One way to celebrate – part I

September 8, 2025December 26, 2025 / 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.

You can help Granite State Walker get to the next trailhead, simply by clicking on Buy Me a Coffee. Thank you!

On finding a little less open land

December 31, 2024June 11, 2025 / Ellen Kolb

I’ve tried over the years to develop a habit of gratitude while I’m hiking. Gratitude for what? There’s obvious beauty, of course – the sights that stop me in my tracks and take my breath away. Then there are subtler things I’d miss if I weren’t paying attention: spring wildflowers carpeting the ground, or an owl surveying me from a tree branch.

I got a reminder recently of another blessing that I too often take for granted when I’m walking around New Hampshire. Not a thing, but people. They’re the landowners who allow hikers to cross their property. Open land becomes more scarce with each passing year. I recently discovered that a little sliver of it on which I’ve depended is now posted.

A New England river in winter, with ice at the edges and rushing water in the middle. — *Before reaching the “no trespassing” signs, I walked along the Souhegan River for awhile.* *Ellen Kolb photo.*

Putting up a “no trespassing” sign is every landowner’s right. Finding one along a familiar path makes me sad, though.

Now, I need to change the route of my two-and-a-half mile walk into town from a quiet low-traffic route to a busy road with blind curves and no sidewalks. That’s a problem, but I’ll cope. What bothers me more is that I don’t know why the landowner chose to post the land. Was it because someone crossing the property abused the privilege?

No one owes me an explanation, of course. But I’m sorry I never thanked the landowner while the little strip of land was open.

So I have a resolution to add to my New Year’s list: thank the landowners who let me pass through. They’re a vanishing breed.

While I’m counting my blessings, I’m thanking my readers! I’ve been blogging at Granite State Walker for 18 years, and this blog earned more views in 2024 than ever before. Most visitors got here simply by doing a web search for southern New Hampshire trails, and I hope they’ve been rewarded with lots of good hikes.

The most popular search term this year was “Kearsarge,” and why not? A visit to Winslow or Rollins State Park featuring a hike up Mount Kearsarge makes for a great day.

If you enjoy Granite State Walker, you can help me get to the next trailhead by supporting the blog. Thank you!

Walking for a cause

August 12, 2024November 11, 2025 / Ellen Kolb

Update, October 2024: Due to unforeseen circumstances, the formal fundraising walk for Light of Life has been put off until 2025. That’s not going to stop me from walking the 13 miles anyway on October 19, the date originally planned for the event, as described below. Long solo hikes suit me well.

I interrupt my trip reports to invite your support as I walk in late October to raise funds for Light of Life, an agency providing emergency shelter and transitional housing for women in Manchester NH. The agency’s annual fundraising walk is on the delightful Rockingham Recreational Trail between Manchester and Newfields. I’m aiming for 13 miles on what’s sure to be a fine autumn morning. If you’d like to donate, please go to this link, with my thanks: https://secure.qgiv.com/event/lighthouse50/account/1808092

Ellen Kolb, a woman walking on a leaf-covered trail. — _{The Granite State Walker at #Lighthouse50, 2023. Photo by an unidentified event participant.}

Granite State Walker makes a move (and it’s not a hike)

April 11, 2024June 8, 2024 / Ellen Kolb

trail junction sign on Oak Hill trails, Concord NH — *_{Trail junction, Oak Hill trails, Concord NH}*

My Substack newsletter Braided Trails will soon include excerpts from Granite State Walker as well as original material inspired by New Hampshire trails. I hope you’ll subscribe.

Mt. Kearsarge in New Hampshire, seen from the Northern Rail Trail — _{Mt. Kearsarge seen from the Northern Rail Trail, Wilmot}

So why the addition? Here’s an excerpt from my intro to Braided Trails:

Readers have been curious or kind enough to follow me down various paths through the years. New Hampshire hikers have kept Granite State Walker going. At Leaven for the Loaf, I’ve reported on pro-life projects and legislation at the state level. My eponymous blog has been a promotional portfolio where I’ve also explored aspects of my Catholic faith.

But omigosh, what if the hikers don’t like my politics or my State House readers don’t care about my hiking or somebody somewhere is put off by a portfolio from a Catholic scribbler? I’ve tried to keep you all a secret from each other.

Enough already. Welcome to Braided Trails.

“Braid” is a nod to the three distinct blogs I’ve launched since 2006. This Substack is a place where each theme can get its due, in context with the others: braided, not fused. It’s about time I found a space big enough to bring the whole blessed lot of us together. It’s big enough for new readers, too.
https://ellenkolb.substack.com/p/intro-so-whats-a-braided-trail

Intrigued? Then I welcome you on board. Subscribing is free. And if you’d prefer to stick with this blog, plain and simple, that’s fine, too. I’m delighted to write for you in either case.

Thanks – and I’ll see you on the trails.

Spring is here, summer’s coming…and so is *Braided Trails.*

Fall’s first half

November 1, 2023November 1, 2023 / Ellen Kolb

My autumn began with a trip upstate as the leaves began turning. As October ends, I’m near the Massachusetts border, where red and orange foliage has yielded to gold and bronze. The sunlight through the leaves these days creates a glowing aura around everything.

First stop: North Country

Three days on the Ammonoosuc and Presidential trails in early fall added up to 30 miles of walking for me, punctuated with unexpected meetings. Amazing, the encounters I’ve had walking through New Hampshire.

The Ammonoosuc trail follows – you guessed it – the Ammonoosuc River. While checking out the three newest miles of the trail east of Littleton, I met a couple I know from the NH Rail Trail Coalition. We were pleased to see that the new section, between Cottage Street and Oxbow Drive, has a great surface that will be especially helpful to anyone biking the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail. The following day, I met up with yet another NHRTC colleague while on a gravelly Ammonoosuc stretch between Lisbon and Bath. That surface is in the process of being upgraded from gravel to a smoother crushed stone. Can’t happen soon enough, as far as I’m concerned. My feet took a bit of a beating that day. I gave them a rest as I ate my lunch under the picturesque Bath covered bridge.

Ammonoosuc River in Littleton NH. All photos by Ellen Kolb/Granite State Walker.

I was in the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge a few months ago, when Joe-Pye weed and Queen Anne’s lace were blooming all along the Presidential rail trail. When I returned in early fall, nearly all the blossoms were gone, except for a couple of hardy little asters holding out against the equinox. Milkweed pods had burst and left their seeds floating across Moorhen Marsh. Frost had nipped the north country and its mosquitoes, making the walk to Cherry Pond even more pleasant than usual. My last view of the pond had been when it was covered with water lilies. This time, the pond was a mirror for Mt. Starr King and the Pliny Range.

If I were to search this blog’s sixteen years of posts, I’d probably find a dozen photos of the views from the Cherry Pond observation deck. Even when I know I’m standing in the same place and pointing the camera in the same direction as I did on an earlier walk, I’ll get a unique image: different light, different season, different shades of earth and sky.

_{Cherry Pond in the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge, on the Presidential Rail Trail, Jefferson NH.}

I decided to re-visit Mud Pond trail, also in the wildlife refuge but north of Cherry Pond, with its trailhead off of NH Route 116. I was there some years ago when it was brand-new and awaiting finishing touches. Now, it’s a small gem. Bonus: it’s designed to be accessible to anyone in a wheelchair, with switchbacks and boardwalks and easy grades along its half-mile length. It ends at Mud Pond, which really deserves a better name even though it looks unremarkable. It’s pretty and peaceful, and the observation deck must be a birdwatcher’s dream.

_{The trail to Mud Pond in Jefferson is designed for maximum accessibility, leading to a good spot for birdwatching.}

Walking for a cause

Mid-October, I walked 13 miles on the Rockingham Recreation Trail in Auburn, Candia, and Raymond with a group raising funds for the Light of Life shelter in Manchester. We couldn’t have picked a better October day. From a foggy sunrise over Lake Massabesic all the way to full midday sunshine in Raymond, I enjoyed good company.

I hadn’t passed by the old Raymond Depot in awhile, and it was fun to see it again. The littlest rail car – I call it a putt-putt, though it probably has a more dignified name – always looks a little lost on the siding, dwarfed by the more conventional rail cars nearby. They’re all part of the old rail line’s history, so they all belong there.

Raymond Depot along Rockingham Recreational Trail

One piece at a time

Just a few days ago, I attended a ribbon-cutting for a trail in Salem, New Hampshire. A trail segment, to be more precise. A 300-foot segment, if you must know.

Okay, let the eye-rolls commence. But I drove the better part of an hour to be there, because getting that segment finished took years, and I wanted to thank the people who had made it happen. This is the Salem (NH) Bike-Ped Corridor at the Massachusetts state line. Its significance: it’s the south end of what will someday be the Granite State Rail Trail extending from Salem all the way to Lebanon, just this side of Vermont.

A piece of the Salem trail is already in use further north of the newly-christened segment, extending into Windham and Derry. This is the same old rail line that includes what’s now the Londonderry rail trail, which will someday connect with the South Manchester trail, which will someday connect with yet-to-be-built trails in Hooksett and Bow and Concord, finally connecting with the Northern Rail Trail that’s already complete from Boscawen to Lebanon.

This is how long trails are built, whether they’re remote or urban, flat or mountainous: one piece at a time, even if some of those pieces are only be 300 feet long. Over time, those pieces add up.

Pocket park on the Salem Bike-Ped Corridor

I seldom get to Salem, so I spent time after the ribbon-cutting ceremony walking south along the Bike-Ped corridor into Methuen, Massachusetts. It was easy to ignore the traffic noise from nearby heavily-developed Route 28. Instead, I concentrated on the sights, sounds, and fresh clean smells of the wetlands and pocket parks along the way.

“Past peak,” say the foliage reports. Don’t you believe it.

_{A trailside vine shows off its mid-autumn colors.}

The Rail Trail Challenge: some patch-y thoughts

August 26, 2023June 11, 2025 / Ellen Kolb

There’s a colorful new piece in my trail-memento shadow box: the patch noting completion of the New Hampshire Rail Trails Challenge. Over the past few years I’ve walked, and occasionally biked, on every rail trail in the state. That’s hundreds of miles, especially considering that I usually hike alone and don’t have a shuttle to get me back to my starting point. I’ve seen everything coming and going.

I loved this project. It’s open to anyone, with details available at nhrtc.org. Check it out, and you’re bound to discover trails you never knew about. Even a single region’s trails could keep a walker busy all year.

This is the project that got me involved with the New Hampshire Rail Trail Coalition. I’ve had the privilege of serving on the NHRTC board for three years now. I’ll be stepping down soon, after meeting some fine people and getting an education in trail development and maintenance. And it all started with a list of trails and the dangerous thought “hmmm…I could do that.”

Favorites

Presidential Rail Trail, Gorham-Whitefield. I love this one for its views in Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge, not to mention the views of the Presidential Range and Cherry Mountain. This is far from local for me, but I’ve found ways to get up there every year. Maybe I’d get bored with it if I saw it more often. Hmmmm…no. I’d love it anyway.

Nashua River Rail Trail. This is my home trail, so to speak. I know every bit of it from its mile in Nashua, New Hampshire all the way to its southern end in Ayer, Massachusetts. I first rode it the week of its dedication as a rail trail a couple of decades ago. I must have been there upwards of 200 times since then, observing every season’s changes. It’s justifiably popular. The pavement has its figurative ups and downs, but the recent reconstruction on some Massachusetts segments will keep this trail going for many years to come. And hooray for the city of Nashua, which now keeps the big parking lot at the north end of the trail on Gilson Road plowed in winter.

Rockingham Recreational Trail, Manchester-Newfields. The section heading east from Lake Massabesic at the Manchester/Auburn line is a favorite of mine for a quick two or three midday miles after appointments in Manchester. I avoid it during mud season, but the rest of the year makes up for that. The trail is well-traveled near the lake and becomes much quieter the further east I go. It’s close to Route 101, but the trees lining the trail muffle much of the traffic noise.

Cherry Mountain from the Presidential Rail Trail, Jefferson NH

One-offs

These are a few of the trails I visited only once. Perhaps I’ll be able to return to them another time.

Lilac City Greenway, Rochester. A business trip to Rochester a couple of years ago gave me a chance to walk along this greenway alongside busy Route 125. In town, it looks like a sidewalk rather than an abandoned rail line. Its landscaping and public art make it a cheery feature.

Sugar River Rail Trail, Newport. This one’s up in Sullivan County, another out-of-the-way place for me. I treasure the memory of the day I spent walking nine-plus miles on this little gem. It’s open to OHRVs, which sometimes creates issues for slow trail users like me, but there were no problems during my midweek visit. It’s a shady trail with several interesting bridges along the way. I benefited from a very reasonably-priced shuttle ride on a Southwestern Community Services bus between Newport and Claremont.

Cotton Valley Rail Trail, Wolfeboro-Wakefield. I visited this one the day a local rail car club had an open house. The unique trail has rails in place for little rail motor cars – interesting in themselves – with the hardpack walking/biking path between the rails.

Lilac City Greenway in Rochester, NH — Lilac City Greenway, Rochester NH. Photo by Ellen Kolb.

I found hiker-friendly towns that I never would have visited if I hadn’t been on a mission to explore every trail. When echoes of Covid restrictions were still in the air, I stopped in Lisbon on the Ammonoosuc trail and found cheerful hospitality. While heading for the Warren rail trail, a driver from a hostel catering to Appalachian Trail hikers agreed to give me a shuttle ride that saved me two hours of walking. (Best five bucks I spent all that week.) The folks at the general store in Danbury along the Northern Rail Trail took one look at my sweaty face, halfway through a 15-mile day, and showed me first to the restroom and then to the cold drinks. I came across such kindnesses all over the state.

You can search this blog for many rail trail posts I made during the Challenge. I hope you’ll take the Challenge yourself. If that’s too big a project to tackle, explore one or two of the trails near you. May your adventures be as rewarding as mine.

All photos by Ellen Kolb.