Post by percypeaks on Mar 2, 2010 19:40:33 GMT -5
HIKING THE COHOS TRAIL IN 2010
If you are thinking of hiking the Cohos Trail in 2010, please copy this material and keep it with your maps or guidebook or databook. We’ll make this available as a downloadable Word file on the www.cohostrail.org website, as well. Be sure to check with the website before you begin your trek for the latest information. We will update this periodically. So be sure to have the latest version with you before you set out.
The Jefferson Dome Region: Cherry Mountain to Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge
The Owls Head Trail is closed from Route 115 to the White Mountain National Forest boundary because of a landowner request. Therefore the direct route over Mt. Martha and Owls Head has been cut off.
Because of this, you must detour down the south side of Cherry Mountain (Mt. Martha) down the south branch of the Cherry Mountain Trail to Route 115 in Carroll township. Mt. Martha summit with its fine views is close to the junction, so trekking to the summit is a must and takes no time at all. If you spend just another half hour running northwestward from Mt. Martha summit along Martha’s Mile, you will reach the superb ledges atop Owls Head. They offer the finest views of the western wall of the Presidential Range that can be had in the Whites. I’ve camped up there several times to watch the sun rise over Adams, Madison and Jefferson.
Retreat back to the junction with the Cherry Mountain Trail just below Mt. Martha summit and descend into the valley on a trail that is moderate and even moderately steep in places. Reach a parking lot alongside Route 115. Cross directly across the highway to Lennon Road. Walk about a quarter mile to a road on the right (will check the name for you shortly). Walk that road to the west for two miles until it ends at a long abandoned railroad line. Turn right northward on the old railbed and walk about a mile out to Airport Road near the biomass powerplant. Cross Airport Road directly and enter a parking lot for the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge. Continue to walk the old railbed in pleasant country until you reach Waumbek Junction in the vicinity of Cherry Pond. You are back on the CT now.
Continue straight ahead along the tracks, or turn right 300 feet or so to the refuge observation deck for a fine view of the region.
Moving straight ahead along the tracks, cross over the source of the Johns River, soon pass the great view of the marsh and the Presidential Range, and reach the cross trails junction. Turn right and get out on the Ice Ramparts Trail in a few seconds. You are headed for the Col. Whipple Trail and eventually the Whipple Road, Route 115A and Jefferson village.
Connecticut Lakes Region: Moose Alley Trail
The new Moose Alley Trail is virtually complete. You can walk it now. In the spring it will get the requisite signage and blazing.
Before the Camp Otter Trail is complete, you can access the Moose Alley Trail from two directions.
On the southeastern end, do the following: Turn off of Route 3 to the east (downhill) on the Magalloway Road. Walk about a mile dropping gradually downhill eventually. Within earshot of the Connecticut River (the Magalloway bridge is below about 200 feet), there is an old log landing on the left. It will appear grassy in the spring, grassy and weedy in the summer. Turn left into this clearing an stride a few hundred feet. Look to your left for the trail climbing a low bank. The trail climbs up a dozen vertical feet or more and then turns right into a wood line. From here the trail is easy to follow through the woods. It soon cuts out onto a very old skidway and ambles along it until it drifts uphill in open forest.
Once off the skidway, the path continues to rise very slowly for at least a quarter mile, crossing into and out of narrow openings before running over a ridgeline and dropping into a flat at the head of a narrow bog. Skirt the bog and pick up the route mostly on the level now for about a mile in pleasant open forested country. Eventually the trail drops out onto Route 3 about 600 feet south of the Big Brook bridge.
Day hikers may access the trail from the northern end by driving north across the Big Brook bridge to a pullout on the right side of the road. Park there and walk back across the bridge and up the hill until you see the trail on the left. If you are hiking the CT from the north, watch for the trail on the left side of the road 600 feet south of the bridge.
Connecticut Lakes Region: Camp Otter Trail
This trail, too, is nearly complete. Hopefully in late May and early June, we will get the big puncheon span in above Coon Brook, do a little ditching, signing and blazing and clipping and have the trail open at the start of the hiking season. If we do, then a trekker can move from Camp Otter Road (just 1.5 miles north of West Bay at First Connecticut Lake on Route 3) to Big Brook bridge (Moose Alley Trail) staying off Route 3 for nearly five miles.
To access this trail from the southeast end, walk downhill at the entrance to Camp Otter Road off Route 3. Come to an intersection in a short distance and stay to the left. Walk downhill. The road levels out. After several camps go by, watch for a drive on the left that leads to the home of the Dorman family. At the mouth of the drive, you will see a woods trail strike off to the right at a shallow angle. Take that woods trail and trek along on what in winter is a local snowmobile trail.
The going is very good and easy in nice country not far from the north shore of First Connecticut Lake. After a long mile, the trail will dodge around a recent logging yard, regain the main route and then shortly cut right downhill on the new puncheon bridge span over wet ground down to Coon Brook. Cross the brook, climb the ridge, and pick up the route on the level now for another mile, again in pleasant surroundings, and reach a junction with an old angler trail on the right. Slip down the angler trail in open woodland and soon descend down onto Magalloway Road just above the bridge over the Connecticut River. The bridge is a nice spot to stop and have a snack.
To reach the Moose Alley Trail from there, turn uphill (northwest) on the Magalloway Road and ascend the road for about 200 feet. An old logyard clearing will appear on your right. That will take you onto the Moose Alley Trail.
Picking up the trail for southbounders is a matter of trekking the Moose Alley Trail out to the Magalloway Road. Once at the road turn left, downhill, and walk to within sight of the bridge over the Connecticut River. About 60 feet before the river, the Camp Otter Trail will be on your right and will strike off uphill for a minute once you get into the woods and then level out.
Connecticut Lakes Region: Other new trails to come
Please check the www.cohostrail.org website for updates before you start out. We are likely to post other trail openings in late spring and summer. We hope to complete and open the following new trails:
Prospect Mountain Trail over its entire route from Mt. Bungalow to Ramblewood Cabins and Campground. 2 miles
Covell Mountain Trail. About 3 miles from Ramblewood to Round Pond
Round Pond Brook Trail. Less than 2 miles from Round Pond to Route 3
Little Falls in the River Trail. 2 miles from Big Brook to Second Connecticut Lake dam
Idlewilde Camp Trail. 2 miles from Second Connecticut Lake to East Inlet Road
Nash Stream Forest Region: Three Brooks Trail
This trail is in the planning stages and has been partially flagged. Its flagging needs to be completed and the route reviewed by the state Forests & Lands Division, and perhaps the NH Fish & Game Dept. If we’re lucky, we might get a chance to create this trail and possibly open it late in the year.
The Three Brooks Trail would take hikers off the Nash Stream Road between the Percy Loop and Pond Brook Falls. It would eliminate nearly two miles of road walking.
Connecticut Lake Region: Mountain Bungalow
The Cohos Trail Association operates a small overnight hut on Prospect Mountain. It can sleep five now and may be able to sleep more than twice that in the future. To make reservations, call 603-538-6777 and reserve a bunk. Right now, we are accepting donations only for an overnight stay. There is no set fee.
Nash Stream Forest: Kamp Kirk
The Cohos Trail Association is still awaiting word from the state regarding the disposition of the use of Kamp Kirk as an overnight facility for hikers and other recreators. This private camp, once a labor camp for workers who built the Nash Bog Dam, is in need of substantial repairs if it is to be safe enough to utilize as an overnight hut.
However, we have been assured a $600 gift from the Victor Spaulding bequest that may allow us to purchase materials for the reconstruction of large shed on the site of the camp. A portion of this shed would be developed as a lean-to for up to six people. Provided the state permits the construction and use of such a unit, we would like to develop this lean-to/shed in the spring so it is available to hikers moving through the Nash Stream Forest. There would be no charge for the use of it, if it is completed. Donations for your stay would always be welcome, of course.
In the event we do construct the lean-to, trampers may reach it easily from the Sugarloaf Mountain trailhead, near the big bridge over Nash Stream. It’s about half a mile away. From the bridge or the trailhead, turn north, uphill on the Nash Stream Road. Climb the dirt lane until the road levels out. Stay on the level a short distance and then begin a very gradual descent. Near the very bottom of the descent the road turns to the left. Just before the turn, look on your left for an indistinct drive. Turn left and walk in that drive under a canopy of trees. Walk uphill a short distance and the camp will come into view. The shed/lean-to, if built, will be behind the camp on a minor rise above it.
If you miss the drive, a camp called Broken Dam Camp will show up on your right. You have gone too far.
Kamp Kirk itself is unsafe to occupy right now and we recommend that you not occupy it or investigate it. There is a newly built composting latrine nearby, but right this minute it does not have a composting cage installed beneath it. Once it does, we will open the latrine for use. We hope to have the cage in place in early June.
Again, we are awaiting word from the state if we can move forward with this project and the greater effort to restore the main building. If our request does not meet the letter of the land use restrictions for Nash Stream Forest properties, we won’t be able to make improvements and the facility will be off limits.
Donations Accepted
We are accepting donations for the improvement and capacity expansion of Mountain Bungalow. We are also accepting donations for the shed/lean-to at Kamp Kirk, monetary or materials. If you would like to donate to the cause of improving these facilities, please send your gift to The Cohos Trail Association, 266 Danforth Road, Pittsburg, NH 03592. You may use PayPal at the www.cohostrail.org website to make a donation, as well.
If you would like to donate funds for Kamp Kirk but we learn we will not be able to make improvements there, your donation will be channeled into the Mountain Bungalow effort.
We have been very fortunate of late to receive substantial donations of materials in the form of a number of new windows, a new exterior door, and some lumber. Material donations are very much sought after, particularly dimension lumber and metal roofing.
If you would like to donate materials, call 603-538-6777 in the North Country or 603-363-8902 in Southern New Hamsphire.
percy peaks
If you are thinking of hiking the Cohos Trail in 2010, please copy this material and keep it with your maps or guidebook or databook. We’ll make this available as a downloadable Word file on the www.cohostrail.org website, as well. Be sure to check with the website before you begin your trek for the latest information. We will update this periodically. So be sure to have the latest version with you before you set out.
The Jefferson Dome Region: Cherry Mountain to Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge
The Owls Head Trail is closed from Route 115 to the White Mountain National Forest boundary because of a landowner request. Therefore the direct route over Mt. Martha and Owls Head has been cut off.
Because of this, you must detour down the south side of Cherry Mountain (Mt. Martha) down the south branch of the Cherry Mountain Trail to Route 115 in Carroll township. Mt. Martha summit with its fine views is close to the junction, so trekking to the summit is a must and takes no time at all. If you spend just another half hour running northwestward from Mt. Martha summit along Martha’s Mile, you will reach the superb ledges atop Owls Head. They offer the finest views of the western wall of the Presidential Range that can be had in the Whites. I’ve camped up there several times to watch the sun rise over Adams, Madison and Jefferson.
Retreat back to the junction with the Cherry Mountain Trail just below Mt. Martha summit and descend into the valley on a trail that is moderate and even moderately steep in places. Reach a parking lot alongside Route 115. Cross directly across the highway to Lennon Road. Walk about a quarter mile to a road on the right (will check the name for you shortly). Walk that road to the west for two miles until it ends at a long abandoned railroad line. Turn right northward on the old railbed and walk about a mile out to Airport Road near the biomass powerplant. Cross Airport Road directly and enter a parking lot for the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge. Continue to walk the old railbed in pleasant country until you reach Waumbek Junction in the vicinity of Cherry Pond. You are back on the CT now.
Continue straight ahead along the tracks, or turn right 300 feet or so to the refuge observation deck for a fine view of the region.
Moving straight ahead along the tracks, cross over the source of the Johns River, soon pass the great view of the marsh and the Presidential Range, and reach the cross trails junction. Turn right and get out on the Ice Ramparts Trail in a few seconds. You are headed for the Col. Whipple Trail and eventually the Whipple Road, Route 115A and Jefferson village.
Connecticut Lakes Region: Moose Alley Trail
The new Moose Alley Trail is virtually complete. You can walk it now. In the spring it will get the requisite signage and blazing.
Before the Camp Otter Trail is complete, you can access the Moose Alley Trail from two directions.
On the southeastern end, do the following: Turn off of Route 3 to the east (downhill) on the Magalloway Road. Walk about a mile dropping gradually downhill eventually. Within earshot of the Connecticut River (the Magalloway bridge is below about 200 feet), there is an old log landing on the left. It will appear grassy in the spring, grassy and weedy in the summer. Turn left into this clearing an stride a few hundred feet. Look to your left for the trail climbing a low bank. The trail climbs up a dozen vertical feet or more and then turns right into a wood line. From here the trail is easy to follow through the woods. It soon cuts out onto a very old skidway and ambles along it until it drifts uphill in open forest.
Once off the skidway, the path continues to rise very slowly for at least a quarter mile, crossing into and out of narrow openings before running over a ridgeline and dropping into a flat at the head of a narrow bog. Skirt the bog and pick up the route mostly on the level now for about a mile in pleasant open forested country. Eventually the trail drops out onto Route 3 about 600 feet south of the Big Brook bridge.
Day hikers may access the trail from the northern end by driving north across the Big Brook bridge to a pullout on the right side of the road. Park there and walk back across the bridge and up the hill until you see the trail on the left. If you are hiking the CT from the north, watch for the trail on the left side of the road 600 feet south of the bridge.
Connecticut Lakes Region: Camp Otter Trail
This trail, too, is nearly complete. Hopefully in late May and early June, we will get the big puncheon span in above Coon Brook, do a little ditching, signing and blazing and clipping and have the trail open at the start of the hiking season. If we do, then a trekker can move from Camp Otter Road (just 1.5 miles north of West Bay at First Connecticut Lake on Route 3) to Big Brook bridge (Moose Alley Trail) staying off Route 3 for nearly five miles.
To access this trail from the southeast end, walk downhill at the entrance to Camp Otter Road off Route 3. Come to an intersection in a short distance and stay to the left. Walk downhill. The road levels out. After several camps go by, watch for a drive on the left that leads to the home of the Dorman family. At the mouth of the drive, you will see a woods trail strike off to the right at a shallow angle. Take that woods trail and trek along on what in winter is a local snowmobile trail.
The going is very good and easy in nice country not far from the north shore of First Connecticut Lake. After a long mile, the trail will dodge around a recent logging yard, regain the main route and then shortly cut right downhill on the new puncheon bridge span over wet ground down to Coon Brook. Cross the brook, climb the ridge, and pick up the route on the level now for another mile, again in pleasant surroundings, and reach a junction with an old angler trail on the right. Slip down the angler trail in open woodland and soon descend down onto Magalloway Road just above the bridge over the Connecticut River. The bridge is a nice spot to stop and have a snack.
To reach the Moose Alley Trail from there, turn uphill (northwest) on the Magalloway Road and ascend the road for about 200 feet. An old logyard clearing will appear on your right. That will take you onto the Moose Alley Trail.
Picking up the trail for southbounders is a matter of trekking the Moose Alley Trail out to the Magalloway Road. Once at the road turn left, downhill, and walk to within sight of the bridge over the Connecticut River. About 60 feet before the river, the Camp Otter Trail will be on your right and will strike off uphill for a minute once you get into the woods and then level out.
Connecticut Lakes Region: Other new trails to come
Please check the www.cohostrail.org website for updates before you start out. We are likely to post other trail openings in late spring and summer. We hope to complete and open the following new trails:
Prospect Mountain Trail over its entire route from Mt. Bungalow to Ramblewood Cabins and Campground. 2 miles
Covell Mountain Trail. About 3 miles from Ramblewood to Round Pond
Round Pond Brook Trail. Less than 2 miles from Round Pond to Route 3
Little Falls in the River Trail. 2 miles from Big Brook to Second Connecticut Lake dam
Idlewilde Camp Trail. 2 miles from Second Connecticut Lake to East Inlet Road
Nash Stream Forest Region: Three Brooks Trail
This trail is in the planning stages and has been partially flagged. Its flagging needs to be completed and the route reviewed by the state Forests & Lands Division, and perhaps the NH Fish & Game Dept. If we’re lucky, we might get a chance to create this trail and possibly open it late in the year.
The Three Brooks Trail would take hikers off the Nash Stream Road between the Percy Loop and Pond Brook Falls. It would eliminate nearly two miles of road walking.
Connecticut Lake Region: Mountain Bungalow
The Cohos Trail Association operates a small overnight hut on Prospect Mountain. It can sleep five now and may be able to sleep more than twice that in the future. To make reservations, call 603-538-6777 and reserve a bunk. Right now, we are accepting donations only for an overnight stay. There is no set fee.
Nash Stream Forest: Kamp Kirk
The Cohos Trail Association is still awaiting word from the state regarding the disposition of the use of Kamp Kirk as an overnight facility for hikers and other recreators. This private camp, once a labor camp for workers who built the Nash Bog Dam, is in need of substantial repairs if it is to be safe enough to utilize as an overnight hut.
However, we have been assured a $600 gift from the Victor Spaulding bequest that may allow us to purchase materials for the reconstruction of large shed on the site of the camp. A portion of this shed would be developed as a lean-to for up to six people. Provided the state permits the construction and use of such a unit, we would like to develop this lean-to/shed in the spring so it is available to hikers moving through the Nash Stream Forest. There would be no charge for the use of it, if it is completed. Donations for your stay would always be welcome, of course.
In the event we do construct the lean-to, trampers may reach it easily from the Sugarloaf Mountain trailhead, near the big bridge over Nash Stream. It’s about half a mile away. From the bridge or the trailhead, turn north, uphill on the Nash Stream Road. Climb the dirt lane until the road levels out. Stay on the level a short distance and then begin a very gradual descent. Near the very bottom of the descent the road turns to the left. Just before the turn, look on your left for an indistinct drive. Turn left and walk in that drive under a canopy of trees. Walk uphill a short distance and the camp will come into view. The shed/lean-to, if built, will be behind the camp on a minor rise above it.
If you miss the drive, a camp called Broken Dam Camp will show up on your right. You have gone too far.
Kamp Kirk itself is unsafe to occupy right now and we recommend that you not occupy it or investigate it. There is a newly built composting latrine nearby, but right this minute it does not have a composting cage installed beneath it. Once it does, we will open the latrine for use. We hope to have the cage in place in early June.
Again, we are awaiting word from the state if we can move forward with this project and the greater effort to restore the main building. If our request does not meet the letter of the land use restrictions for Nash Stream Forest properties, we won’t be able to make improvements and the facility will be off limits.
Donations Accepted
We are accepting donations for the improvement and capacity expansion of Mountain Bungalow. We are also accepting donations for the shed/lean-to at Kamp Kirk, monetary or materials. If you would like to donate to the cause of improving these facilities, please send your gift to The Cohos Trail Association, 266 Danforth Road, Pittsburg, NH 03592. You may use PayPal at the www.cohostrail.org website to make a donation, as well.
If you would like to donate funds for Kamp Kirk but we learn we will not be able to make improvements there, your donation will be channeled into the Mountain Bungalow effort.
We have been very fortunate of late to receive substantial donations of materials in the form of a number of new windows, a new exterior door, and some lumber. Material donations are very much sought after, particularly dimension lumber and metal roofing.
If you would like to donate materials, call 603-538-6777 in the North Country or 603-363-8902 in Southern New Hamsphire.
percy peaks
