As reported by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the castle ruins at Madame Sherri Forest in Chesterfield are now a bit more ruined. Time, weather, and probably a few too many human footsteps resulted recently in a collapse of one of the arches supporting the stone staircase. That makes me a bit sad. I’ve always found the remains of the “castle” – actually a once-fancy house – to be a charming visual gateway to recreational land.
But don’t fret. There’s still enough of the old structure left to spark a smile and fire the imagination, even with caution tape in place. Even better, the adjacent trails are unaffected.
Madame Sherri’s castle, before July 2021 arch collapse
I love vistas from mountaintops. Sweeping views can take my breath away. They’ll always have their place for me. Even so, I take time to look down as I walk. What’s along the trailside? What’s in bloom this month? What’s that little kid ahead of me exclaiming over, pulling mom or dad aside to see? Little things.
What’s growing
water liliesstaghorn sumacred maple flowerTrillium, offering fleeting beauty every spring in NH.Water lilies in summer; staghorn sumac in fall; red maple flowers and trillium in spring. All photos in post by Ellen Kolb.
When I parked at Gerrish Depot in Boscawen and walked south along the Northern Rail Trail, I knew I was near a veterans’ cemetery. What I didn’t know is that there was a spur from the trail directly to the cemetery, with a sign that offered an detour to trail users wishing to pay respects. Other trails use signage to inform users about expansion plans, inviting donations to maintain or extend a trail. Sometimes a trailhead kiosk will feature a flyer that tells me about a local festival or program.
Destination hikes – heading to a waterfall, a view from a notch, or a fire tower, for example – are always interesting. I like big payoffs, especially if I’ve had to stagger my way uphill for a few miles. I’ve learned to love my undramatic walks, too. They’ve taught me to look out for the little things.
Four years, folks. That’s how long it’s been since I plunged into the Forest Society’s Forest Reservation Challenge. Visit 33 of the Society’s New Hampshire properties & get a patch, they said. Piece of cake, I said.
It took me four years to consume that particular piece of cake, I just got my patch.
The Granite State Walker meets a challenge.
A few favorites
The project sent me to easy hikes and challenging ones, wetlands and high granite ledges, near home and darn near Canada. A few of the properties made deeper impressions than others.
Christine Lake, Kauffmann Forest, Stark NH
Kauffmann Forest, Stark. Christine Lake with its view of Victor Head and the Percy Peaks is a worthy destination in itself.
Dame Forest, Durham. When my daughter was a UNH student, I didn’t know this beautiful wetlands jewel was only a few miles away from campus. A long easy trail leads to Great Bay, and shorter trails are available. I had the place to myself for an unhurried visit when I was there a couple of years ago. I’m told that since COVID, it has become much more popular. I recommend a midweek visit.
Morse Preserve, Alton, with the summit of Pine Mountain. After seeing the wonderful view of Lake Winnipesaukee from there, and sharing the trail with only three other people, I may never visit Mount Major again.
Moose Mountains Reservation, Middleton/Brookfield. The view from Phoebe’s Nable turned my brown-bag lunch into a special event.
That’s not to mention the lime kilns, and the roads with whimsical names like Faraway and Local Ox Team, and autumn on Silver Mountain. Then there are a few spots suffering these days from too-much-love syndrome, and I’ll let you figure those out for yourself.
Autumn on Silver Mountain, Lempster NH
How I did it
Pre-Covid, I had a job that sent me all over the state for various projects. I fit in Forest Society reservations where I could: a stop in Bethlehem on the way home from business in Littleton, a trail in Sandwich on my way to a presentation in Ossipee. A couple of times, I took one-day road trips with two or three reservations on the itinerary.
Bretzfelder Park, a Forest Society property in Bethlehem NH
The Kingsbury-Chippewa property in Haverhill was particularly elusive. I finally got there as my husband and I returned from a weekend upstate, determined to avoid I-93. I said, “There’s this Forest Society reservation over in Haverhill…” and I may have mentioned something about the patch. Actually I’m sure I did. “Let’s go,” said my traveling companion. And so we did.
As is often the case, the journey – in this case journeys – mattered more than the arrival. The arrival took the form of a little embroidered patch. Every time I look at it, I’ll recall one of those journeys, and I’ll be smiling.
Exploring Forest Society properties
The Forest Society has some excellent resources. Check out the Outdoor Spatial app for a mobile-friendly guide to select reservations. Enjoy the annual 5 Hikes Challenge. Follow the Forest Society’s Facebook page for videos including virtual field trips to various properties.
When 2020 kicked off, I had never heard of Zoom. Since March, thanks to COVID, I’ve had online meetings on the Zoom platform several times a week. (And still, I’m apt to forget to unmute myself when I’m called upon to speak.) When I’m lucky, as I’ve been this month, I get to Zoom about trails.
My thanks go out to the New Hampshire Rail Trails Coalition board members, who welcomed me to a recent online meeting to talk about our mutual interests. I learned more than I shared!
I’m likewise grateful to Jeanine Notter, who welcomed me and former New Hampshire Rep. Lenette Peterson to her “Chattin’ With Jeanine” show on Merrimack Community TV for a half-hour conversation about our favorite places to hike in the Granite State. Even the TV show was a Zoom event, with everyone logging in from home while an MCTV tech whiz put it all together.
Screenshot courtesy Merrimack Community TV/Chattin’ With Jeanine
I love sharing trail stories with fellow Granite State walkers. We learn from each other. If you’re a program host and you’d like to shine a light on southern New Hampshire’s trails, please let me know if I can be part of your conversation.
A ten-dollar view for a two-dollar hike: that’s how a way-more-experienced hiker once described an easy scenic hike for me. Not a literal description, of course. The hike was free. The view was out of all proportion to the effort I’d put into getting there.
And so it was on a recent stop in Alton, when I visited the Forest Society’s Morse Preserve.
From Pine Mountain, Morse Preserve, Alton NH: Lake Winnipesaukee and Alton Bay. Photos by Ellen Kolb.
Alton’s Pine Mountain
A short uphill hike led me to the modest summit of Pine Mountain, where I was treated to a vista that included Lake Winnipesaukee and summits near and far.
Nearby was Mount Major, Alton’s principal crowd magnet, famed for the views from its summit. I once went there with a friend. The trail was mobbed from top to bottom. The parking lot was overflowing. And that was before Covid. I didn’t even make it to Major’s summit. Not a bad day, but too much company for my hiking taste.
If only I’d known about Morse Preserve. At the summit of the preserve’s Pine Mountain, I enjoyed the vista with three other people and a well-behaved dog. Hawks caught thermals overhead. Patchy hints of autumn flared here and there. An interpretive sign from the Forest Society identified the various peaks in the distance. Blueberry bushes were all over the place, resting up after what must have been a bountiful July.
No views to the south, but that’s just nitpicking, and I ought to be ashamed of myself for even mentioning that.
The Belknap Range offers an extensive trail network.
Gilford
Later the same afternoon, Gilford played Miss Congeniality to Alton’s flashy prizewinner. The entrance to another Forest Society property, Weeks Forest, is located across Route 11-A from Gilford’s municipal government complex. Weeks has a couple of miles of flat trails, lined in September with late-summer wildflowers. Getting there requires a nerve-wracking walk, or trot, across Route 11-A (parking is in the municipal complex lot).
I entered Weeks Forest through an archway of sorts.
Gilford also has a couple of historical markers. I stalk those like they’re big game. I reward myself with a photo and a brief history lesson at each marker. The day’s catch: something old (a story of how Gilford was named for a North Carolina Revolutionary War battle, if you please) and something relatively new (a tribute to the town’s Outing Club).
The Gilford Outing Club marker sits at the base of what must be a fine sledding hill in winter
While some New Hampshire recreational areas have been closed due to the too-much-love phenomenon (complicated by the no-sense-of-stewardship phenomenon), I am still getting out for good walks. August started out hot and hazy. It’s going out with hints of fall: fresh breezes, low humidity.
Pack Monadnock
On the one and only hilly hike I tried recently, Pack Monadnock via the Marion Davis Trail, I slipped on a bit of wet ledge and fell on my best-padded feature. I’ll have the bruise for another couple of weeks. It was worth it, just to be back on Pack. Even on a hazy day with a noisy storm approaching – which is what had me zipping downhill too quickly – Pack Monadnock is a nice hike.
The view of Monadnock from Pack Monadnock is unimpressive in summer haze.All photos by Ellen Kolb.
Closer to home, my favorite nature preserve in town has been a soothing refuge all summer. I recently discovered a little overlook that I somehow hadn’t known about, complete with bench, in a quiet part of the preserve. What does it overlook? A bone-dry stream-bed, that’s what. We’re in a drought. Birches in the preserve have shown their stress by dropping leaves early. The larger ponds and marshes in the preserve are at low water levels, but they’re still full of life.
I sat pondside to watch for herons, and got distracted by the dragonflies.
Beaver Brook, Hollis
I took my own advice and sought out a less-used trailhead at Beaver Brook, where the Jeff Smith Trail meets NH Route 130 in Hollis. I was rewarded with a couple of hours of near-solitude on surprisingly varied trails.
Maple tree hosting the day’s most dramatic-looking fungus
I loved coming across a meadow with an old cellar hole and a stone wall nearby, dead giveaways that there had once been a farm there. I found a trail that I hadn’t known about before, through a patch of woods dominated by white pines. Pine needles cushioned my every step.
The breeze in the trees there reminded me of growing up in south Florida, where fifty years ago long-needled Australian pines dominated every local park. Those trees were non-native and invasive, but I didn’t know it at the time; they were just normal trees to me. The memory of the sound of the wind through those long needles has stayed with me. The pines in New Hampshire with their shorter needles play a slightly different tune, just as soothing.
Less than an inch wide and only a few inches above ground, this wildflower caught my eye.
Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod tried to get my attention, but a tiny pink wildflower beat them both. I don’t know what it’s called. Perhaps it’s something common, but it was new to me: a gift from August.
Granite State Walker 