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| SRK Greenway marker pointing down Old Provindence Road |
Onward north along the next trail: The Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway (SRK Greenway). To review, this all started in Guilford, Connecticut on the New England Trail, which turned into the M-M Trail in New Hampshire, which continued on at the M-S Greenway between Mt Monadnock and Mt Sunapee. And now the way north is marked with green and white trail markers.
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| View along Goshen Road |
The SRK Greenway is a great big loop of a trail. I'm just doing the part that heads north from Sunapee. A lot of it is road walking, including the first couple miles after reaching the bottom of Mt. Sunapee. That part was nearly all downhill and went super fast.
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| Harding Hill Road |
Some of it was gravel and some was asphalt, but none of it was too bad. There were cattle and wild turkey to watch on Harding Hill Road as the turnoff approached.
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| Trail network at Webb Woods |
The trail then takes a turn into Webb Woods and meanders about a nice forest crossed with various trails, including snowmobile trails. I was a bit concerned about missing a turn, but there was always a marker where I most needed to see one.
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| Easy |
After the backpacking on Mt Lovewell and Mt Sunapee, this was super easy walking. It was a Monday morning and I never passed a single person.
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| Variable terrain |
The terrain was highly variable, though, as the trail passed back and forth between mixed forests of white pine, dark hemlock hollows, and open meadow areas. None of it was difficult.
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| Snowmobile trail |
This continued on for roughly five miles. I began seeing signs with a numbering system, for what, I don't know.
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| What are these numbers? |
The trail crossed Hells Corner Road (yes, that's a real name) and came to Frank Simpson Reserve.
This was a beautiful section of trail, although there were an excessive number of large, tacky signs with the mystery numbering system.
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| Beaver Pond |
The highlight of the hike was a beaver pond. No moose or beaver in sight, but there was an inland shorebird working the mud that may be a Solitary Sandpiper. This kind of bird looks like it belongs on an ocean beach or marsh, but lives inland.
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| Solitary Sandpiper (?) |
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| Vermilion Waxcap (?) |
The trail continued on for a bit further through scenic, peaceful woods. There was going to be a lot of road walking up ahead, so I slowed down and savored it.
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| Last real woodland hiking trail for awhile |
My car had been spotted at a the Albert Tilton recreation area on Route 103b, so that's where I stopped for the time being.
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| Albert Tilton park |
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| Walking down Rt. 103B towards Sunapee Village |
After a few hours back at the hotel while my husband was playing 18 rounds of golf, the weather turned warm and sunny. I wanted to get outside and walk some more, so we spotted my car further along the way, then set out together to walk from Albert Tilton down to the nearby village of Sunapee.
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| I spy a trail marker behind the power station |
After a walk down Rt 103b, we found a trail marker behind a powerstation and followed it a very short ways to a pedestrian bridge. Nice. Wasn't expecting that.
That lead to the back side of a small welcome center. Had no idea where to go after that. We meandered about for a bit and my husband finally spotted a marker on the other side of busy Route 11 on Lower Main Street.
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| Nice, but which way do we go now? |
We parted ways so that my husband go walk down towards the big lake and explore the village, while I continued on towards my parked car.
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| Trail marker on Lower Main Street |
The markers went along the road for a bit and then just stopped. I finally pulled up Google Map and decided I needed to turn on North Street. After a bit, the blazes suddenly started up again.*
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| North Street |
This was a lot of uphill on a paved road. Eventually a look back revealed Mt Sunapee in the distance.
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| Hilltop Drive |
The trail turned onto gravel Hilltop Drive for a bit, providing relief from the pavement, but it didn't last long before turning back onto North Street. Although not ideal, the road walk went pretty fast, and I listened to more of my podcast story.
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| Cemetery on North Street |
My car was parked along the road next to a cemetery on North Street. There's more of a parking area further north, but I wasn't sure I could get there before dark.
* On the drive back (southbound), I followed some street markings for the greenway going down Sargent Road to Dowd Lane, where a narrow trail between driveways left the road between houses at the end of the cul-de-sac. That agreed with the map I had found online, although I didn't know how old the map was and it was poor resolution. (I wasn't able to purchase a current map & description in time for this hike). My husband later said he also saw greenway markers down in Sunapee Harbor when he went to check that out (also noting no shops or restaurants were open). The next afternoon we were at a bookstore, and I took a peek at the description for that section. After reading it, I was still unclear about the markers down by the lake, but the description had the trail turning north off of Lower Main Street at School Street and coming out onto Dowd Lane where I saw the markers during my drive. However, the markers on Lower Main Street definitely lead me well past School Street and I was looking very closely for a potential turn there. I always go by the trail markers rather than the description and map because trail routes change all the time and it can take years for published information to map the new trail route. Bottom line is I still have no idea what the correct route is for the trail in Sunapee.
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