorate for a party.

Right before we reach Pisgah Mountain Trail, I took a side shoot trail to look at Kilburn Pond. You can do a five-mile loop around Kilburn Pond here also.

Then we crossed a few bridges throughout this hike (warning they were wet and very slippery), we remained on the Pisgah Mt. Trail till we hit the Pisgah Ridge Trail, where we went right.

The red salamanders were very active on the trail, requiring us to have some fancy footwork at times, to avoid stepping on them while they congregated in the middle of the path.

The Pisgah Ridge Trail had a steady climb up to Pisgah Mountain with views out to Mt. Monadnock in the east and a porcupine eating a mid morning meal in the trees (sorry, can’t promise you will get the porcupine view).

We followed the trail to the next viewpoint which overlooks Pisgah Reservoir.

Our next trail junction we took was Reservoir Trail north, then a left on Baker Pond Trail. Of course, we had to have our peanut butter and jelly sandwich while walking.

The next junction brought us back to the Pisgah Ridge Trail, taking it for about a mile that included more scenic vistas to enjoy.

After the mile we had a descent until we returned to the Pisgah Mountain Trail to hike back to the car.

On our way home we stopped in Greenfield, Ma for lunch and a beer at The People’s Pint, while we enjoyed the nourishment, the bartender told us about a new ice cream shop that had opened up down the street. Of course had to try out the ice cream, enjoying a cup of Avocado Coconut, which capped off a rather great day.

The Details: 9 miles, 4 hours, elevation of 1200 feet.

September 30, 2018 0

Cooley – Jericho Community Forest

I love when the hardest decision of our day is “where to hike?”. Today was a toss-up between a close and familiar hike, the North and Middle Sugarloaf or a new to us, bit further away hike, the Cooley-Jericho Community Forest. The deciding factor was two blog reports, one from Mountain Wanderer and the other from 1HappyHiker.

We set out a little after 7:30 and were on the trailhead by 8:15 a.m in Sugar Hill.

At one time it appeared parking was allowed closer to the kiosk. We parked before the gate on the side of the road. Sadly it looked like someone had removed the map that should be hanging on the kiosk. Lucky for us we downloaded this map, before we left the cottage. There was no cell service at the start of the hike, once we reached higher elevation LTE came in strong and clear.

We choose to follow the South Blue Ascent and return via the North Blue Ascent.

The trail started with a small water crossing and provided us with a nice gurgle as we approached it.

The trail was a steady incline, full of mud, moose prints and wildflowers.

We reached the ledges in good time and admired the views. Unfortunately the sky wasn’t a vibrant blue, but a dull gray, limiting the grandeur of the mountains in the distance.

Throughout the first part of the trail there were small windows looking out at the mountains.

This is not a well trodden trail, the flowers were growing smack dab in the center of the trail.

We meandered through the lovely woods until the trail met the logging road.

We took the logging road for a bit until it returned to the forest.

The forest trail returned us to our starting point, making for an almost 3 mile loop hike.

We plan to return to this beautiful little forest, hoping we can do the point to point. On a bluebird day, the views will be breathtaking.

This hike was a little shy of 3 miles and took us an hour and 48 minutes.

May 13, 2017 1

Hill-Stead Museum Trails and a Piece of the Metacomet

We had a little free time on Tuesday afternoon and wanted a quick new hike to take in. We decided to explore the trails at Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington. We had hoped to complete all the trails, but on the day we went to explore all interior trails were closed, so we could only walk the Woodland Trail/ Loop.

The trail is easy to follow, especially if the inner trails are closed.

What I enjoyed most about the trails were the carpet of leaves, we crunched through and the benches that were dispersed on the trail.

We veered off on the Metacomet trail for a bit to gain a some distance on this trek.

The Metacomet re joined the Woodland Trail after a bit.

After we emerged from the woods, we took the offshoot to the Overlook. The Overlook looks out over Clatter Ridge Farm.

After the overlook we returned to the trail and had a short walk back to the car. Due to the fact the interior trails were closed, our hike was very short. We decided to drive up to the Metacomet trail by 50 Cents’ house. This little hiking segment added another mile to our short walk.

Overall this was a quick little jaunt in the woods, would be perfect for an easy family walk with toddlers.

The Details: Hill-Stead with the Metacomet combined on the property was about 1.5 miles, easy. Driving over to the other piece of the Metacomet and doing an out and back hike added in another mile. Overall easy hike.

October 23, 2015 0

Mossy Glenn – Rambling in Randolph, NH

We were just looking for a small easy hike, away from Columbus Day weekend popular trails full of people. The trails around Mossy Glenn, Randolph, NH were just perfect, beautiful, easy, and away from the crowds. The hardest part of this hike was finding the proper starting part on Durand Road.

Once on Durand Road, go only about .5 miles to one of the trail heads, it is before the Mossy Glen Way sign and before the Library. We went past it, only to turn around and find where we wanted to enter. We parked on the side of the road, hopped out and began the little meandering.

We follow the faint path through a person’s orchard.

Spotting the “path” sign, we knew we were in the right place, turning around to see the sugar frosted mountains rising behind us.

The mountains of Adams and Madison were sugar coated with a nice little layer of snow and rime.

The signage on the trail was outstanding. There were signs everywhere indicating the network of trails. We should have continued on the Bee Line trail, but instead went to Mossy Glen first.

We decided to go this way first, instead of the Bee Line.

The trail itself was soft underfoot, narrow and decorated with many wet fall leaves. A little further we crossed the Nepalese inspired bridge.

On the bridge, Mike’s battery camera died and when he went to replace it, the spare sd card fell to demise under the bridge. Mike did spend some time looking for it, but could not find it.

The views in this area were simply beautiful.

We followed this sign next, which did cause us to double back and go over the bridge again.

We crossed back over the stream, which is used for drinking water and a sign request you keep the water pure (so no swimming).

The little path leading back the bridge was lovely and offered more photographic moments.

After crossing the bridge we went this way, towards Burnbrae and Beeline.

Again another sweet path, just ramble on.

We crossed the Peeko Folsom Memorial Bridge. On the other side of the bridge was a memorial bench where I found Mike posing.

I scurried down to the banks of the little stream to snap a few photos.

The next sign pointing us where to go appeared. We went towards the Ravine House Site.

Along the way a rock with fern hair materialized and added to our enjoyment.

Then we followed this sign to exit the trail near the library.

As we tramped along, we came to unexpected surprise, an amphitheater in the words. Mike scurried down while I waited at the top, goofing off.

The trial ended with these trees marking our exit.

We exited the trail, by some summer homes and came out here on Mossy Glen Dr. Private Way.

The views were majestic looking at the mountains.

It was just a short road walk back to our car.

The Details: Maybe 1.5 miles, 40 minutes of just wandering the Mossy Glen area. No strenuous elevation gain. Just a beautiful day to be out in the woods.

October 11, 2015 0

Devil's Slide

When it is hot as Hell, as it is up north currently, where should one hike? Might as meet the devil at his playground, The Devil’s Slide in Stark, New Hampshire.

We knew today’s condition would match or exceed yesterday’s hazy, hot and humid weather. We opted for a short hike, further up north, hoping for it to be a bit cooler.

After an hour’s drive, we arrived in Stark, pulled into the little gravel parking area and spent time locating the trail head. No signs to clearly mark the entrance, just a hidden path.

Mike is pointing the way to the trailhead

In we ventured, via a trail that hasn’t seen much traffic, but absolutely lovely.

We came across an aged bog bridge, that seems no longer needed, but added to the charm of the trail.

The trail itself was fairly even and gradual for the first part. We had some obstacles to traverse along the way, which always make for fun times.

Mother Nature's torture tools she uses on hikers — Mother Nature’s torture tools she uses on hikers

P1040422 — had a fallen log bridge we had to cross

Suddenly it seems the terrain changes from hardwood to a spruce and fir playground. The true ascent started here with soft ground cushioning our steps.

We topped out at a small viewing spot that overlooked the hamlet of Stark, including its covered bridge.

The views were hazy and limited.

The trail ended here, but we did spend a few minutes exploring the area to see if we could find the old trail or other viewing points. As the day was getting hotter, we didn’t expend much energy exploring.

We retreated down the trail, taking time to notice Mother Nature’s little treasures that dotted the trail.

Moss Balls dotted the upper portion of the trail.

Is mother nature telling us fall is approaching?

This was a fairly easy hike, a good one to stretch the legs on such hot as hell day in the North Country.

The Details: 1.6 miles, 1 hour 36 mins, elevation gain of 600 feet.

August 18, 2015 2