can you mtn bike portions of the trail?

[Peter]

Is it possible to mtn bike/bikepack any section(s) of the Cohos trail? I pretty much figure the white mountains to some extent are off limits, but I do know you can bike cherry mtn road.
I'm interested in doing some north country bike packing. so dirt roads, snowmobile trails, etc are ideal. I'd of course keep the the rules about appropriate places to camp.

Thanks,
-Pete

[KRNilsen]

Pete,

There is a great deal of potential trail bike/backpack mileage, particularly in the Nash Stream Forest and the Dixville Notch region.

The Nash Stream Road itself is 11 miles long to the Headwaters gate, and then another 2 miles uphill from there into the Gadwah Notch region up to the great view at Bulldozer Flat. There is also the West Side Trail (left turn over a bridge about 2.5 miles miles up the Nash Stream Road) that can take you west to Stratford or north and then northwest out to Stratford Bog area. There is also the 14-mile loop road that begins about seven miles in, and the Trio Ponds Road to the right and uphill quite a long distance to four ponds in the high country.

In Dixville, behind the Balsams Hotel there is a ton of terrain, mostly fairly level that reaches Mud Pond, Panorama Golf Course, Nathan Pond, Abeniki Peak, etc. If you don't mind weeds and wet spots in places, you can get all the way to Coleman State Park without too much effort.

Then east of Dixville Notch about five miles, just to the west of the Log Haven campground a few feet is the old logging service road that goes far into the back country behind Dixville Peak. Eventually that reaches where the Cohos Trail comes off the peak and turns west. That old Kelsey Notch Road can be followed all the way to Bungy in Columbia township. Or you could climb up and over Dixville Peak (quite a push on a bike).

Best of luck. If you are going to bike now or over the next few weeks, wear an orange vest. Hunting season, you know.

K.R.Nilsen

[David]

Peter,

Wondering if you ended biking or not. Was thinking of the same thing.

-David

[jrichard]

I was thinking about doing the same thing.

Warning: My info is about 5 or 6 years out of date now.

Lots of the trails can be biked. Generally the trails with "road" in the name are actually dirt roads. You could take an unsuspended or hardtail bike on them.

Lots of the trails with "trail" in the name would require a full suspension, walking uphill, carefully picking lines downhill. I'd be afraid of damaging the trail with a bike in some places, such as the steeper trails around Percy, for instance.

The XC ski trails (assuming it's OK to ride on them?) around Dixville would be great on any mountain bike. If you go further, via the snowmobile trails towards Coleman SP, you'll probably want full suspension as it's rutted with hidden holes, and if it's wet you'll want to have a plan for dealing with mud, which usually involves walking.

And as Kim says, there's that nice long climb up Dixville peak. I admit I was thinking about coming down that on a bike while I was hiking it.

I was thinking of making a weekend of riding my unsuspended bike around Nash Stream (if I could find the time!). Also the logging roads around Pittsburg look awesome for cruising.

One issue with bikepacking the CT is that many of the leantos are up on hiking trails and camping elsewhere is generally prohibited. For Nash Stream, maybe the site at Sugarloaf will be accessible.