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Childs Farm Loop at Trescott Lands

February 1, 2020

Childs Farm Loop full PDF

 

Childs Farm Loop trail mapDriving directions

  • From Downtown Hanover and the Green, drive E on East Wheelock St. and up the hill 1.7 miles to the junction of E. Wheelock, Grasse, and Trescott Roads. Continue straight on Trescott Rd. and
    drive 2.4 more miles to Etna Rd. Turn L and head N on Etna Rd. 1.3 miles to Dogford Rd. Turn L; follow 1.2 miles to parking on L after sharp bend and pond.
  • Park at the marked trailhead parking area near the kiosk.

What you should know

  • Today’s hike is a loop on lands owned by the Trescott Water Company (Town/Dartmouth).
  • This is a great route for confident backcountry skiers.
  • The route follows two 18th century roads, visits two cellar holes, and returns on a new trail (2019).
  • As of 2019, all trails described here are blazed with yellow and marked with brown and yellow signs, thanks to the Trescott Recreation and Hanover Trails Committees.
  • Dogs must be leashed while on the Trescott Water Supply Lands and waste must be picked up and
    carried out in order to protect drinking water.

Trescott trail kiosk in winterBrief Hiking Directions

  • Start on the Poor Farm Trail that begins at R of the trailhead kiosk.
  • The trail soon reaches an historic road; turn R and continue.
  • Follow the Poor Farm Trail E as it turns R off the old road.
  • Continue to Knapp Road and turn R.
  • Turn R on the Child’s Farm Trail for 0.6 miles and return to your car.

Trescott Water Supply Lands logoThe Full Story

  • Welcome to your water source! Drinking water for much of Hanover and Dartmouth College comes from these lands, so special rules apply for recreational use. Take a moment to check the kiosk display to acquaint yourself with these rules and pick up a trail guide.
  • Start at the path to the R of the kiosk; a few steps in, a sign at L identifies it as the Poor Farm Trail East, 0.6 miles to Knapp Road. The easy trail parallels Dogford Road before swinging R at a distinctly raised, flat spot that is the site of the old Wright place. Snow may obscure it today; the photo below gives you an idea of what you’re missing. Wright was raising sheep on this land in 1855; by 1892, J.W. and W.D. Chandler had taken over his farm.
  • stone wall in fieldAs the trail swings L again, note blue tubes on both sides of the trail. These protect young tree seedlings from deer browse. The foresters managing this land are working hard to re-establish native trees in a place with a dense deer population – the water supply lands had essentially been a deer sanctuary for half a century while people (and hunters) were fenced out. Deer prefer to browse the northern hardwoods like maple, birch, beech, and oak that make a healthy natural forest and therefore a pure drinking water supply. This is one reason why deer hunting is strongly encouraged on these lands.
  • Soon the path joins the wide old Wolfeboro Road, with its graceful stone walls and venerable sugar maples. Today, the Hanover emergency services folks insist on a different name to avoid confusion when attempting a rescue, so this section is now called Poor Farm Trail East.
  • Governor Wentworth portrait
    Governor John Wentworth

    Royal Governor John Wentworth ordered the cutting of this road in 1770 in hopes of traveling over it from his home in Wolfeborough, NH, to attend Dartmouth College’s first commencement in 1771. A committee of Hanover citizens was appointed to “…run a line from near the southwest corner of Hanover to the Great Pond, or Governor’s seat, at Wolfeborough, and view the situation of the land and convenience for a highway, and make return the first Monday in October next.” Members were paid four shillings and sixpence per day and spent ten days surveying the route. Hanover landowners were assessed a penny and a half per acre to raise the 120£ needed to complete the road. The road wasn’t finished in time, however, and the Governor had to travel by way of Haverhill to attend the first commencement, but by 1772 it was ready for the second ceremony.

  • Wentworth, appointed in 1766 by King George III to take over management of the colony of New Hampshire from his infamous uncle Benning, helped Eleazar Wheelock secure the charter for Dartmouth College. Here he appears as quite the dandy, but indeed he was an eager outdoorsman and leapt at any chance to go camping and rusticating in his colony’s abundant wilderness. While he was on the trail happily getting dirty and sleeping on the ground, his wife was planning her fancy ballroom at their estate in the Lakes Region.
  • Poor Farm Trail East signThe Wolfeboro Road was probably only the second road in Hanover to be properly laid out, mapped, and recorded. Like many early roads, over the years its location has shifted. The entire road remained in use through the 19th century until construction of the Fletcher Reservoir in 1893 interrupted its path. Today many sections, including this one and the stretch that goes bravely up and over Moose Mountain, are Class VI roads. No wonder Emergency Services gets confused.
  • Follow the wide old road gently down the slope. A bit over 10 minutes from your car, your route swings R as the old road plunges toward what is now the Parker Reservoir, an area now off-limits to the public. Note the map posted on a tree at R. As you near the bottom of the hollow, birch tree trunknote the gleaming golden bark of yellow birch at R, a most handsome tree.
  • 20 minutes from your car, cross a stream headed for the Parker Reservoir. Pause to look upstream – at this season, with leaves off the trees, you get a good view of a well-laid stone wall running along the hillside above. One of Mr. Wright’s creations?
  • Climb up and out of the little valley. At the top, the trail bears L and flattens out.
  • At R note a plantation of small red pines, thigh-high at this writing. The Trescott lands experienced major blowdowns during the 2007 Patriot’s Day Windstorm, and two million board feet of logs and 3,100 cords of pulp were salvaged. This storm hit heaviest in the plantations, leaving natural stands largely unaffected. While the forest management plan for the Trescott lands calls for creating more natural, uneven-aged stands rather than even-aged plantations, this area is an exception to keep the slopes from becoming overrun by invasive buckthorn and other non-natives.
  • Proceed along the level trail, catching glimpses of Parker Reservoir below at L through the trees.
  • 30 minutes from your car, arrive at Knapp Road, identified by a sign just across the way and a map posted at R. Turn R and follow this historic road up the hill. Knapp Road was laid out Nov. 13, 1793, named for Lt. Peter Knapp of Hanover’s Revolutionary War-era militia. The cellar hole of his homestead is just below where this road meets another part of the Wolfeboro Road. In the late 1700s, that was a busy intersection!
  • A minute’s walk up the hill brings you to a sign at L interpreting the history of the Town Poor Farm, which once stood in the field beyond the road. That’s a great place to explore in spring.
  • middle school student group clearing brush
    Ms. Hadden’s 7th Grade group “Power of We”

    Continue to the top of a small rise and look for a small cellar hole at R in a circle of pines. Here is what seems like the remains of a very small house. Actually, most early homes had cellars under only a part, as a cellar was not easy to dig and was needed just for storage of apples and other supplies, not for the many purposes to which we put basements today. This was the home of P. W. Durkee in 1855, and by the 1880 census, government workers recorded the four Hewitts here – Elbert, 36 years old, a farmer; his 34-year-old wife Augusta, keeping house; their 12-year-old daughter Mary and 10-year-old son Charles, who both attended the District #4 one-room schoolhouse at the bottom of the hill. (Thanks to Ms. Hadden’s 7th grade group at the Richmond School, who researched this site and helped clear it of brush for their “Power of We” project in 2019.) In 1903, it was owned by Newton Frost until the Water Company bought his place and demolished it along with nine other farms.

  • Continue up Knapp Rd another 100 paces to a sign at R for the Childs Farm Trail. From here, it’s an easy 0.5 miles back to your car. Before turning onto the trail, look back down the road, noting the pines ringing the cellar hole at the edge of your view. This must have been a beautiful place to live.
  • Back to the mundane – is your dog still on its leash? There are porcupines nearby. Indeed, the next trail up the hill is named the Porcupine Trail for a good reason.
  • Childs Farm on old map
    1892 map showing Childs farm

    In the 1880s and 90s, the northeastern part of the Trescott lands were part of the home farm of Joseph Childs, his wife Christiane, and their children Arthur, Mabel, Myrtle, and Marcellus. Joseph was a major landowner with 500 acres, including a sugar orchard of 800 trees and an apple orchard of 200 trees, plus 10 cows, 12 horses, and 200 Merino sheep. The 1892 map at right shows Joseph’s location; he had set his son Arthur up in the next place north.

  • Strike out through the meadow on the Childs Farm Trail. The yellow-blazed trail is mostly flat and follows the contour, except where it dips when crossing a few small drainages. You’re now passing above the most recent plantation you saw from below, and have a better view of earlier plantings and a pine-backed ridge.
  • two men in tophats below a ram
  • 15 minutes after leaving Knapp Road, cross a second small stream and then climb gently to a small height of land. A low stone wall angles in at L; it may be barely visible in the snow. This is one of over a quarter million miles of stone walls built in New England and New York in the early-mid 19th century, largely in response to the rise of the Merino sheep industry (left). When the landscape-altering wool textile industry eventually went south, much of the human population went west, and the forest returned to cloak the hillsides where hundreds of sheep once grazed. In the mixed-age, mixed species forest surrounding you today, larger stumps are evidence of a previous harvest of trees that got their start a century ago.
  • 5 minutes later, you emerge into an open meadow that has been partly planted with young pines. At your appearance, finches erupt from feeding on seed heads in the scrub.
  • As your car comes into sight, a trail joins at R – a glance over your shoulder confirms it’s the Coyote Connector, an alternative route to Knapp Road.
  • As you approach the parking area, enjoy the view of Muscle In Your Arm Farm on the slope across Dogford Road, another part of the former Childs Farm. Its open sheep pastures, laced with stone walls lined with sugar maples, echo the view that you would have encountered a century ago on the lands you have just explored.

This Hanover Hike of the Month
has been generously sponsored byChase Brook Software logo

 

Filed Under: February, Hike of the Month, Trescott Tagged With: cellar hole, Wentworth, Wolfeboro Road

Mink Brook & the Harris Trail

February 1, 2018

Harris Trail Loop full PDF

Harris trail mapDriving directions

  • From Etna village, turn R onto Ruddsboro Road
  • Follow Mink Brook as the road curves up its narrow valley for 1.5 miles
  • Turn L onto Three Mile Road
  • After 1.4 miles, arrive at a big dip in the road with space for parking on both sides. (The AT parking area just S of it is not plowed in winter).
  • Today’s hike, shown on the map at R, takes you on a loop that crosses Mink Brook twice.

What you should know

  • In winter, we suggest hiking poles and micro-spikes or snowshoes for traction, especially for the brook crossings. The first part of this hike and the Harris Trail offer fine skiing, but the last part of the loop, on the AT, is narrow and often too steep for all but the bravest skiers.
  • You’re about to visit lands owned by the federal government (permanently protected) and Dartmouth College (partially protected for AT corridor). The route also crosses a small portion of the Shumway Forest, protected in 2017 by the Hanover Conservancy (outlined in yellow above).
  • Dogs are welcome if under your control; please pick up after your pet.

Brief Hiking Directions

  • Begin at the orange Dartmouth Outing Club sign that reads “Parking/No Camping”
  • Follow the gentle trail 7 minutes to the first crossing of Mink Brook
  • Cross the brook and continue another 3 minutes to the Harris Trail
  • Turn R on the Harris Trail
  • Cross a stream (no bridge)
  • Turn R on the Appalachian Trail and hike 10 minutes to second crossing of Mink Brook
  • Continue on the AT for 6 minutes to Three Mile Road.
  • Turn R and walk 0.2 miles along the road to your car.

Full Hiking Directions

 

  • Begin your hike at the orange Dartmouth Outing Club sign that reads, “Parking/No Camping.”
  • Known as the New Fred Harris Cabin Access Trail, this blue-blazed, half-mile-long trail was built by the Dartmouth Outing Club as a direct route to the college’s Class of ’66 Lodge (built on the site of the Fred Harris Cabin). We won’t visit the Lodge today, but you’ll find it on the map above.
  • The trail is easy and rises gently to a plateau, passing through a long-abandoned sheep pasture. Here, small saplings are creeping into the understory sheltered by towering pines above. Years ago, all these lands between the road and the mountain ridge were owned by Luther Brown.
  • Here and there, last year’s fragile leaves seem to shiver on beech trees. It’s believed that beeches evolved in the south and migrated to this area in the wake of the glacier, but never quite got the hang of dropping their leaves in fall like their northern brethren, the maples and birches. Admire the delicacy of their slender, cigar-shaped leaf buds.
  • Seven minutes’ walk from your car, the appearance of a rivulet and its small steep valley at R signals the approach to Mink Brook. At L, a rough stone wall marks the plateau’s edge and the boundary of the old pasture.
  • The trail takes you down a short, moderately steep section to a fine bridge installed a few years ago over Mink Brook. Look L upstream; the brook drains a rich and complex beaver-influenced wetland just out of sight on the Shumway Forest. Downstream, the brook may be covered in ice but still can be heard murmuring beneath. At R a small brook joins. You’ll cross this one soon; it is the same stream that pools near the Class of ’66 Lodge.
  • squirrel eating a nutThe trail continues gently back up to a matching plateau on the east side. Deer trails cross and you may find leftovers from a red squirrel’s dinner in a pile of pine cone scales or acorn tops. The forest is different here – less pine, more hardwood – belying a different history. Could this have been Luther’s woodlot?
  • Ten minutes from your car, you reach the Harris Trail, but if there’s been a recent snowfall, it’s easy to miss the junction. An orange DOC sign hangs on a red oak at R, facing the other direction. The sign reads, “To AT” and “To 3 Mile Rd & Parking,” indicating the path you just took. Across the intersection is a wooden sign reading, “<- Harris Trail ->” installed by energetic volunteers of the Hanover Conservation Commission’s Trails Committee.
  • The Fred Harris Trail, former route of the Appalachian Trail, honors the Dartmouth Outing Club’s founder (1909). It offers wonderful skiing when conditions are right. The trail once ran from Moose Mountain Lodge Road N into Lyme, but a section N of Ferson Road can no longer be traced. The AT was re-routed off this path onto the ridge of Moose Mountain in the 1980s.
  • Turn R onto the wide Harris Trail and head down to meet the brook you saw earlier. Alas, there is no bridge here, but with care and help from your hiking poles you can cross on the ice. Slow-growing hemlocks and yellow birch shelter the stream and hold its banks in place. At L, beyond the brook, a yellow blaze and white boundary sign signal the edge of the federal easement over Dartmouth land that protects the Appalachian Trail.
  • The Harris Trail continues on its gentle grade. In a few minutes, an unmarked trail joins from L. Some maps identify it as the “Ski Loop,” a difficult ski trail built well before the AT.
  • Bear R here as the Harris Trail continues its easy path downhill. Step over another rivulet.
  • From this direction, especially in winter, you might not notice the Appalachian Trail crossing unless you’re alert for a rusted metal gate standing open across the Harris Trail. At L, the famous white blaze of the AT stands out on the trunk of a fine white pine about 40 yards uphill. At R, another orange DOC sign is posted on the far side of a white birch. 20 yards ahead a wooden sign reads “Old Harris Cabin Access Road.” If you continued straight on this for 1.25 miles, you’d come to a pull-off on Moose Mountain Lodge Road.
  • Instead, turn R onto the AT to head W toward Three Mile Road (and ultimately, S to Georgia!).
  • A few paces from the Harris Trail, you get an intimate view of the underside of a large fallen tree, up close and personal! Rising and falling are all part of a tree’s life cycle, and soon the trunk will become a nursery for its successors. The root mass will slowly melt into a mound, one of many sprinkled across New England forests.
  • Eight minutes from the Harris/AT junction, the trail abruptly heads downhill across an arm of the Shumway Forest. This area was protected in 1983 with narrow easements embracing the newly re-routed trail. In 2017, the Hanover Conservancy strengthened this protection with a new easement over the entire 313-acre parcel that stretches nearly to the mountain ridge behind you.
  • The trail displays a distinctly different character from those you’ve walked earlier today – it’s narrower with more twists and turns. It soon turns R then sharply L as it attains the spine of a narrow little ridge adorned with hemlock. Small branch tips and tiny cone scales on the snow at your feet reflect the foraging of porcupines and squirrels. Listen for Mink Brook before you see it.
  • Head down a short steep section to enjoy the brook and a swig of hot tea from your thermos. Look around this tiny but dramatic little valley. Thick hemlock forest protects the watery home of wild brook trout, keeping waters shaded, cold, and full of oxygen in summer, just the way our native trout like it.
  • water flowing over ice
  • These waters and the rest of the Mink Brook watershed were part of a statewide study by Trout Unlimited and NH Fish and Game biologists in 2011. They found that “Hanover’s little Mink Brook and its tributaries showed a surprisingly healthy population of native Eastern Brook Trout. In 16 survey sites, 213 Eastern Brook Trout were counted.  The survey data also underline how important cold, clean water is for this species.  Almost 70% of all the Eastern Brook Trout were found in five survey sites (some tiny upland tributaries) that had an average water temperature of 59.8 degrees.” You are now standing at one of those sites.  If you have such a stream on your property, what can you do to help brook trout? Keep a lush buffer of trees and shrubs to shield the water from the summer sun.
  • In winter trout are tucked away, but you can enjoy the glittering play of water against ice and snow, all the more glamorous on a bright day.
  • Cross the two-log wood bridge, sending a silent thanks to the person who added the handrail. Head up a short slope, leaving Mink Brook to continue on its way to the Connecticut.
  • Here, the AT moves fitfully across 21 acres purchased by the federal government from none other than the Mascoma Beagle Association. We’d really like to know the story behind that.
  • Six minutes from the bridge, you arrive at Three Mile Road. Turn R and head back along the road 0.2 miles to your car, soon within view in the dip below.
  • Be sure to come back in the spring, when Mink Brook will have even more to say!

February  2018,  revised July 2020

 

Filed Under: February, Hike of the Month, Moose Mountain, Shumway Forest Tagged With: Appalachian Trail, trout

Tunis Brook Mill Lot

February 1, 2017

Hike Directions & Map – Full PDF

Mill Lot mapDriving Directions

  • From Route 10 north of town, turn R onto Goose Pond Road and set your odometer.
  • Drive E on Goose Pond Rd. 5.4 miles (1.6 miles from where pavement ends for the second time).
  • Find the trailhead on the south side of Goose Pond Road, marked with a green Conservancy sign and red flagging. It is nearly opposite a gate bearing a yellow sign reading “Private Road – Bear Hill Reservation.” If you reach a large roadside pulloff on the R, you’ve gone too far.
  • Please park as far off Goose Pond Road as possible, and do not block the gate.
  • Today’s hike, shown on the map above, is an out-and-back trip to an historic site in the woods.

What You Should Know

  • Tunis Brook trailheadYou’re about to visit the Conservancy’s smallest property, a 1.5 acre gem with a mysterious history. Hidden deep in the wild forests of Hanover’s northeast corner, at the foot of Moose Mountain, is the site of a 19th century sawmill on tiny Tunis Brook.
  • In winter, we suggest snowshoes rather than skis because of uneven ground at the mill lot. The trail, however, is fine for experienced backcountry skiers.
  • The half-mile trail is marked with flagging and passes over private land on a right-of-way to the mill site. Conservancy volunteers maintain this trail.
  • Dogs are welcome if under your control; please pick up after your pet.
  • Snowmobiles, ATVs, and bicycles are not permitted.

Brief Hiking Directions

  • Begin on the trail at R of the Conservancy sign.
  • Follow the flagged half-mile-long right of way path for about 25 minutes to the Conservancy property, which is marked with a wooden sign.
  • Explore the mill site and return by the same route to Goose Pond Road.

Full Hiking Directions

  • Begin your hike on the trail that leaves to the R of the Conservancy sign, and note the time.
  • The trail is mostly flat and follows an old tote road that can be traced to the mid-1800s. Here and there, saplings grow in the route; we leave them to discourage vehicles.
  • The Mill Lot is part of a large block of contiguous forested wildlife habitat, much of it already conserved or owned by people with conservation intent. The Hanover Conservancy acquired the tiny parcel in 1994 with a gift of $5,000, to protect it from becoming the site of a vacation home deep in the forest. Close to Hanover’s Goodwin Forest, Town Forest, and also its McKinley Tract and Marshall Brook Wetlands (which the Conservancy helped the Town acquire in 1993 and 1977, respectively), the Mill Lot is a piece of the conservation puzzle in this wild corner of town.
  • A few minutes’ walk from your car, cross a small drainage on a pair of logs. In snow, you might see only a slender birch handrail, placed by our volunteer. Another crossing comes up soon after.
  • You’re passing through cool northern forest dominated by hemlock, spruce, and northern hardwoods such as yellow birch. Ruffed grouse live here year-round; look for their arrow-shaped tracks.
  • Look for moose tracks too – this trail seems to be a moose right-of-way! We see moose sign every timtrack beside a glovee we visit. Bobcat, bear, snowshoe hare, and coyote also frequent the area. Deer use a nearby wintering yard of dense softwoods. Small mammals include red squirrels, voles, moles, shrews, and mice.
  • About 12 minutes’ walk from your car, the trail heads gently uphill and narrows, turning L through an intimate alley of young pines and hemlocks growing in the right-of-way. Their foliage muffles sound and you feel deliciously a part of the forest, privy to its secrets.
  • The trail soon leads down into a little valley. Look for tracks of bounding snowshoe hare. Scattered on the snow might be spruce and fir tips, nibbled off by porcupine or red squirrels.
  • At an opening, look for a big boulder at R and a flagged, striped maple just beyond. The maple bears wounds from moose and deer rubbing their antlers against its bark.
  • About 20 minutes from your car, cross another small drainage.
  • Five minutes later, bear R past another large boulder, at a tree marked with double red flagging. A wooden sign ahead signals your arrival at the Tunis Brook Mill Lot. The brook may be covered with snow, but you will hear its music beneath.
  • To your R, the intriguing drylaid stone foundations of a sawmill are visible on the banks of Tunis Brook. Amos Kinne likely built the mill around 1849. Tax records suggest that the mill was active at least from 1850-1861. If snow obscures the mill ruins, resolve to return in spring to inspect them more fully!
  • mill site mapThe foundation’s configuration suggests that this was an up-and-down sawmill, built over the stream and using waterpower to run a vertical, straight steel saw with coarse teeth – about six feet tall attached to a wooden frame that moved between two vertical fender posts. Because tiny Tunis Brook does not have much pitch here, water to push an overshot wheel and drive the saw was probably delivered via a millrace (trough or pipe of wood or iron) from a mill pond upstream, perhaps where a wetland is now.
  • No records exist of the mill’s abandonment, but we presume that flooding destroyed the mill in 1862 since it was not assessed in that year. Floods were recorded in the Upper Valley on April 19, 1862, also February 10, 1867, and for four days in October, 1869 (the “Great Freshet”). Clearing of forests for pasturage and farming by the mid-1800s affected many streams, causing the “flashy” flows capable of washing out mills and their dams.
  • Our 1.5 acre parcel, a grandfathered, non-conforming lot, has carried the name “mill lot” since at least 1860. The mystery surrounding its history grew as the chain of title came to a dead end in the late 1800s. We think it was lost in the estate of Kinne’s partner, Moses Colby, who lived on the Wolfeboro Road. The Town of Hanover auctioned it off a century later.
  • The lot may be tiny, but observers have recorded 32 species of birds here, including hawks, three species of woodpeckers, and a variety of warblers. Here, you might find tracks of two members of the weasel family, the fisher and American mink.
  • Now let’s visit another landmark – one of the largest glacial erratics in Hanover (a huge boulder deposited by the glacier as it melted). It’s nearby but out of sight of the mill.
  • Follow the brook upstream, counting your paces. Within 75 paces, you’ll see the boulder looming ahead, and you’ll reach it in 75 more.

    Dick Birnie by erratic
    Geologist and Conservancy Board member Dick Birnie on a trip to evaluate the erratic
  • The erratic is composed of quartz, potassium feldspar, and black mica, with stripes of quartz. This boulder dropped out of glacial ice; its angular appearance indicates it did not roll along the ground. A smaller angular boulder on top is further evidence that it fell out of the ice. It came from nearby, possibly plucked off Winslow Ledge in Lyme. Its east side displays a flute, a classic glacial sculpture that was in place before it was plucked off the side of the cliff. Remains of a wooden ladder beneath hint that this once served as a hunting stand. (R: Geologist and former Conservancy Board member Dick Birnie on a trip to evaluate the erratic).
  • Now follow the stream back down toward the Conservancy’s wooden sign. Halfway, you’ll see our small green boundary markers.
  • Tunis Brook flows north to join Pressey Brook and eventually feeds Goose Pond and the Mascoma River. These waters are protected and purified by the healthy, mature forest sheltering Tunis Brook. This is a good thing – these waters ultimately become part of the City of Lebanon’s drinking water supply.
  • The Conservancy’s studies of borings of trees on the mill lot show that its forest is composed of three age classes (about 140 years, 110 years, and 75 years). This suggests that the forest started to grow when the mill was abandoned, with two later disturbances that created openings for new trees. While the ’38 Hurricane might explain the youngest age class, what prompted the middle one is unclear.
  • To find your way back, start at the wooden sign and follow the flagging. This time, keep an eye out for concentrations of tracks that indicate wildlife trails.
  • Be sure to come back in the spring (before black fly season), when Tunis Brook will have much more to say!

February 2017, updated July 2020

Filed Under: February, Hike of the Month, Tunis Mill Lot Tagged With: erratic, mill, moose

Mill Pond Forest & Dana Pastures

February 1, 2016

HIKE DESCRIPTION & MAP – Full PDF

 

Driving Directions

  •  From Etna village, turn R onto Ruddsboro Road
  •  Follow Mink Brook as the road curves up its narrow valley
  •  Pass Three Mile Road
  •  At 2.0 miles from Etna, turn L onto Old Dana Road
  •  At 2.4 miles from Etna, turn R onto Moose Mountain Lodge Road just past the historic Dana Barn
  •  Head up Moose Mtn. Lodge Road 0.9 miles to its end
  •  Bear R at a fork and park at the marked trailhead parking area. Please do not block driveways to the two neighboring homes.

Two Options

  •  ½ hour easy visit to the pond, pastures, and views, retracing your steps
  •  1-hour relatively easy loop, with visit to the three Dana pastures, exceptional views, and tour around the pond

What You Should Know

  • Hiking times are approximate.
  • Foot travel only. If there are ski tracks in the path, please walk beside rather than in them.
  • Dogs are welcome if under your close control; please pick up after your pet and do not allow it to chase wildlife. Porcupines are active.
  • Hunting is permitted in season.
  • You will visit both the 18-acre Mill Pond Forest and 313-acre Shumway Forest, privately owned and protected with conservation easements held by the Hanover Conservancy, and the 66-acre Dana Forest and Pasture Natural Area, owned jointly by the Town of Hanover and a private citizen and managed for conservation purposes.

Hiking Directions

For both options: Begin at the trailhead sign for Mill Pond Forest and Huggins Trail Access. You are standing on privately owned property that was conserved in November, 2015 with the Hanover Conservancy.

  • In 2015, the Shumway and Huggins families generously donated a conservation easement on this area to the Hanover Conservancy, to ensure that the public would always have access to the trails you are about to visit and to protect water quality and an early mill site on Mink Brook.
  • The trail moves past a series of pools in Mink Brook. Depending on whether beavers are active, this area can be some of the best evidence in town of a beaver’s construction skills. Cross a small drainage to reach the Dana Pasture Natural Area, jointly owned by the Town of Hanover and a private heir of the Dana family.
  • After two minutes’ walk, you’ll arrive at a fork. Bear L for a quick visit to the pond shore.
  • Just past the fork, you’ll see the c. 1800 cellar hole of the Woodward home at L. David Woodward was a miller who built a stone dam at Mill Pond and a saw and gristmill on Mink Brook as it tumbles down the mountainside beyond where you parked.
  • Continue on this short path to the shore, where you’ll find a bench at the water’s edge. At this season, little seems to move, but it’s a great place to look for waterfowl when the pond is clear of ice. Woodward’s stone
    Kay Shumway visits Mill Pond

    dam is just out of sight at L. Across the pond, a low mound indicates a large beaver lodge that was occupied until 2018.

  • Return to the cellar hole and trail junction, turning L onto Pasture Road, a very old Class VI road, marked with  a wooden sign posted on a pine, with another green moose sign nailed below.
  • Follow Pasture Road for about 2 minutes, following a handsome stone wall.
  • Two minutes from the trail junction, look for a break in the wall and trail at R, marked just beyond the break with wooden signs reading “Baboon Bypass” and a green moose. Watch for real moose sign as you venture out today –there’s a reason for Moose Mountain’s name! You may also see tracks of wild turkey, grouse, bobcat, porcupine, fisher, fox, coyote, and of course, deer.
  • Turn R, head up the path; cross a small drainage, and bear L as the trail swings toward an opening. Here, the promise of views lures you off the path. Walk about 35 paces to the edge of a drop-off and an old fence post silhouetted against the sky.

    Moose Mountain Lodge
  • Suddenly the world opens up to a stunning vista that stretches to the spine of the Green Mountains of Vermont. Killington and Pico peaks dominate the horizon. At your feet once stood Moose Mountain Lodge. Built in 1937-8 for skiers, the Lodge had a long and colorful history until it was demolished in 2019 by new owners. Learn more at hanoverconservancy.org/lands/easements/mill-pond-forest/ 
  • Please do not go beyond the fence posts and remnants of barbed wire on the property boundary; they remind you that this was one of the Dana family’s summer pastures for young cattle.
  • After you’ve inhaled the view, return to the trail and continue gently up the hill along the tree line toward a second pasture, following occasional orange flagging.
  • Continue uphill toward the third and highest pasture.
  • Note barbed wire fencing and clumps of juniper on L, more signs of the land’s grazing history.
  • Elisha Huggins leads a Conservancy snowshoe trip down through the third pasture

    Head up the gentle slope to a line of white birches that marks the southern boundary of the Dana Pasture Natural Area. After cattle were no longer pastured here, these meadows were kept open for years by neighbor Elisha Huggins, who mowed them with a hand scythe. Today, these openings offer fine wildlife habitat, especially in early summer when lowbush blueberries offer food for bears and many kinds of birds.

  • At the top of this pasture, you can extend your hike by continuing south on the orange-blazed Ridge Trail to ledges that offer remarkable eastern views. Today, we’ll return to Mill Pond.
  • Retrace your steps for 10 minutes through the three pastures and back to Pasture Road, all the way to the stone wall. (A path to the L after the last pasture, well before you reach the wall lining the road, leads to a private home).
  • At Pasture Road, turn L to return to your car (5 minutes) or take the ½ hour loop around Mill Pond.

For the pond loop:

  • Turn R on Pasture Road and immediately L.
  • Follow this path as it meanders among the spruce a short distance from the pond, keeping the pond on your left. You’ll cross small drainages that feed the pond; step carefully.
  • In about 10 minutes, a short spur to the left leads to the shore; bear R up the hill to a junction marked “Orange Diamond Trail” just visible ahead. A short distance above the pond, northern hardwoods take over for the red spruce and hemlock that cling to the water’s edge where cold air settles.
  • Turn L to continue on the Pond Loop. In a few yards you’ll step off the Dana Pasture Natural Area and onto the privately-owned Shumway Forest.  In 2017, the Shumway family conveyed a conservation easement to the Hanover Conservancy on 313 acres to protect wildlife habitat and public access to the network of trails on Moose Mountain, many of which they maintained for the public and for guests at their Moose Mountain Lodge. The Forest is now under new ownership, but the conservation protections will remain in place forever.

    snow-covered beaver lodge
  • Follow the Pond Loop Trail N for about 7 minutes to the gravel road that serves a nearby communications tower. The trail is not frequently blazed in this area. Keep the pond on your left.
  • Turn L on the tower road and walk down it along the north shore of the pond. Other than vehicles servicing the tower or those involved in forestry, no vehicles are permitted on this road.
  • After 5 minutes, reach a gate and turn L onto Moose Mtn. Lodge Road to return to your car.
  • Peter Shumway pauses by the pond

    Send a silent message of thanks to the generous landowners who made your visit possible!

February 2016, revised January 2021

Filed Under: Dana Pasture Lot, February, Hike of the Month, Moose Mountain Tagged With: cellar hole, mill, pond, views

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71 Lyme Road
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 643-3433

info@hanoverconservancy.org

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