Most of southern New Hampshire endured a severe ice storm as 2008 came to an end, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing the aftermath for months to come. I was heartened by what I saw in the hard-hit town of Temple on New Year’s Day. Broken branches lined the roadsides, but no roads were blocked by fallen trees. I saw half a dozen utility trucks making their way through town, their crews set on restoring service to neighborhoods that have gone without for some days now.
The trails around here, unlike the roads, are still a mess. I needed today’s outing to restore my optimism for the pace of recovery from the ice storm. Monadnock State Park is still closed. The Friends of the Wapack have posted a message on the group’s web site warning against hiking the trail for the time being, since the tree damage has rendered the trail “very hard” to follow. My favorite cross-country ski area was shut down by the storm, and the owners are doing heroic work to arrange for the extensive logging and cleanup necessary to restore at least a few kilometers to skiable (and hikable) condition.
Today proved that things are looking up, after a messy weather event that’s going to be remembered for years to come.
Horse Hill Nature Preserve in Merrimack, New Hampshire almost didn’t happen. Town residents voted awhile back to purchase the land from a developer, and then they worked to make the property into a recreational asset for the town. Today, it’s ready for you to discover.
I’m happy that I can finally go to HHNP and spend several hours wandering around on marked trails without having to maneuver around junked cars and piles of spent shells from years of target practice on the land. I owe thanks to a lot of volunteers. The whole area’s cleaned up, and the trails are marked much more clearly than they were last year. The parking lot off of Amherst Road has been plowed out every time I’ve been by there this season, which means the town is making an effort to keep the preserve accessible year-round. I can spend an afternoon there without retracing my steps.
HHNP is going to become more important as Merrimack grows and new residents seek outdoor recreation close to home. It’s great to see this asset ready for the future.
I had never before been tempted to approach New Hampshire’s Mount Monadnock in December, but today’s fall-like conditions were too good to pass up. An early December with next-to-no snow is rare on the mountain. Monadnock isn’t a frequent destination for me, but each visit rewards me with good views and a variety of trails. The mountain sometimes sends me home with a lesson or two as well, and it did so today with some firmness.
What amazing conditions! Trail runners in t-shirts and shorts zipped past me. There was mud along the way, and skims of ice were forming in spots, but the going was mostly easy. I ascended via the Cascade/Red Spot/Pumpelly trails, deciding along the way to go clear to the summit even though that hadn’t been my original plan. I’d never been on either Red Spot or Pumpelly, and they were a nice change from the Halfway House and White Dot trails. My first few trips up Monadnock were on the steep and crowded White Dot trail that begins near park headquarters. I swore to myself after those hikes that I’d never go back again. Then I finally got smart and started taking other trails. What a difference!
The blazes on Red Dot could stand some repainting, but the trail is pretty wide and easy to follow. It helps to have patience to go along with the trail map. (Don’t ever start up Monadnock without a map, which you can pick up at park headquarters. There are many trails, and it’s easy to get lost.)
I noticed things I can’t see when the trees are in leaf. For once I got to see Monadnock’s songbirds, not just hear them. I’m not sure if they were singing just to delight me or if they were making noise to warn their neighbors about the approach of a noisy hiker. I saw ground-level ice formations, some of which were quite beautiful.
I shared the summit with a grand total of three people. That’s December for you. (I was once there on a Columbus Day weekend with about 150 people.) The wind at the summit was too brisk for me to sit and enjoy my lunch there. I lingered for about five minutes, treasuring the quiet and the views, then started down to beat the sunset. It was 2:30, with sunset coming at 4:15. I had to scoot, so I resorted to White Dot, the most direct route back to my car. Big mistake.
White Dot heads down rather precipitously. Every Cub Scout in southern New Hampshire has probably scampered up and down that trail at one time or another, but I don’t like it one bit. I had a trekking pole, and I needed it. I walked slowly enough that one passing hiker asked how I was doing. I assured her I was fine. A few minutes later, my cautious pace proved to be not cautious enough, somewhere between White Dot’s junctions with the old ski trail and Cascade. Not once, but twice, I slipped in mud and went bumping and sliding until I hit solid pieces of granite. The first fall snapped my trekking pole. The second was downright humiliating. I was grateful I had no audience. Of course, if I had injured myself badly, my solitude would not have served me well. I take my chances when I hike alone.
Once I got up and brushed off the mud, my pace slowed still more as I babied a sore ankle. I had an uneasy feeling about getting back to the parking lot before sunset. I had all the standard dayhiker gear including a flashlight, but I hoped I wouldn’t need it. As it happened, I got to the car at precisely 4:15.
I will undoubtedly feel the bruises tomorrow, but the hike was worth the effort. I still hate White Dot, but that’s not the same as hating the rest of the mountain. I’d like to go back in the wintertime, after a good snowfall, and snowshoe all over the lower slopes. There’s a prospect to warm a flatlander’s heart.
From another season’s hike: junction of Pumpelly and Red Spot trails, looking toward Mount Monadnock’s summit.Ellen Kolb photo.
I’ve dayhiked many times on bits and pieces of the 21-mile long Wapack Trail between Ashburnham MA and Greenfield NH, but for some reason I never had time until recently to check out the segment on the northern side of Temple Mountain. I always drove past the old ski area’s parking lot on 101 as I was on my way somewhere else. The ski area went out of business a few years ago, and there’s actually serious talk about making the property into a new state park, which would be great for — among other things — the Wapack. I finally made time to check the area out last weekend.
I didn’t expect that finding the proper trailhead would take awhile, but it did. This is hardly a remote area, with route 101 right there and Miller State Park/Pack Monadnock across the street. I figured I’d park in the old ski area’s lot and I’d immediately find the familiar yellow-triangle blazes for the trail. I saw a bunch of old ski trails, but no blazes. Other cars were there, so I knew someone had to be on the trail. I tried going up one of the old ski trails, but the recent rains had left them badly eroded and muddy. I don’t mind mud, but I was getting annoyed with myself for being unable to find a simple trail! I soon met up with a gentleman in the same predicament as I. He recommended walking out to 101 and picking up the trail right across the road from the Miller State Park entrance. That worked. A couple of hours later, on my way back to my car, I figured out the very simple (but unmarked) way to get from the parking lot to the trail without resorting to walking on the highway: from the parking lot for the old ski area, on the south side of 101,walk just past the gate (actually a cable strung between a post & a tree), turn right, and walk on the broad dirt road for less than five minutes. Those nice yellow blazes will soon be in sight.
The walk south to Temple Ledges was pleasant enough. There are few vistas on this stretch, so all the folks wanting to see the countryside ought to go to just about any other peak on the northern part of the Wapack except this one. Lots of birds — including what I think was a bobwhite, which I had seen before only in books! A bird’s a little thing, but I was delighted anyway. I encountered about ten other folks enjoying the day, all (even their dogs) sensibly dressed with something orange in this hunting season. Woods, stone walls, a group of cairns that could pass for a living room grouping, plenty of birdsong: not a bad way to spend two hours. This is not the place to wear sneakers, by the way. The approach to the ledges isn’t all that steep, but within a few days of any kind of rain, there is mud. You’ll get fair warning of that as you splash your way through the parking lot.
The Wapack Range stretches to the south, with the ridge of Temple Mountain in foreground.
Walking for pure joy sort of snuck up on me. When I needed to lose weight, I developed the habit of heading outside after dinner to go around the block a few times. Much later, it dawned on me that there were a whole lot of more interesting places I could explore — maybe not after dinner, but on weekends & days off.
I found state parks. I discovered rail trails. I walked through neighborhoods that I had only before seen from a car window.
I moved to southern New Hampshire from Florida with my husband and baby in the early 1980s, hardly expecting this whole Northern thing to work out as well as it has. It took me awhile to realize just how much of Florida’s beauty I had taken for granted the whole time I was growing up — the beauty most of the tourists miss. I didn’t want to make the same mistake here. As my husband and I reared our children, I learned little by little about appreciating things close to home.
So here I am, fascinated by New Hampshire paths and trails. I look forward to sharing some of my favorites with you. Welcome to Granite State Walker.
Granite State Walker 