Picking it up: keep the trails clean

November 16, 2020February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

Picking up litter is such a little thing, and I’ve really appreciated that act this year in pandemic time. Increased trail usage in my area has meant more trash on the trails, as people unused to using public lands haven’t yet developed good habits.

Does that sound patronizing? It’s kinder than my gut reaction, which is that people sometimes behave like jerks. Not a neighborly thing for me to think.

At any rate, I see folks rising to the challenge and picking up the trash. Some do so individually. (I keep a trash bag in my pack when I’m out and about, so I have one less excuse for passing by a dropped can.) Some people form or join crews, with the single purpose of cleaning up after thoughtless hikers.

woman picking up trash — _{Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay}

I have always admired people who are useful on trail crews. Someone has to cut the trails, build the bridges and boardwalks, and replace the bridges and boardwalks after they wear out. Someone has to clear deadfall every year. There’s always work to do. I’ve helped out in minor ways on such projects.

As far as I’m concerned, the people clearing trash on the trails this year are in the same league.

I learned from social media about a group close to home, whose members had dubbed themselves “The Litter Crew.” A few times a month, they announce a trail location and a date and time, and welcome anyone to come. They provide bags, buckets, gloves, and “pickers,” handy claws-on-a-stick.

A few days ago, the Litter Crew called for a cleanup in my town on a trail that I mistakenly thought had been abandoned a long time ago. Not abandoned, as it turns out: it’s a bit of a party spot as well as being a well-defined path through the woods. I collected a single bag’s worth of trash, but that made me an underachiever in this crowd. The total yield, as reported later on the Crew’s Facebook page: “21 Full trash bags, 3 tires, 2 back seats from a car, a bike tire, tons of beer cans, and we found multiple old TVs and a refrigerator.”

That’s one trail on one day in one town. You get the idea. Sometimes, teamwork is the way to go.

I’m grateful to everyone helping to keep New Hampshire trails tidy in this stressful time. It’s not just an aesthetic or environmental thing. It’s a kind and thoughtful act in a time when kindness and thoughtfulness can be hard to come by. Not a bad return on the small investment of picking up some trash.

November in Boscawen, NH: Northern Rail Trail

November 13, 2020February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

One of the southernmost trailheads for New Hampshire’s Northern Rail Trail is on Depot Street in Boscawen, just north of Concord. A little informational sign on the stretch of road shared by US 3 and US 4 points to the side street.

The unpaved well-maintained trail surface is fine for walking and biking. The ambitious traveler with the right kind of bike could go clear to the other end of the trail in Lebanon in one trip. In the winter, the NRT is a popular snowmobile trail.

I found the Depot Street trailhead on an overcast November afternoon that was warm enough for me to walk without my jacket. In the hour I was there, I covered about three miles. Along the way: colorful berries on leafless vines, a bend in the low-flowing Merrimack River, and a wide path carpeted in crunchy autumn leaves.

autumn leaves on a rail trail with a mileage sign left over from the path's days as an active rail line — Northern Rail Trail, Boscawen, 60 miles from White River Junction.

oriental bittersweet berries in autumn — Northern Rail Trail, Boscawen, 60 miles from White River Junction.

For more information: Friends of the Northern Rail Trail

Fall day on the Rockingham Trail in Candia, NH

November 10, 2020February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

I drove down Depot Road in East Candia a little slowly, wondering if I’d be able to find the parking lot where the Rockingham Rail Trail crosses the street. I needn’t have worried; the nearly-full lot was impossible to miss. I tucked my car into one of the few open spots.

East Candia New Hampshire railroad depot sign — _{No depot building here, but a sign marks the spot where a depot once stood. All photos by Ellen Kolb.}

The lot was a busy place. Couples and singles and families were taking bikes off car racks or putting them back on. Hikers were setting out, many sporting seasonal blaze orange vests. It was as warm a day as November ever brings, and everyone wanted to take advantage.

Pick a direction: should I go east into Raymond, or west through Candia? Seeing several parties setting off to the east, I wished them well, and then turned my back to them to walk west.

rail trail granite walls — _{Rock cut along Rockingham Rail Trail, East Candia NH}.

The Rockingham Rail Trail between Manchester and Newfields is more than 20 miles long, making it one of the longer New Hampshire rail trails. It’s a piece-at-a-time endeavor for a walker. I picked a winner of a day to amble out-and-back on a three-mile segment in Candia.

Temp in the 60s: what kind of November is this? Sunshine, few clouds, air as dry as could be.

There were more bicyclists than walkers on the trail. That didn’t mean walkers were overwhelmed; traffic was light to moderate. The few walkers kept their cheerful distance as we passed each other with smiles and nods – you stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine, we seemed to be saying.

Where houses were visible as I approached Main Street, the sounds and smells of a sunny late-autumn weekend took over: raking, leaf-blowing, the last round of mowing for the season, a carefully-tended fire to burn the clippings.

New England rail trail autumn — _{A sign along the way hints at the winter traffic to come.}

My turnaround point was Route 43, or more precisely the tunnel under the ramp linking 43 with Route 101. The parking lot in East Candia was nearly deserted when I returned. I decided to spend a little time walking toward Raymond, but I was racing the sunset: after half a mile, I returned to my car.

I think I saw the trail at its most inviting for walkers. Once the snow flies and piles up, the Rockingham Rail Trail will become a snowmobile corridor. Until then, all you need there is your bike or your walking shoes.

*My turnaround point. West of Candia, the trail continues through Auburn into Manchester.*

In praise of short walks

November 3, 2020February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

My polling place is at a nearby school, adjacent to the Grater Woods conservation area. I was scheduled to work on Election Day as a ballot clerk. I had a long wait to vote, then a short time before my shift began; what to do?

Go to the Grater Woods trails, of course.

The trails were nearly deserted. The day was chilly, breezy, and sunny. I lingered for a few minutes at a little pond that’s usually a busy spot. This day, it was all mine.

I was ten minutes away from a polling station where the line of voters wrapped around the building, and I felt like I was in another world. A mental reset: that’s the power of a short walk in the woods, even on Election Day.

A layered trail in Mine Falls Park

October 31, 2020February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

I needed a walk with no cars in sight. I headed to Mine Falls Park in Nashua. I found leaves over patchy ice over mud: not my favorite trail surface, but that’s what the end of October is dishing up in my area.

trail in woods at sunset — _{Mine Falls Park, Nashua, NH: late afternoon, end of October. Ellen Kolb photo.}

A scant inch of snow fell yesterday along with the leaves. Everything froze overnight, and then the sun came up and promptly warmed things up to about forty degrees. That left me with the layered trail. It wasn’t too bad, and it was certainly better than pavement. The bridges over canal and river were still a bit slippery from the snow.

The park was quiet. Weekends are usually busier. Even adjacent Lincoln Park, where I left my car, was nearly empty. No complaints. I was a bit out of sorts, and solitude suited me.

I usually see mallards in the canal. This day, I saw them in the Nashua River instead. About three dozen were together midstream. The river was sluggish, and the ducks paddled upstream effortlessly. That left the cove for about 20 Canada geese, most of them napping in the late afternoon.

I needed my sunglasses as I returned to my car, with the sun low in the western sky. That reminded me that I was walking during the last day of Daylight Savings Time. November will bring the sense of dislocation I feel every fall until I mentally reconcile what the clock says with what the sun does.

Concord, NH segment of Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail

October 24, 2020February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

Update, 2026: Since this 2020 post, the CLSRT has been extended in Concord, improved in Warner, and begun in Newbury. The segments are slowly coming together. Best ways to get updates are on the CLSRT website and Facebook page.

Some of my favorite short after-work hikes have been in Concord, New Hampshire. The trails on Oak Hill and in Winant Park stand out. Now there’s a new trail – new to me, anyway – on the north side of town, where I recently walked for a fine hour and a half.

The two-and-a-half-mile long trail is a segment of the Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail (CLSRT). This long-abandoned old rail line will someday be an uninterrupted upgraded rail trail linking Concord and Lake Sunapee. For now, it’s a disjointed thing, with a little piece open for use in Warner, another in Bradford, and now another in Concord.

I was there on an overcast, comfortably cool day. I had the parking lot to myself at the trailhead, at 25 Fisherville Road (U.S. 3). I found there an information kiosk and a bike-service stand.

trailhead Concord-Sunapee rail trail, Concord NH — _{Trailhead in Concord, on U.S. 3.} _{Photos by Ellen Kolb.}

The first section of trail had a surface of smooth well-packed stone dust. The trail was flanked by businesses on one side and a wide open field on the other.

Cloudy day with rail trail — _{Peak color was past, but autumn conditions were pleasant along the trail.}

Before long, the trail entered the woods, becoming a little rougher but still wide and well-defined. Most of the more-vividly-colored leaves had dropped. What was left created a glowing golden tunnel. Granite markers recalled the days of the old active line, when C stood for Concord and CJ stood for Claremont Junction.

The trail stayed close to U.S. 3 before veering west to parallel Bog Road. Traffic noise was not intrusive. One dog’s barking certainly was; more about that later. The noisiest moment I had was when I flushed what must have been a grouse concealed in the leaves just off the trail. The bird’s explosive takeoff startled me half out of my wits.

What’s now a formal piece of rail trail has apparently served as a snowmobile trail, or so I conclude based on one well-signed junction. For the most part, though, I was on a path freshly improved for walkers and bikers alike. Runners, too. I was passed by a few who were probably delighted not to have to get their miles in on the nearby roads.

Trail junction with directional signs — _{A signed junction along the way.}

The trail passes through a residential area, with trees providing some buffer. I had a refreshing five-mile round trip walk. I owe that to amazing work by many volunteers and donors who built up this section. Together, they have created another fine trail in Concord.

For more information: Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail