Glimpses of fall

October 21, 2016April 3, 2024 / Ellen Kolb

It’s the prime part of the year for Granite State walkers of all ages. Crisp air and fewer bugs make every trail more inviting. And then there’s fall foliage, which I thought would be a disappointment after our region’s drought. How wrong I was.

I have a paper map of New Hampshire that I’ve marked with sites of historical markers, Forest Society reservations, and of course state parks. It’s a great guide for my daytrips. Last weekend, I consulted the map and set off to scout some trailheads for future exploration. I meandered all over the place, just for fun.

Once I got home, I discovered that many of the photos I’d taken with my phone were unfocused and useless. (I blame the equipment and the photographer in equal measure.) You simply have to trust me that it was a good day. You can make some good days of your own on Granite State highways and trails.

Effingham

The drive to the Green Mountain trailhead at the end of High Watch Road was the stuff of travelogues. There’s a point on Route 16 northbound from Rochester where I got to a rise in the road, and suddenly mountains were in view, swathed in colors. Past peak, perhaps, but still exciting and refreshing.

View to the north from High Watch Road. I’m pretty sure that’s Mount Chocorua in the distance on the left. A hike for another day, perhaps?

Once on the trail, I very nearly threw away my watch. There was a fire tower up there, after all, and what views it promised! But this was a scouting trip, and I had a schedule to keep, so I contented myself with a short walk in the woods and a silent promise to come back someday.

New Durham

Route 11 connects Rochester and Alton, with New Durham along the way. A 55-mph speed limit makes scanning for trailheads a bit tricky. I plugged the coordinates for Cooper Cedar Woods into my phone’s GPS and hoped for the best. It worked, which is always a pleasant surprise to someone who surrounds herself with low-grade electronics.

In Cooper Cedar Woods, New Durham, NH.

The wooded tract features a simple loop trail less than a mile long, and I had it all to myself. I set off and was startled immediately: the fragrance in the air was amazing. No cologne in a bottle could compare. It was some indescribable combination of trees and their fallen leaves, unique to that particular location. I could hear Route 11’s auto traffic nearby, and yet it seemed to be a world away.

Rochester

Champlin Forest, seen from Route 108 in Rochester, NH

Early in my road-trip day, I was one of the walkers bringing up the rear at the Foley Run in Rochester, a joyous 5k event in memory of photojournalist James Foley. Main Street’s trees were at their showiest, right on schedule for the visiting racers.

After a quick post-race snack of bagels and fruit and (OK, I’ll admit it) a pastry, I drove south of town to a quiet parking area tucked across the road from the town’s airport. Here was the Champlin Forest, another Forest Society property, with about two miles of trails meandering through it. A woods walk, pleasant though unremarkable, except there’s this:

As a community resource featuring woods, water, wildlife and high-quality farm soils, Champlin Forest has many significant and diverse conservation features. Half of the property consists of well-managed, productive woodlands, containing marketable timber along with a diversity of wildlife habitats, consisting of a field, varied woodland types, vernal pools and wetlands.

The property serves as the headwaters of and includes extensive frontage along Clark Brook and contributes to two nearby public water supplies. Remnants of a small-scale granite quarry dating to the mid-1800s, when stones were drilled and cut by hand, are evident as well.

October, Pack Monadnock

October 10, 2016 / Ellen Kolb

Columbus Day weekend is wrapping up for the leaf-peepers. Autumn colors are still muted in my area, except for a few specimen trees flashing scarlet. I figured the Monadnocks would be a little showier today. I stole a couple of hours from my schedule this morning and headed to Miller State Park in time for a walk up the auto road before it opened to cars for the day. I actually spent time alone on the summit of Pack Monadnock! A rare treat, that. I thank God for days like this.

From the Pack Monadnock summit: Mt. Monadnock, about twelve miles away.

Near the base of the auto road. My guess is that the P on this marker is for Peterborough, one of three towns that can lay claim to part of Pack Monadnock.

Plenty of colorful foliage over there on North Pack Monadnock.

When I took my kids to Pack Monadnock when they were little, the first thing they wanted to check from the summit was whether it was “a Boston day,” clear enough to see Beantown’s skyline. Today was a Boston day.

Bleached by the sun’s glare: the New Boston Air Force Station’s radomes on the left, city of Manchester, New Hampshire on the right.

And here’s the Granite State Walker, offering a chocolate-milk toast to the physical therapist who helped me get my knee back into shape this year. me-on-pack-monadnock

A pair of real Granite State walkers

August 24, 2016August 25, 2016 / Ellen Kolb / 1 Comment

How many miles have I walked this year? A couple of hundred, if my journal is accurate, averaging a measly couple of dozen each month. Well, my knee hurt for awhile. The weather wasn’t always nice. I was busy. Blah, blah, blah … and just think, I fancy myself the Granite State Walker.

The last few yards of a 200+ mile walk.

Today, I met a couple of real Granite State walkers. Wendy Thomas and Griffin Nozell, mother and son, just finished walking the length of New Hampshire, beginning at the Canadian border in Pittsburg and ending today in Nashua at the Massachusetts state line. They chose road walking rather than trail hiking, and in the process they built an online community that cheered them on all the way.

I joined Wendy and Griffin for the last couple of miles of their trip, just to meet them. I’d been following their travels via their Facebook group, Border-to-Border New Hampshire.

Wendy Thomas and Griffin Nozell, at the end of their border-to-border walk.

Thanks, Wendy and Griffin, for your fine company and conversation! I especially loved sharing impressions of Pittsburg, where they found the same warmth and hospitality that have made all my hikes up there so memorable.

They tell their own story better than I can. Link to Wendy’s blog, Lessons Learned From the Flock, for her introduction to their journey. The title of her post includes an important clue: “…because we can.” She has chronic Lyme disease, as does Griffin.

Griffin and I have moderate Lyme related arthritis, along with other orthopedic conditions – which can sometimes make even walking difficult.

But we’re not a family known for throwing in any towels.

Last year when Griffin and I were talking about personal challenges I mentioned that we should climb all of New Hampshire’s 4K+ mountains. We looked at a map of NH’s mountains, sighed and realized that with our joints, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

“Well we could walk New Hampshire instead,” I volunteered.

And with that simple suggestion the idea of a Border-to-Border New Hampshire walk was hatched.

The Lyme-related arthritis was not in evidence today. Both of the walkers might have had sore joints and blisters, but their pace was steady and no one was limping. It was a day of sunshine and good humor. I was glad to see that friends bearing flowers and sushi were waiting for them at the state line.

And you know what? It turns out that Wendy and I are neighbors. We live in the same town, about a mile apart. We didn’t meet until today.

Wendy plans to write up her travel notes for her blog, entitling the first post “Spoiler Alert.” She’ll have observations and insights different from those of someone hiking off-road. I urge you to head over to Lessons Learned From the Flock to read more about the border-to-border hike.

Griffin and Wendy have left me feeling inspired and encouraged to plod on, sore knees and all, always discovering more things to love about our Granite State.

Miles to Go

February 21, 2016 / Ellen Kolb

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P is for Portland, Maine: northern terminus of what used to be a Boston and Maine rail line, 110 miles from this granite marker along the Nashua River Rail Trail in Massachusetts. The other side of the marker says W37, meaning 37 miles to Worcester. This is one of several markers remaining from the days of the active line.

It’s a fifty-degree February day, with open water alongside the trail. The three-mile stretch of trail I had to myself this weekend is a patchwork of clear pavement and slush and half-melted ice. I came upon a couple of skinny little blown-down trees that were easy to move off the trail. We have yet to see the season’s first serious sustained winds that will surely bring down a big pine or two.

This was a nearly-silent walk, perfect for a Sunday morning after Mass. There’s no hum from the Skydive Pepperell plane in the winter. The noisy geese that usually populate the swamps and ponds along the way were absent. No kids trying out their training wheels, no runners passing me, no backyard barbecues at nearby houses. There will be plenty of time for all that later in the year. For today, solitude suited me.

First Day Hike 2016: Hollis

January 1, 2016 / Ellen Kolb / 2 Comments

Woodmont Orchard, Hollis NH, New Year’s Day.

The New Hampshire state parks people added Silver Lake State Park to the list of locations for guided First Day hikes, and I think this one’s a keeper. The state park abuts town conservation land with trails maintained by the local snowmobile club. With the area’s first measurable snowfall of the season having fallen just a few days ago, boots were all the equipment I needed to join the fun. I left in the car every accessory except my camera and a map, and spent an hour on trails I’d never visited.

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I didn’t even mind the snowmobile that passed me at one point. It would have been churlish of me to object to the exhaust fumes when people like the sled’s cheerful and careful driver maintain the trail I was on.

Days like this remind me why I started this blog. Silver Lake State Park is where I used to take my kids swimming when they were little, and I thought the lake itself was all there was to it. Today, after living in the area for a whole lotta years, I discovered new trails in what I thought was a familiar place.

New Hampshire is really a tiny slice of the republic, and the southern tier is even tinier. Yet here in what looks like an insubstantial part of the map are parks and trails that most New Hampshire visitors and even some residents will never see. Every year, I find something new: a little trail connecting two urban parks, country roads with drivers who don’t mind sharing the pavement with pedestrians, a Hollis trail connecting Silver Lake with Woodmont Orchard. I want to drink it all in and come back for more.

Pawtuckaway, Round Pond Road

December 26, 2015April 3, 2024 / Ellen Kolb

The snowless days are ending; I’ll be shoveling my driveway in just a few days, if the forecast holds. This was my last chance to visit some nearby trails before winter conditions set in. I had planned to walk up a hill with a pretty view, but decided at the last minute to stick to level paths. I went to Pawtuckaway State Park and explored the northwest corner of the park via Reservation Road and Round Pond Road.

North Mountain seen from Round Pond Road. This must be a wonderful birding spot at dawn and dusk.

I don’t know what agency or company owns this odd square-shaped antenna on North Mountain.

Round Pond, harshly lit on a brilliant sunny day. The pond is about two and a half miles from where I parked on Reservation Road.

A side trail off Round Pond Road leads to the Boulder Field, where the woods are full of large glacial erratics. Dozens of rock climbers were nearby practicing their craft.