NH Ad Hoc AT Connector Section 2: Snowmobile Trail #5

Welcome to Columbus Day weekend in New Hampshire. The leaves have changed dramatically since our last visit in September. Almost peak color.

North on the blue line - mostly snowmobile trails

The goal for the next three days of slackpacking was to walk from the Dunbar Library in Grantham to the Appalachian Trail in Hanover, completing an ad hoc connection from the the NET/M-M Trail/M-S Greenway/SRK Greenway trail system to the Appalachian Trail. The drive up from SW Connecticut is getting longer and longer, and it was around lunch time before I even got started.

Grantham town center

The library is located at the foot of a Reney Forest trail that I had walked during the previous visit, in the town center of Grantham. It's a lovely old New England town. Today's walk would start with a quick 1.4-mile roadwalk and then follow snowmobile trails for the rest of the day. Not sure how it would turn out, but I carried two gps receivers and a smart phone with two spare batteries, all loaded with a gps track to follow. And a paper map, of course. Be prepared!

Sugar River with pink flamingos

After a very brief walk on Route 10, I turned onto Dunbar Hill Road and followed that road all the way to the snowmobile trail.  This was a nice walk on a paved but quiet country road, passing farms and woods. It went quickly and there was very little traffic.

Dunbar Hill Road

Fall foliage was nearing peak color. It was beautiful. Classic New Hampshire.

Nice fall foliage along Dunbar Hill Road

After about a mile, Dunbar Hill Road takes a sharp right. There was an old cemetery at the corner, so the road seems to be an old one.

Go right to stay on Dunbar Hill Rd

Dunbar Hill Cemetery 

A bit further, and the entrance to what Google Maps calls "Hart Horn Road" is on the left, marked by a gate just before a large field. This is an old dirt road (Class VI), now used by snowmobiles and occasional vehicles. I turned onto this road.

Start of the snowmobile route on Dunbar Hill Road (in the trees)

I had a gps track of the snowmobile routes, purchased online, and followed that. The route for the first day is shown on the map below (click to enlarge). According to Garmin's Base Camp mapping program, much of the route coincided with what looked like old roads. A good sign for walking.

Snowmobile Trails that were followed

Hart Horn Road turned out to be very nice. It was lined with stone walls in places and appeared to be an old, mostly abandoned road that had once been lined with farms.

View from the beginning of Hart Horn Road

It was a very easy walk heading west, with an occasional mud hole to walk around, but nothing significant. I was relieved to find the trail so easy to walk so far. According to the snowmobile trail map I had, this was a local club trail.

Hart Horn Road (snowmobile trail)

After about a mile and a half, Hart Horn Road comes to a major junction with NH Snowmobile Trail #5, which appears to be more of a regional snowmobile trail.  I took a right to head north on #5.

I think the junction is up ahead.

Heading north on trail #5

This was nice, too. And quiet. It was a Saturday and I didn't see a single person. By the way, yes, I was wearing lots of blaze orange so as not to be confused with a turkey or bear or deer or whatever season it might be.

Snowmobile Trail #5

The trail followed what various maps call Croydon Turnpike. The old turnpikes were improved roads with toll booths to pay for those improvements. Normally they evolved into major modern roadways, but this one was in the middle of nowhere. Old stone walls and a number of stone cellar holes attested to what was previously a farmed area. I imagine the farmers selling off their farms and moving west when the Erie Canal opened up new fertile farmland to the west.

One of many heavy duty bridges

The road wasn't totally abandoned, however, and a number of modern heavy duty bridges spanned stream crossings.

Gateway to Jurassic Park or something

Off to the left for a very long time was a tall fence maybe fifty feet in the woods, parallel with the old turnpike. A gravel road ran alongside this fence, on the opposite side. What the heck? A utility cart went speeding down this road at one point. I started thinking of it as Jurassic Park. What do they have behind that fence?  

"Sawyer Brook Gate Section E"

Later, I looked up the property on the town's handy online GIS maps, and found it to be owned by Blue Mountain Forest Association. Various online sites describe this property as one of the largest and most elite game farms in the entire country. Also known as Corbin Park, the site is about 20,000 acres, has thirty miles of perimeter fencing, and includes Croydon Mountain. Membership is supposedly restricted to thirty people and it cost a million dollars or something to join, but the place is very secretive and nobody really knows. It was founded by Austin Corbin in 1890 and may have something to do with why Croydon Turnpike was abandoned, since he bought out so many of the local farms for his game preserve.  It is said that locals get to hear elk bugling from inside the fence. And wild boar escaped in the '38 hurricane and there may now be a wild boar population on the loose.

After turning onto the old Croydon Turnpike, it's about two miles to the Grantham Town Forest and another mile beyond that to a gorgeous beaver pond (mile six). Although I didn't see or hear any elk from the game farm, I did see a lot of moose tracks throughout this stretch.

Scenic hiking along Croydon Turnpike

Chase Pond

Beaver dam at Chase Pond

That was my favorite spot of the day. Just beautiful. The trail after the pond was pretty muddy for a good stretch, and I had to pick my way around the mud holes.

We've left the turnpike

The snowmobile route leaves the turnpike then, and the walk takes on a different and more variable character. In some areas it follows old roads. In other areas, not.  In a couple of places there was bright yellow CAUTION tape across the trail, but a sign at the tape indicated the tape was just to block motorized vehicles, not pedestrians.  Prior to seeing the sign, I passed one isolated cabin with a family and dogs out front and was worried that I wasn't supposed to be there, but everyone was friendly and it was all good.

Thank you for clarifying :)

The #5 trail route is not always identified at trail junctions, so I would not try to walk this without the gps track (which I'll upload). There were several locations where I would have had no idea which path to take but for my gps. And you can go a very long ways without seeing any trail markings at all.

What a great walk

Hemlock ravine along a stream. Gorgeous. 

And sometimes there are impressive signs. The junctions are numbered, so you can take a picture of the map and keep track of your progress.

Perfect. 

Approaching Methodist Hill Road (my pickup point), the trail had been chewed up by very large machinery, making the footing more difficult and tedious. That went for a good quarter mile or so, maybe more. The area had been selectively logged.

Recently chewed up trail

Following the newly cleared working road out to Methodist Hill Road (mile 8.5), I was confronted by "No trespassing" signs on the other side of the road. Oh no. I walked up and down the street trying to figure out if the snowmobile trail had been rerouted and I just missed it, or what. Didn't find anything. It appeared that the start of the snowmobile route I was going to follow the next morning had been obliterated. Argh!

'No trespassing' signs and logging on the former snowmobile route

Something to ponder overnight after a hot shower and meal at the hotel. Gotta love slackpacking.

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.