NH SRKG Section 3 and Ad Hoc AT Connector Section 1

Mt. Sunapee from North Road

Time to finish up the northbound section of the SRK Greenway in Sunapee and then continue northbound on my own ad hoc route. A cold rain was forecast for the entire day, but it started out dry and I headed north from the cemetery on North Road. This road just goes straight up and down hills, at times pretty steeply. No curves. I got a last look back at Mt Sunapee. Bye!

Ledge Pond, Ledge Pond Road (gravel)

The asphalt soon ended at the junction with Trow Hill Road and the road name changes to Ledge Pond Road at some point. This was a much nicer stroll than the asphalt ups and down of North Road.

Ledge Pond Road, not a bad walk

Eventually there is a gate across the gravel road, and a turn-around where you can park. The greenway markers went past the gate and then veered right to stay on a smaller woods road that was a delight to walk.

Ledge Pond Road continues past a gate and turns into more of a trail

It had started drizzling, but wasn't bad under the trees. Then woods road began to parallel a powerline corridor, then the landscape opened up at a farm. Here, the trail enters the town of Grantham and the road surface became hardened as the road name changed to West Road.

Ledge Pond Rd becomes West Road at the Grantham line

The last bit of the SRK Greenway for me was a moody stroll down Hogg Hill Road. No traffic, just a steady drizzle.

A very quiet Hogg Hill Road

And there it was. The junction with Stoney Brook Road. It doesn't look like much of anything, but from this point you can follow trail markings continuously south all the way to the shore of Long Island Sound in Guilford, Connecticut. A pair of SRK Greenway markers pointed emphatically to the right to take trail users east-bound around the big loop. I went left.

Departing from the official trail: Jct Hogg Hill Road and Stoney Brook Rd

And for no particular reason, I just kept on going north. There's a gap in the long distance trails but, as the crow flies, the Appalachian Trail is only thirteen miles away. And once you get on the AT, there are lots of options. The White Mountains. Maine. Canada. Vermont.  Hey, why not?

The gap between the trail systems.
SRK Greenway to the south, Appalachian Trail to the north

I'm still working on my routing, but the goal is to use existing trails (including snowmobile trails) and woods roads whenever possible.

Long, peaceful walk along Stoney Brook Road

So I continued along Stoney Brook Road for a good ways. I don't remember any cars passing me and this road walk turned out to be much better than expected, especially listening to a good podcast.

Winterberry

On the right were glimpses of ponds and bogs, although some "no trespassing" signs kept me on the road and I never got a clear view of the water. It seemed like a good place for moose.

Cattails 

Didn't see any moose, but a couple of deer were foraging along the road in the mist up ahead.

Deer along Stoney Brook Road

Hello

The rain was picking up when I got to the location of the first snowmobile road I intended to use, leading into Donas J. & Margaret Reney Memorial Forest.  Back home, I had contacted the local snowmobile club to ask whether it was OK to walk these trails. I got an immediate response, and was told it was fine to walk the trails as long as the property owner did not post the property 'no trespassing', and that in their area, property owners rarely did that. Great.

I think this is the snowmobile trail

The next step was trying to figure out exactly where these snowmobile trails were located. There was a map online but it was very conceptual, like a subway map. Not useful for a hiker. Then I stumbled upon a website that sold gps routes and mapping of the entire snowmobile trail system in New Hampshire for $30. I'll pay $30 to not get lost. So I had that loaded in my gps.

When I got to the spot on Stoney Brook Road where the snowmobile supposedly turned in per the gps, I didn't see anything at first.  Then I realized I was looking right at it. Following the gps route through the weeds, I came upon a gate within a few hundred feet of the road. Perfect.

Yup, it's the snowmobile trail

This was a pleasant walk through the rain. No problems following the snowmobile trail. The park map showed this portion of the trail as Barton Road.

Nice.

An old building appeared ahead. I checked my park map and found the building on the map in the middle of the snowmobile trail (which is also shown on the park map). A sign on the building tells snowmobilers to 'stay on the trail or stay home'.

Snowmobile trail along old building

The trail here got rather lumpy and overgrown. It didn't seem to be following an old road any longer. Easy to twist an ankle. Something to keep in mind about these snowmobile trails. They aren't designed for walking.

Junction with the hiking trail loop

Eventually I came to the junction with the Reney Forest hiking trail system. Thankfully, the trails were well cleared and well marked. You just never know. Sometimes there are trail maps online and you get there and there's no trail. Because several years ago maybe an Eagle Scout cleared a trail, but then no one maintained it.

A well-cleared trail through very thick brush

This trail was obviously being maintained, and it must be a lot of work. The forest is very open, probably logged not too long ago, and it's therefore thick with brush and saplings.

Go right, to the library

Down near the bottom of the hill there was a junction. I felt like I should continue straight to the parking lot, but my gps route had me going right towards the library.

First moose track since Sunapee Ridge

It was a pretty walk, though the cold rain was coming down harder. Moose like this part of the trail, apparently.

Very open forest, great for wildlife

They've done a beautiful job with this conservation area and I really enjoyed being able to get off the road and walk through the woods for about a mile and a half, even if it was raining pretty steady at this point.

Dunbar Library parking lot on Rt 10

I would have continued but for the cold rain, and got picked up at the Dunbar library. Went back to the Sunapee Lake Lodge, took a nice hot shower, went out for a hot bowl of chowder, and then we drove around for the rest of the afternoon. There really wasn't any place we could find to shop other than the Morgan Hill bookstore in New London.  We enjoyed a visit to the Shaker Museum in Enfield, located roughly where I'm headed on the trail. And that was it for our mini-vacation.  

NH SRKG Section 2: Old Province Road to Sunapee Village

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Snowmobile trail

This continued on for roughly five miles. I began seeing signs with a numbering system, for what, I don't know.

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.

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.

Solitary Sandpiper (?)

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.

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.

Albert Tilton park

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.

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.

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.

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.*

North Street

This was a lot of uphill on a paved road. Eventually a look back revealed Mt Sunapee in the distance.

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.

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.

NH MSG Sections 5 & 6a: Washington Center to Galpin Shelter

The "friendliest town" award goes to: Washington Center

Welcome to Section 5 of the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway. This section begins in Washington Center, which is my new favorite town. It was definitely the friendliest town I've encountered in my walks up from Long Island Sound. Every single person I passed either waved or cheerfully exclaimed, "Good Morning!" with one person adding, "Welcome to Washington!"

Road walk past a museum

It was a Saturday morning around 10:30 am and a small farmer's market had set up at the crossroads while a musician played some pipes out front.  After lingering there a bit and chatting with the farmers, I headed down the road past some historical monuments and a big old barn that is now some kind of museum.

Halfmoon Pond boat launch

This first section is a road walk, but not a bad one. Half Moon Pond Road goes past the boat launch for Half Moon Pond. A cold wind was whipping across the water, after a drastic cold front that arrived the night before. The first crisp air of the season.

Lovell Mtn Rd

The trail then turns onto a 4WD road and follows that for a good ways. It can be so easy to miss a turn off of a road like this, but it was very well marked. Thank you!

Effective turn sign

No more slackpacking this trail: I was carrying a fully-loaded backpack for a two-night trip in cold weather (it would turn out to be a one-night trip, but I think I had enough food for five days in there). Loaded packs always seem so much heavier than you remembered them being when you first put them on. Especially if you're going uphill.

Lots of cairns going up this mountain

After the trail turned off the road and became a real hiking trail walks, it wasted no time climbing Lovewell Mountain, about a 1,000-foot elevation gain. It was a beautiful hike, and even though it was a Saturday I only passed one set of hikers on my way up. Probably the cold wind kept the hikers away, but it was invigorating.

Reindeer lichen, spruce, and fir on the upper slopes

It was lunchtime by the time I got to the shoulder or false summit of the mountain. It had been a busy morning driving up from Connecticut before the hike, but I'd stopped at the Washington General Store beforehand to buy one of their delicious grinders. Now was the time to enjoy half of that. Mmmm.

Top of Lovell Mtn

The walk up wasn't overly steep, just a relentless path upwards through the spruce and fir, and eventually I was at the top of the world with some great views.

Nice job with the signs and trail register.

They've done a great job along this trail with signs, trail registers, maps, etc. Signs take a lot of work. Just installing a sign is a lot of work.

First moose tracks of the trip

It was an easy trip back down the other side, and I found myself at the Max Israel Shelter at 2 pm. I was expecting to spend the night here, but it was so early. And it there was a very cold wind ripping through the place, so hanging out at the camping area didn't sound like much fun. I decided to stop and eat the rest of my sandwich and ponder my options. The next shelter was about another six miles up the trail with another 1,000 foot elevation gain. Sunset was around 6:30 pm, so I had about four hours.  Yes. I could make it.

Max Israel Shelter

Invigorated with a new goal, I abandoned Plan "A" and the Max Israel Shelter (which, by the way, has zero cell phone signal) and headed down the trail towards the Steve Galpin Shelter.

Bog Brook

The trail continued down Lovewell Mountain, crossed Half Moon Pond Road (gravel) and Bog Brook, then began the climb up to the ridge that extends north to Mt. Sunapee. I counted four significant climbs on the map between me and the Galpin Shelter. That was the first one.

The first of four more hills

The next climb was Kittredge Hill. With my faster pace and heavy pack, this hill did me in. Good footing, though. No reason to slow down.

Gorgeous and peaceful section of trail

There were some other trails coming in from the west side of Pillsbury State Park, but there were no hikers to be seen. All was peaceful.

Miles of beautiful trail

Eventually I got over the remaining hills and came to Moose Lookout about a quarter mile south of the Galpin Shelter.

Moose Lookout

And there were plenty of moose track and moose poop right there at the Moose Lookout and all the way to the campsite.

Yup. Moose at Moose Lookout. 

Yay! I made it. Just in time to bundle up in layers of warm clothes, set up the tent, hang a bear bag, and cook some noodles before dark. Barely. I sat in the shelter for awhile, but abandoned that idea after hearing lots of animal sounds under the shelter.

Steve Galpin Shelter at Moose Lookout

Sitting in my tent after it got dark, I heard some animal do a deep snort-cough-grunt as it went down the trail. I don't know what that was, but I'm guessing it was a moose passing by, giving off an alarm after it smelled me nearby in the tent. Seemed like a good time to get back to that Stephen King book I was reading, so that's what I did.

No mice can run across my face in this tent.