Pawtuckaway via Deerfield Fair

September 28, 2013May 23, 2014 / Ellen Kolb / 4 Comments

Given a complimentary pass to Deerfield Fair, I decided to enjoy not only the fair but also nearby Pawtuckaway State Park. It’s early fall, cool but not yet cold. The leaves are just beginning to turn around here. It’s less than an hour’s walk from the quiet northwestern edge of the park to the fire tower on south Pawtuckaway peak.

First fall colors at the edge of wetlands on Tower Road.

I hiked in from the northwest corner of the park on Reservation Road, far from the busy main entrance. The little blue asters were the only blooms in sight.

Pawtuckaway fire tower. Barely visible on the underside of the cab are charts describing the landmarks in each direction.

View from fire tower east to Pawtuckaway Lake and the Seacoast.

View to northwest; Mt. Kearsarge in distance.

View to northwest; Mt. Kearsarge is barely visible in the distance at center.

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North Country View

April 15, 2012April 3, 2024 / Ellen Kolb

I spent this uncommonly warm April day driving upstate to Bethlehem, Littleton, and finally Lancaster. This is a blog about southern NH trails, but today’s trip was pleasant enough to rate a mention.

I found my way to the auto road up Mt. Prospect at Weeks State Park. The road is closed to auto traffic until sometime later this spring, but pedestrians may leave their cars at the base of the road and walk to the top. A pullout with a view of the Presidential Range makes walking even halfway up the road well worth the effort.

This has been a very dry winter and spring. The Presidentials have far less snow cover than is typical for this time of year. I drove through Franconia Notch on my way north, and Cannon’s ski trails are merely streaked with snow. (The ski area shut down for the season some time ago.) On the eastern side of the notch, only Lafayette had a snowcap, and it looked unimpressive. The bright side to this drought – and it is definitely a drought – is that the bugs haven’t come out yet. I was out for several hours today and wasn’t bitten at all.

I didn’t walk all the way to the summit on this trip, but I encourage readers to do so if they get a chance. The summit’s fire tower is unique. Instead of the usual metal skeleton, this one is a flagstone tower. This is an active firespotting station, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be there on a day when it’s staffed & the cab is open to the public. As you’d expect, the views are outstanding.

The entrance to Weeks State Park is on U.S. 3 in Lancaster, about 2 miles north of the Whitefield town line. Details are available at the NH Parks & Rec web site here.

Pawtuckaway without Crowds

December 19, 2010May 23, 2014 / Ellen Kolb

I spent a couple of hours at Pawtuckaway State Park in Raymond yesterday, still waiting on southern NH’s first snowfall of the season. Great time for a visit. I came in the “back” way, via Reservation Road in Deerfield, parking at the Round Pond Trailhead alongside a couple of other vehicles. I had no company on my walk to Tower Road and the fire tower. I’d never been to the tower without finding dozens of other hikers there, and I rather liked having the view to myself.

Lots of sunshine, though there was too much haze to see Boston.

Easy hike to Oak Hill fire tower

December 18, 2010July 22, 2014 / Ellen Kolb / 1 Comment

City of Concord NH hiking trails

One of my favorite little guidebooks is “A Field Guide to New Hampshire Firetowers” (privately published, 2005 edition), but sometimes the notes on access to the towers are out of date or otherwise unhelpful. So it is with the book’s directions to Loudon’s Oak Hill, which direct me to an Oak Hill Road trailhead with no parking. The city of Concord and its conservation commission provide a useful alternative: the Tower Trail, with a 10-vehicle parking area on Shaker Road about 2.4 miles from Rt. 132 in northeastern Concord. Look for the sign for Oak Hill city forest. This trail approaches the fire tower from the west.

Stop at the city’s web site (link above) to see descriptions of this trail and over a dozen others within the city limits. Print out a map of your chosen trail from the web. Tower Trail is part of a network on Oak Hill, and while the trail itself is well-blazed and easy to follow, having a map at hand is always a good idea.

All intersections are signed, and the trail is free of obstructions. The few bridges are intact. Oak Hill is still snowless, and the trail itself is ice-free except for a few small areas in the last few hundred yards leading to the tower. The frozen ground is covered with leaves that can be a bit slippery, and the surface is a bit uneven with rocks and roots. (In other words, this is a typical woods walk.) Some of the side trails lead to vistas, according to the map, but I stayed on Tower Trail, where the views are all of the surrounding forest. Not a bad view at that.

The last quarter-mile or so follows a power line straight to the fire tower, which is dwarfed by a pair of cell towers. The cab is unstaffed this time of year, of course, and locked up for the season. I was able to climb to the platform just below the cab, stopping at each landing to wonder just what the fire warden was supposed to survey. I had to get to the platform before the view and the breeze really opened up. Warner’s Mt. Kearsarge dominated the view to the west-northwest. There are hills in all directions, none of them snowcapped yet, though my view was limited by distant haze.

It’s about 500 feet of vertical rise from the trailhead to the tower, with a gentle grade. The hike took me 50 minutes each way, and a more fit walker could undoubtedly cut that time considerably. The full trail network on the hill covers about 7 miles, so a hiker could easily spend a day exploring the area. There are no facilities at the trailhead.

The trailhead is less than 15 minutes’ drive from the State House, and the trail is in great shape. I’ll be back.