One way to celebrate a birthday – part I, Franconia Notch Rec Path

September 8, 2025February 26, 2026 / Ellen Kolb / 3 Comments

Do you have something to celebrate, but you’re not sure how? Walking works for me.

My original plan for this year was to celebrate my birthday with a flourish. I’d backpack on my favorite New Hampshire rail trails, maybe over five days or so, for a number of miles equal to my age.

Ultimately, the plan was modified in every respect except the number of miles I wanted to walk. Dayhiking instead of backpacking; eight days, not five; August, not the actual month of my birthday. I included roads and park paths as well as rail trails. I skipped around New Hampshire, and even crossed into Maine for a bit.

Mission accomplished. I’ll help myself to cake at the earliest opportunity.

Let me share some highlights. Maybe you’ll get ideas for your own celebrations. I’ll split this into three posts, so if you like this one, you can look forward to two more shortly. If you don’t like this one, you can tune in later to see if I’ve upped my game.

Franconia Notch State Park

I’ve driven on I-93 through the notch more times than I can count. Knowing that Franconia Notch State Park has a paved recreational trail 9 miles long, I thought it was about time for me to enjoy the area at walking speed.

"The Basin", a small chute of water into a pool lined with smooth granite rock — *_{The Basin in Franconia Notch State Park, NH. Dry summer, low water – and still a pleasant place to visit.}* _{Ellen Kolb photo.}

The rec trail was a treat, once I came to terms with the cyclists sharing the path. There were more than a few e-bike renters who weren’t quite at home with their vehicles on the downhills. We gave each other space and cheerful greetings. I was there midweek, and I expect the experience might have been more hectic on a weekend.

I started at the Flume visitor center at the south end of the notch, and worked my way north. I stopped at the pretty Basin for a few minutes, and gave serious thought to joining a few people wading in the shallow Pemigewasset River just upstream. Warm day, cool water…but I kept going, knowing that up at Profile Plaza I’d find a place to enjoy my lunch with views of the surrounding mountains. The walk back to where I was parked was downhill, and I made sure to listen for speedy cyclists coming up behind me.

*_{The Franconia Notch recreational trail and the cliffs of Cannon Mountain. Ellen Kolb photo.}*

Towards the southern end of the rec trail, I was on the Appalachian trail for about 30 feet. Maybe 20. We briefly shared a bridge, you see. AT hikers go through Franconia Notch the hard way. It wasn’t the last time I’d cross the AT on this trip.

I packed too much sweet stuff in my lunch bag. The rec trail goes through Lafayette Campground, where I found a nice little store stocked with Goldfish crackers. Pardon my crumbs.

If you head to the Notch and want to get oriented, the Flume visitor center at the south end of the park is the place to go. I used the nice clean bathroom there, knowing that facilities in the coming days were likely to be a bit more rustic.

Coming up in part II of the trip journal: two days and half of my miles were on the Presidential Rail Trail, which extends from Whitefield to Gorham. The first day was cloudy, the second brilliantly sunny, and each was splendid. Part III will cover the serene walk along Hogan Road, a unique section of the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail.

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Short climb, grand view: Mt. Kearsarge via Rollins State Park

September 2, 2022February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb / 3 Comments

My last visit to Mt. Kearsarge in Warner, New Hampshire was a few years ago, as the fire tower was being rebuilt. I recently decided to go back for my first uphill walk since the virus-in-the-news laid me low earlier this year. From the upper end of the auto road in Rollins State Park, which is a treat in itself, I hiked the half-mile-long Rollins trail to the Kearsarge summit.

fire tower on Mount Kearsarge in Warner, New Hampshire, accessible from Rollins and Winslow State Parks. Photo by Ellen Kolb. — ^{Mt. Kearsarge fire tower, Warner NH. Ellen Kolb photo.}

It was a splendid morning at the end of August. A muggy summer heat wave had just broken, giving way to clear dry air and brisk breezes. As self-imposed rehab assignments go, this hike was unbeatable.

^{Summit cairn, Mt. Kearsarge. Ellen Kolb photo. Twin hills in far distance at left are the Uncanoonucs in Goffstown NH.}

The hills and trails of southern New Hampshire spell home to me. I looked south from Kearsarge’s summit cairn and scanned the horizon: the Uncanoonucs in Goffstown, Joe English hill in New Boston, a view of the Wapack Range from the north – is that Crotched Mountain ski area nearby? – and aloof and stately Monadnock.

The ledgy summit features a 360 degree view, in case someone finds the view of the southern hills unsatisfactory. My advice is to soak it all in.

At $4, park admission is a bargain. See nhstateparks.org for up-to-date information on fees and maps for this and other state parks. Kearsarge is home to two of those parks. Rollins from the south features the auto road and a short hike; Winslow from the north offers longer trails. The Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway makes its way over the summit as well.

The auto road closes to motor-vehicle traffic in November and usually re-opens on Memorial Day weekend. I enjoy walking on the auto road in the off-season when the weather allows, sharing the road with other walkers and ambitious bicyclists. The summit is out of reach for the likes of me until the snow and ice are gone, but there are a few vistas along the auto road that make an uphill walk worthwhile.

Pawtuckaway State Park in Covid time: no crowds midweek

April 30, 2020February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

To call this an odd spring for hiking would be an understatement, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve heeded New Hampshire’s stay-at-home recommendation as much as I can bear, being old enough to be considered more at risk than younger neighbors. I have a homemade mask to wear on my few outings. I’ve Instagrammed and tweeted about #homehikechallenge. I’ve walked lap after lap on neighborhood streets. Boredom finally drove me out to Pawtuckaway State Park, where I hoped the extensive trail network would allow for the social distancing we’re all supposed to observe.

Pawtuckaway State Park, NH — At boat launch, north side of park.

More than boredom got me out the door. I was afraid that state officials might suddenly close down trailheads on state property. The U.S. Forest Service recently did just that in the White Mountain National Forest, citing excessive crowding and a lack of social distancing at trailheads. The WMNF trails are open, but the trailheads and campgrounds are not. (I envision hikers being dropped in via helicopter, but that’s probably against the rules, too.)

For the moment, the state parks are open, with some new restrictions on parking in popular parks like Pawtuckaway. (See nhstateparks.org for details and current information.) On my midweek visit, the restrictions seemed to be effective, with only a couple of dozen cars parked in the lot at the main entrance. Signs were posted in the parking lot and at trail junctions advising visitors to observe good hygiene and stay at least 6 feet away from each other. No problem for me, traveling solo.

boatrentals — Boat rental area near the Pawtuckaway Lake beach is deserted during “stay at home” recommendation.

The fire tower on one of Pawtuckaway’s three little mountains usually attracts me, but it usually attracts lots of other people, too. Scratch that idea. The black flies were out, and even with DEET I didn’t relish the thought of swatting them away for a few hours in the still air of the woods. Nope. I decided on a breezy route that edged Pawtuckaway Lake: the access road from parking lot to campground to lake, then the Fundy trail northward to the boat launch and back. Jackpot.

Burnham Marsh, late April: things are beginning to green up.

However many cars were in the main lot, I saw only about 20 people during my seven-mile walk. That’s nothing compared to Pawtuckaway’s usual crowds. The visitor center was closed, and so was the campground and the boat rental station. The lake is usually dotted with kayaks and canoes in the coves, with powerboats making a racket in the open water. Not this time. The peace and quiet, odd at first, won me over pretty quickly.

trailhead NH Pawtuckaway State Park — Fundy Trail links Pawtuckaway Lake area with north side of park.

My friends and I have been joking about the “COVID 25,” meaning the weight we’re apt to gain with all the baking and cooking we’re doing during enforced time away from our usual activities. I hike for fun, but there’s an element of necessary exercise these days as well. My Pawtuckaway route was flat except for the slightest of inclines near the end, perhaps a couple of hundred feet in the last mile. I took that mile at the briskest pace I could manage without breaking into a jog. The COVID 25 was chasing me.

stone wall — Stone walls along the way – after all, this is New England.

I was in a familiar park under very unfamiliar circumstances, feeling ease and unease all at once. It was downright weird to be on those paths with so few people. Inside me is a spoiled child impatiently stomping her foot and demanding that the world get normal again. Yet under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have had the lakeshore practically to myself.

I stopped at one point to watch three herons for awhile. No one else was in sight. The solitude suddenly felt right. It didn’t feel imposed on me.

glacial erratic — Glacial erratics are found throughout the park, calling cards of the Laurentide ice sheet from an earlier epoch. Backpack placed at base for scale.

Midweek on Old Toll Road, Mount Monadnock

May 15, 2017February 25, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

When the Forest Society announced its challenge last year, offering a patch for anyone visiting 33 specified Forest Society properties, I jumped on board immediately. Since then, I’ve had fun discovering some new trails. Others, like those on Mount Monadnock, are already familiar. The Forest Society has a reservation on the mountain that blends seamlessly with Monadnock State Park.

On my most recent visit to Monadnock, my indifferent level of fitness ruled out a summit hike. I settled for an easy walk to the Halfway House clearing via the Old Toll Road, featuring a wonderful view to the south with Gap Mountain foremost.

Gap from Halfway House_Monadnock — _{The view south from Mt. Monadnock’s Halfway House clearing. Photos by Ellen Kolb.}

The Old Toll Road begins at the well-marked state park parking lot on NH Route 124 on the south side of the mountain. (Post-Covid update: the state park now charges a $15 parking fee, which covers a driver and up to five passengers. Reservations can be made online. See the Monadnock State Park web page for current information.)

The Old Toll Road has a packed crushed-gravel surface, well-drained, and wide as a boulevard. It’s an uphill path for sure, but easy going until it ends at the White Arrow Trail. I walked up the Road, picked up White Arrow for a short distance, and soon I reached my destination: the Halfway House clearing, named for an inn that once stood there.

Old Toll Road, Spring — _{Old Toll Road on Mount Monadnock, mid-spring}

I looked up to the summit and saw no hikers. That’s unusual. Normally, the summit seen from that distance looks like an anthill.

DSCF1650 - Copy — _{A peek at Monadnock’s summit from the Halfway House clearing}

A cool breeze kept the bugs away on the overcast day. I knew I was likely to be rained on any minute. I didn’t care. A midday midweek visit to New Hampshire’s most-climbed mountain rewarded me with solitude, and solitude on Monadnock is meant to be savored.

Weeks State Park: good views from any angle

November 13, 2016February 24, 2026 / Ellen Kolb

Here’s another submission from my bad-picture-good-hike file:

slanted photo of a mountain vista — _{Eastward view from the auto road at Weeks State Park, Lancaster NH. Photos by Ellen Kolb.}

One day a couple of years ago, I was trying to set up my camera on a wobbly support and then take a time-delay photo of myself at an overlook. Somehow, the shutter went off before the camera was properly oriented. You know what? I like this picture just the way it came out.

Longtime readers who tilt their heads slightly to one side will recognize this as the vista to the east from the Weeks State Park auto road up Mount Prospect in Lancaster, New Hampshire. I have never had a bad day there, not even the day when BB-size hail pelted me for a few minutes on my way down from the summit.

The mountain that’s shown askew is Waumbek. The rest of the vista is captured in many other photos I’ve taken through the years: the Presidential and Pliny ranges, Cherry Mountain, the Pondicherry area. (Search “Weeks State Park” on this site.)

Nearly every visit I’ve made to Weeks has been when the auto road has been closed. Great! That makes walking easier. There are trails up Prospect Mountain, but I like that auto road, and I especially like the overlooks. I’m not the only one. There are area residents who use the auto road for daily walks, weather permitting. If I didn’t live two hours away, I might join them.

Oh, and this is how an intentional shot came out that day. This is Mts. Waumbek and Starr King, with a little bit of the town of Jefferson. Not even a crooked photo could’ve spoiled that day.

View of New Hampshire mountains in autumn — Autumn in northern New Hampshire: Pliny Range, town of Jefferson, U.S. 2 in the distance at right.

From Monadnock: my favorite bad photo

November 6, 2016February 24, 2026 / Ellen Kolb / 1 Comment

When my daughter gave me a digital camera a few years ago and consigned my little plastic 35mm Polaroid to the junk drawer, I soon discovered my favorite aspect of digital cameras: the delete button. No more paying to develop film with 24 exposures but only one picture worth keeping.

Even the bad pictures can bring back good memories, though. This is one of my favorites, taken at Bald Rock on Mount Monadnock.

boulder with inscription on a forested mountainside — _{Bald Rock, Monadnock State Park, NH. Photo by Ellen Kolb.}

Overexposed, lousy lighting, hard to see the intriguing and unexplained inscription on the rock: I didn’t get much right with this shot, except capture a special spot on what is so far the best day I’ve ever spent on Monadnock.

This was the day I realized that I could go to the mountain and not feel like a failure for skipping the summit. I sat by this rock and ate my lunch in regal solitude. I felt absolutely no need to join the crowd I saw on the peak above me. With a breeze and a view and a PB&J, I had everything I needed.

Trips to Monadnock don’t always work out that way for me. Last time I went, I kept moving up the Pumpelly trail despite a sore knee. The pain finally got so bad I had to turn around, hobbling slowly downhill, not getting to my car until well after sundown. On another day, a beautiful December afternoon, I dawdled on the summit and figured I’d make up some time on the descent. Bad move. I lost my footing, fell down hard, and slid on my back headfirst, certain that I was going to crack my skull on a rock. Instead, my backpack took the hit, which was more luck than I deserved.

I’ve had good days to offset those misadventures. The day at Bald Rock beats them all.