Monroe Hill (Fox State Forest)-Crotched Mountain-Winn: 6/22/2014

Mileage: 10
Elevation gain: 2385'
Trails used: Ridge, Monroe Hill, roadwalk, Gregg, Shannon


My first hike took me to Fox State Forest which is located in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.  Fox State Forest is the state of New Hampshire's forestry research area.  There are numerous miles of trail in the forest, most of them being on the Ridge Trail.  

I parked at the Fox State Forest Headquarters off of Concord End Road where there is a nice sized parking area and is open to the public.  My objective for this hike was the viewing platform on the lower ridge of Monroe Hill.

Unfortunately, my camera was on the fritz first thing in the morning so most of my picture's came out horrible and not worth keeping.  Here are a few of the ones that weren't too bad.

The start of the Ridge Trail on the Fox State Forest HQ side.  Junctions were signed and blazing was done in red squares with a white rectangle behind it.

The Ridge Trail goes belong this old cemetery, which I believe is the Geary Cemetery.

 An old cellar from a homestead that once stood here in year's past.  It was right across the road from the cemetery.  You can still see the old fireplace.

Quite a bit of low level or flat walking made this a brisk hike.

 There was a sign explaining why there are logging cuts in the forest but it was blurry and unreadable so I couldn't include it, sadly.

This is the only view left from the platform as it was pretty grown in.

The viewing platform itself.  It wasn't bad to climb up as it was sturdy enough.

My second hike would be on another peak that had a fire tower at one time, Crotched Mountain. 

Crotched Mountain is located in Hillsborough County in New Hampshire.  The summit is in Francestown and the Crotched Mountain Ski & Ride area is located on the northern slopes of the mountain. The Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center is located on part of the southern ridge in Greenfield, New Hampshire.

The fire tower on top was a steel tower and was in operation several times before it was torn down sometime in the 1980's.  

The trail head area for the start of the Gregg Trail.  A little information on why the trails were built, who built them and maps of the area.

Hiking along the Gregg Trail you get this view of Crotched Mountain and it's long ridge line.

Views over to the Uncanoonuc's (left) and Joe English Hill (right).

Some wild flowers along the way.

Information on a wildberry patch right next to the trail.

You cross this grassy knoll with views in all directions.

Once across the knoll, you re-enter the woods for a nice woods walk.

You head up some ledges just after the junction with the Bennington Trail to the summit.

Looking towards Mount Monadnock from ledges just below the summit.

Views of Pack Monadnock and North Pack Monadnock.

A communications tower on the summit of Crotched Mountain (elevation 2066').

One of the few views off of the summit looking towards Mount Kearsarge and Cardigan (behind it and to the left).

The moorings and site of the old fire tower.

A reverse view of the grassy knoll looking to Mount Monadnock.

On the way back down, I checked out the viewing platform at the end of the Gregg Trail.

From the viewing platform, there was this information board with names of the distant peaks.

Heading back down, looking back to Crotched Mountain.

While walking back on the Gregg Trail, I came across this baby porcupine.  It was totally oblivious to the fact the I was right behind it and I got to about 5 feet from it before it ran into the ferns.

The third, and last, hike of the day was Winn Mountain in Lyndenborough, New Hampshire.  I had wanted to hike this one after I had done Rose, The Pinnacle and Lyndenborough earlier this year, but ran out of time.  Today would be the day that I would visit this little gem.

An old logging landing on my way up to the summit.

You follow this logging road/snowmobile trail up just about all the way up.

Approaching the summit of Winn Mountain (elevation 1686'). 

360 views from the summit.  Very nice from this little peak.

Looking towards the Uncanoonucs and Joe English Hill from Winn Mountain.

Cell phone panaroma from the summit of Winn Mountain.

The start of the logging road/snowmobile trail that takes you up.  It's at the end of Joslin Road with ample parking next to a house for sale.

A few extra miles for the weekend keeps me well on track for the 750 mile mark, as I am well over half way to my goal.  Fox Forest was a little confusing as far as trails go, but it wasn't too bad.  Crotched and Winn were very nice, enjoyable hikes.  Both of the latter two hikes are very easy and family friendly with views to delight.

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Deer Mountain/Ridge (Milan, NH)-Pinkham Notch: 6/21/2014

Mileage: 9.25

Elevation gain: 2882'
Trails used: bushwhack, Mill Brook, Crew Cut, Liebeskind's Loop, George's Gorge


As usual, we left the park and ride in Boscawen with a few idea's what and where to hike but nothing definite.  This is a pattern we tend to follow while doing hikes lately; it might not work for some, but we make do. 

Since we are working on multiple hiking list's still, we decided to pick a peak/fire tower off of the New Hampshire Fire Tower list. 

The first hike was Deer Mountain in Berlin/Milan, New Hampshire.  The fire tower that once stood here is long gone with traces of its former past still in place.  

Greg prepares for the hike ahead at the start of the old fire wardens road off York Pond road,
which is gated.

Down low, the road is a little grown in, but still wide and easy to follow in most places.

The fire warden's road is never too steep though, as you follow your way up to the fire tower summit plateau.

Just before you reach the ridge where the fire tower is, it is heavily overgrown and hard to follow.  Once on the fire tower's summit plateau it is fern heaven and very easy going as you follow the various herd path's up.

Summit graffiti on the old wood foundation's and one of the cement blocks, made by the unknown Mister X (as we have dubbed this person).  Kind of sad that someone felt the need to deface this historical monument with yellow spray paint.

No "Dueling banjos" playing on the porch of the fire warden's cabin, but it was still kind of "Deliverance" creepy.  There was even still a stack of perfectly good fire wood in the corner.

An interesting view of the nearby Black Crescent peaks from the summit plateau.

From the fire tower summit, we decided to bushwhack over to the high point of the ridge (the fire tower is not the actual high point of this long mountain ridge) through open woods and fern groves.

From the main summit, we opted to bushwhack the 1/2 mile straight down to the Mill Brook trail, and then road walk back to the car.

At the end of the trail is a dirty little pond (open to public use) that had this sign on display.  Basically, I think the first 10 items would make the last one incorrect.  You could erase all 10 and change the last to "Don't Have Fun" and make the sign smaller.

Brian taking a sign selfie with the "pond" right behind him.  Look's mighty inviting, no?

Say hello to my little fishy friends (which are actually very large!)  One of the breeding tanks at the York Pond Fish Hatchery.

Our second hike, since we were close by, would be to take some of the trail's around the Pinkham Notch area where there were two ledges we could get some views from (Lila's Ledge and Brad's Bluff) and trail's we have never hiked before.





 We parked at the Wildcat Ski area parking lot and crossed the street to get to the trail head.

The trail sign for the Crew Cut Trail was hard to see at first, but it's almost directly across the street from the left most parking lot at the ski area.

These trails look like they were hardly used and it shows. Some parts of the trail were well defined and others not so much.  At one point it crosses the Connie's Way ski trail.

The gem of this hike is Lila's Ledge, which has some rather pleasant views for some modest effort involved to get there.

An interesting view looking up to Mount Washington from Lila's Ledge.  You can still see snow in Tuckerman's Ravine.

Ledges galore in the upper parts of the trails.  

Brad's Bluff lookout ledge.  It's pretty much the same views (higher up) as Lila's Ledge.

Is it a bird, a plane or a bigfoot?  No, it is just Greg, the cave troll king.  





About 9 miles total for these two hikes with some interesting views and nice weather.  Bug's were an issue early on but with a nice wind blowing, they were almost non-existent on the second hike.  We'll keep plugging away for the rest of the summer.

 

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