General’s Trail

July 15, 2020

Hike Directions and Map – Full PDF

Driving Directions

From Etna village, turn R onto Ruddsboro Road
Follow Mink Brook as the road curves up its narrow valley for 1.5 mi.
Turn L onto Three Mile Road
After 1.2 miles, arrive at the AT parking area on L, opposite telephone pole 31-50

What You Should Know

Foot travel only.
Dogs are welcome but must be under close control.
Wear blaze orange Sept. 15-Dec. 15 (your four-legged hiking buddy, too!)
Hunting is permitted on the AT and other lands you cross at the beginning and end of this hike, but not on the private land crossed by the southern half of the General’s Trail loop.
You’ll visit lands owned by the federal government, Dartmouth College, and private owners including the Shumway Forest, protected by the Hanover Conservancy (outlined in yellow above).

Hiking Directions

Begin your hike on the Appalachian Trail on the E side of Three Mile Road. The US Forest Service/Dartmouth Outing Club sign also identifies it as the Moose Mt. Trail to the South Peak. The federal government bought this 21-acre parcel from the Mascoma Beagle Association in the 1980s. It must have been a lively place with the beagles in charge.
The white-blazed AT passes over a rise and then gently down into the valley of Mink Brook.
Seven minutes into your hike, cross the brook on a log bridge. Nearby, deep purple infuses the fall foliage of a hobblebush, decorating the scene at this time of year.
Cross the brook and follow the AT as it climbs back out of the stream valley.
Six minutes’ walk from the brook, step over a rotting log and cross onto Dartmouth College land. On this part, the federal government holds a permanent easement to protect the AT.
Just after a log crossing at a small wetland, arrive at a 4-way junction. The Fred Harris Trail, former route of the AT, honors the Dartmouth Outing Club’s founder (1909). It offers wonderful skiing when conditions are right. The AT was re-routed off this path onto the ridge of Moose Mountain in the 1980s.
At this junction, the AT continues straight ahead – you’ll return down that path to this point. At L, the Harris Trail looks well-traveled. Today, you’re up for the path less taken – turn R. A few yards ahead, a wooden sign reads, “Old Harris Cabin Access.”
The wide and grassy trail soon begins to descend gently through northern hardwoods. For the next 5 minutes, you’re traveling through a part of the 313-acre Shumway Forest that was protected by an AT trail easement in the 1980s and in 2017 by the Hanover Conservancy’s more comprehensive conservation easement. Both easements guarantee public access to the trails.
Soon a wood sign with arrow directs you L. You have arrived at another parcel of private property. Say a silent thanks to this generous landowner who gamely goes along with the network of hiking trails on Moose Mountain, and take care to leave no trace of your visit.
Shortly after the arrow sign, an orange sign at L marks the W end of the orange-blazed General’s Trail, a pine-needle-strewn path that makes a wide 0.5 mile loop back to the AT.
In autumn, it seems the whole trail is decked out in orange – from the trail signs and blazes to the brightly colored red eft salamander you might spot at your feet, to the brilliant mushrooms that spangle the forest floor and the fallen leaves of red and sugar maples.
The trail initially has the look of an old woods road but soon narrows, offering gentle and comfortable hiking, unlike the often rooty and rocky AT. This trail was built in the early 1990s by a former owner of this property with the help of his boy scout troop. Why the “General’s Trail?” For a quarter century, it’s been the favorite daily hike of a neighbor who retired from the Air Force Reserve as a two-star general. When his friends and neighbors Peter and Kay Shumway met him often on the trail, they decided to name it for him on their Moose Mountain Lodge trail map. Recently, his daughter asked the Dartmouth Outing Club to make the orange signs as a special birthday gift.
Ten minutes from the orange sign, you arrive at an open grove of hemlocks – a good place for a snack. The trail swings L here to follow the rim of a steep valley, but before taking that turn, look over the escarpment to the brook far below.
The trail turns L past an “elbow tree” at R, a leaning yellow birch that lost its top and headed for the sun.
Climbing gently up along the stream, the trail soon brings you to an up close and personal look at the tiny Mink Brook tributary. Cross it on impossibly green, luxuriantly mossy logs. You’ll soon encounter a few more “corduroy” log crossings. These places don’t look like much, but they are ecologically valuable. Headwater seeps, kept shaded and forested, serve as an important “sponge” in a downpour and start a stream off on its downhill tumble in the right fashion, cool and clean. Abundant moisture in the forest floor and a rich layer of duff support a fun and fantastic array of fungi.
The trail reaches the head of the little stream valley and follows the land’s contour as it heads north toward its junction with the AT. As the trail is less distinct here, it’s important to keep an eye out for the orange blazes. It’s hard to miss a jumble of pure white boulders of quartz.
20 minutes from the hemlock grove, a vertical white “US AT Boundary” sign appears on a white birch at L, and you know you’re getting close.
Three minutes later, arrive at the AT; note the orange “General’s Trail” sign.
Turn L and follow the famous path as it heads gently and pleasantly downhill.
What a difference thousands of feet per year can make! The AT treadway is well-worn but also well-loved, evidenced by some clever bits of trail work that carry the path over small drainages.
Five minutes after bidding the General goodbye, you return to the familiar four-way intersection with the Harris Trail. Cross it and continue straight on the AT.
Seven minutes from the intersection, the brook and bridge come into view. If you didn’t stop for a picnic at the hemlock grove, this is a great picnic spot too.
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.” They counted 213 brookies in 16 study sites and noted how important cold clean water is for this species. Almost 70% of the trout were found in five sites (including this one) with an average water temperature of 59.8 degrees. 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 it from the summer sun.
Cross the bridge with its handrail and head back up and out the seven minutes’ hike to your car.

Please respect the generosity of these landowners by leaving no trace of your visit and enjoy the memories and photographs you take home.

9/27/2018

Trescott/Paine/AT Loop

September 1, 2019

Hike map and directions – full PDF

Driving Directions

From Downtown Hanover and the Green, drive E on E. Wheelock St. and up the hill 1.7 miles to the junction of E. Wheelock, Grasse, and Trescott Roads. Bear R to continue on Trescott Road and drive 1.2 more miles to the Trescott gate at a sharp bend.
From Etna village, turn W onto Trescott Road and drive 1.3 miles to the Trescott gate at a sharp bend.
Park at the marked trailhead parking area near the kiosk. Please do not block the gate.

What You Should Know

Today’s hike takes you on a loop that begins on the Trescott Water Supply Lands, follows an historic road past two cellar holes, visits a 19th century cemetery, and returns on the Appalachian Trail. The two forested legs of the hike are linked by short walks on the public portions of Paine, Dogford, and Trescott Roads.
You’re about to visit lands owned by the Trescott Water Company (Town/Dartmouth) and the permanently protected corridor of the Appalachian Trail as it skirts Etna village.
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. Elsewhere, dogs are welcome if under your control.
Archery season begins Sept. 15. Deer hunting is encouraged on the Trescott lands to improve the forest, and it is wise to wear blaze orange Sept. 15-Dec. 15. Hunting is also permitted on AT lands.

Hiking Directions

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.
Take the short path R of the kiosk that leads around the fence to Knapp Rd., avoiding a logging road at L. At Knapp Rd., turn R back toward the gate and after 25 yards, turn L onto Paine Road. For over a century, this was a four-way intersection.
The route now called Paine Road was laid out in 1782 from Jeremiah Trescott’s place to Dogford Road, “to accommodate him for Meeting.” He’d been asking for an easier route from his house to Hanover Center since 1775. Who Paine was and why the road now bears that name remain a mystery.
Paine Road leads invitingly down a gentle hill for several minutes’ walk. Approach the dip in the old road softly; if you’re lucky, you’ll get a glimpse of a great blue heron or other wildlife in the wetland at R. This valley is not as small as it first appears – it extends over a half mile and feeds Parker Reservoir. The wetland captures sediment washing off higher ground before it can enter the drinking water reservoir.
The old road continues up out of the hollow. Just as it swings R, stop and look for the remains of an old stone wall at L. You have found the site of the Wright-Mason Farm.
Cellar hole of the Wright-Mason farm
To find the farmhouse’s cellar hole, follow the line of this wall into the woods to a pile of large, flat stones, about 35 paces from the road. From this point continue straight, another 25 paces, to a small grassy rise. The cellar hole may be invisible until you’re nearly upon it.
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. Other foundations on the N side suggest the house had an ell.
In 1855, one H. Wright occupied this farm. Little is known about this family. By 1885, Charles Mason, Jr. owned the place. It was removed when the Parker Reservoir was built.
Return to the road and continue E (away from the wetland). Ahead on a rise at L is an impressive “fairy ring” where five large ash trees spring from a single place. All are sprouts from the stump of a single earlier tree.
Paine Road levels out, lined by a nice low stone wall at L and handsome sugar maples 20” in diameter. They were probably set out along the road by the Wrights and their mid-19th century neighbors, the Johnsons, when the surrounding land was open pasture or cropland. Now, the forest has returned but the maples still reign.
0.3 miles and 15 minutes from your car, look for the Mason Trail at L. Continue straight on Paine Road.
20 minutes from your car, arrive at a log landing – a sunny opening where timber pulled through the woods by a skidder is cut to length before transfer to a lumber truck.
As you proceed, stone walls follow the road and head off into the woods at right angles, separating fields and pastures of another time. They were likely built by A.D. Johnson, whose home site you will soon visit, during the “Sheep Craze” of the mid-1800s. A close look reveals small stones among larger ones, indicating the land nearby was cultivated, making it worth the trouble to move minor rocks.
About 5 minutes’ walk past the log landing is a flat spot at L, site of the Johnson-Camp Farm. This cellar hole is easily visible from the road. While it is nearly square, the farmhouse that stood over it was probably rectangular. The 1855 map shows A. D. Johnson here. By 1885, Carlton Camp lived here, of the family that gave Camp Brook its name and a veteran of the Civil War (Company B of the 18th NH Volunteers). His farm consisted of 75 acres with a sugar orchard of 150 trees and 40 more acres leased from a William Doten.
After exploring the cellar hole, continue E on Paine Rd. At a sign and barbed wire marking an old water company boundary, walk around the large pine at R to pass through a gap in the fencing.
Paine Rd. heads gently downhill and, on a sunny day, light through the trees catches your attention. You’ve reached a major wetland in the headwaters of Mink Brook where cattails and other marsh plants grow amid the standing skeletons of dead white pines. A big wetland in a bowl like this helps hold heavy rains like a sponge, protecting people downstream in Etna from sudden flooding.
A mesh cage, oddly out of place in these woods, is part of a monitoring program by the Hanover Biodiversity Committee to measure deer browsing pressure on Trillium.
Climbing up out of the bowl, Paine Rd. once again becomes a traveled way (restored to active use in 1971). Here, private land is posted in some places. Please take care to respect these neighbors.
Turtlehead
1/2 hour from your car, reach Dogford Rd. Turn R and walk on its edge, following the drainage from the wetland. Just past Jones St. is a good patch of wetland wildflowers in joyous bloom at this season: orange jewelweed and white turtlehead (R). Its flowers are so sturdy that only bees are strong enough to pry them open for pollination. Walking allows you to enjoy the riot of roadside flowers blooming at this time of year – goldenrod, Queen Anne’s lace, yarrow, New England aster, and pink clover.
10 minutes’ walk brings you to Hanover Center Road. Turn R and take a few moments to wander through the nearby cemetery, established in the early 1840s. Most of the families who farmed the Trescott Water Supply Lands now rest here, along with their Etna neighbors. Some of their names are being memorialized on trails in the water supply lands.
Detail on the Mason grave marker
A tall obelisk near the gate marks the 1883 Chandler family plot, and just behind, an ornately carved obelisk (L) marks the burial place of Julius J. Mason and his successive wives Sarah Camp and Lydia Chandler. Other markers bear the names Bridgman, Childs, and Chase. William Hall (1825-1912), pictured below at his farm (site of today’s Parker Reservoir), is buried here. Heart-breaking are stones for “Little Baby” and other children.
William Hall, c. 1890
After visiting the Trescott lands’ long-ago occupants, follow the roadside fence to the far opening, turn R on Hanover Center Rd. and R again onto the Appalachian Trail S at the US Forest Service sign. Trescott Rd is 1.3 miles and under an hour away.
The 2,190 mile-long Appalachian Trail threads through a national park that spans the eastern seaboard from Maine to Georgia. Conservation efforts along its route have protected valuable wildlife habitat and cool forests – and historic sites. The fern-lined, white-blazed trail heads between the cemetery and a forested wetland fed by Monahan Brook, a tributary of Mink Brook. Check tracks at wet spots – are all human and dog? We saw a bear track when scouting this route. Cross the brook on a sturdy log bridge and follow it up to an old field, where goldenrod reaches for the sky and apples ripen on trees planted 150 years ago. This is wonderful wildlife habitat.
10 minutes’ hike from the road brings you over another log crossing as the trail begins to climb gently but steadily out of the little valley. Young woods are punctuated by big bull pines.
9 minutes later, arrive at a trail junction marked by an orange Dartmouth Outing Club sign directing you to the L. A stone wall just beyond marks an old property line. A few minutes later, reach a Y junction with similar sign. You’ll bear R here; a service trail bears L.
An odd metal object leaning against the sign is your cue to explore the large cellar hole just W of the trail (at R as you face the sign). Beyond the nearly intact cellar hole are three dressed granite foundation slabs. Metal objects of mysterious purpose are scattered about. Beyond is a complex set of foundations indicating that an elaborate barn stood here. What is such a thing doing out here in the woods? The 1855 map of Hanover shows a mysterious road linking Dogford and Hanover Center Rds with a single home near the N end. The 1892 map (R) shows two more places, owned by F. Adams, midway on the road. Today’s Partridge Road once linked Hanover Center Road with Jones Street, and it is the remains of the Adams farm you’ve discovered. The Adams family once owned all the land between Dogford and the east leg of Trescott Road. When the farm was sold and subdivided to create the Trescott Ridge subdivision in the 1960s, Partridge Road was re-routed and the Adams farmhouse (R) was bulldozed.
Adams House, c. 1960
Return to the trail junction and take the R fork to continue on the white-blazed Appalachian Trail. The AT follows Adams’ handsome, well-made stone wall for quite a distance. Sharp eyes will note other walls joining it to separate former pastures where tree roots now graze. The AT is busy at this time of year – the day we were out, we met 8 hikers, hailing from Florida, Chicago, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
The AT heads up around a knob and through gaps in other, older walls. 20 minutes from the cellar hole, you’re suddenly in a thick pine forest, likely a cattle pasture abandoned 80 years ago, and the trail swings R to skirt an old field. The sound of passing cars hints that Trescott Road is near.
The trail drops gently down the slope to another souvenir from Etna’s agricultural past – the circular foundation of a silo, now moss-covered. Nearby is a curious rectangular cement box and platform, possibly a milk cooling structure for a dairy farm.
Soon the trail approaches the back of a kiosk placed to inform AT hikers coming the other way. While the AT proceeds straight, turn R here to take the pine needle-strewn path that leads through the woods to a small AT parking area. Turn R onto Trescott Road and walk 10 minutes back to your car.

This Hanover Hike of the Month has been generously sponsored by

Moose Mountain Ridge Loop

August 1, 2019

Complete PDF

Driving Directions

From Etna village, turn R onto Ruddsboro Rd
Follow Mink Brook as the road curves up its narrow valley for 1.5 miles
Turn L onto Three Mile Rd
After 1.4 miles, arrive at a big dip in the road with parking on both sides.

What You Should Know

Today’s hike, shown on the map above, takes you on a loop that visits the South Peak on a lesser known trail, cruises the mountain ridge on the Appalachian Trail (with optional 15-minute, 0.2 mi. visit to the Moose Mtn. Shelter) and returns on the historic Wolfeboro Road and the old route of the AT, the Harris Trail.
You’re about to visit lands owned by the federal government (permanently protected) and Dartmouth College (partially protected for the AT corridor) and the privately owned Shumway Forest, protected by the Hanover Conservancy in 2017.
Dogs are welcome if under your control; please pick up after your pet.

Hiking Directions

Begin your hike on Dartmouth land at the orange Dartmouth Outing Club sign that reads, “Parking/No Camping.”
Known as the New Fred Harris Cabin Access Trail, this blue-blazed, ½ mile trail was built by the DOC as a direct route to the college’s Class of ’66 Lodge (built on the site of the Fred Harris Cabin).
The trail is easy and rises gently to a plateau, passing through a long-abandoned sheep pasture. Here, 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.
Seven minutes’ walk from your car, the sound of water signals the approach to a main tributary of Mink Brook. At L, a rough stone wall marks the plateau’s edge and boundary of the old pasture.
The trail drops to a bridge over the brook. Look L upstream; the brook drains a rich beaver-influenced wetland just out of sight on the Shumway Forest.
The trail continues gently back up to a matching plateau on the E side. The forest is different here – less pine, more hardwood – belying a different history. Was this Luther’s woodlot?
10 minutes’ hike from your car, reach the Harris Trail. An orange DOC sign hangs on a tree at R, facing the other direction and reading “To AT” and “To 3 Mile Rd & Parking,” indicating the path you just took. Across the trail junction is a wooden sign reading, “<- Harris Trail ->” placed by 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, and can still be followed by an alert hiker. The AT was re-routed onto the Moose Mountain ridge in the 1980s.
Turn R onto the wide Harris Trail and head down to another brook. While there is no bridge, it’s easy to cross on stepping stones. Slow-growing hemlocks and yellow birch shelter the stream and hold the 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 and an unmarked trail soon joins at L. This is the Ski Loop, a challenging ski trail built before the AT. Turn L here and head uphill for about 15 minutes. The trail is not blazed and because it is not used as heavily as the AT that parallels it nearby to the S, it is not as worn, but is not hard to follow.
The Ski Loop takes you gently but steadily up on an old cart path. Shortly past a fallen beech, the trail levels out and slabs L along the hillside.
15 minutes from the Harris Trail, the sounds of falling water accompany your arrival at another trail junction. Signs on trees at L indicate the trail down to Dartmouth’s Class of ’66 Lodge. The stream you hear, which is the one you recently crossed below, provides the lodge’s water supply. At this point, you cross onto the Shumway Forest. More about that later.
Continue straight onto the Nat Thompson Trail which leads 1.1 miles from this junction up to the AT on the ridge. This begins as a wide, pleasant trail, re-opened a few years ago by the Dartmouth Outing Club. In midsummer, look for the ghostly white stems and downturned flowers of Indian Pipe (R), a saprophyte that relies on decomposing plants for its food as it has no chlorophyll. Shining clubmoss blankets the hillside at R.
8 minutes from the Ski Loop junction, the Nat Thompson Trail approaches the stream at L; be sure to stay straight without crossing the stream and continue gradually uphill. The trail is irregularly blazed but easy to follow. Six minutes later, a log crossing carries the trail over a small drainage as you leave the Shumway Forest for federal land surrounding the AT. The trail swings NNE to make a wide easy sweep up to the ridge.
Spring wildflowers have long since gone by, but sharp eyes will find the deep blue berries of blue-bead lily and the seed clusters setting on hobblebush viburnum. Some paired hobblebush leaves achieve lunch plate size; they will turn deep purple in autumn. The three-lobed leaves of goosefoot or striped maple, a small understory tree, can get even bigger.
10 minutes from the log crossing, the trail swings R and becomes steeper as it climbs toward the South Peak. 5 minutes later, reach a fork and a sign directing you R toward the South Peak. 5 more minutes’ climb brings you out onto the open ledges of the 2293’ South Peak of Moose Mountain.
Time for a break! Enjoy the view out over Goose Pond below and, if it’s not hazy, across Canaan and far beyond. At this time of year, the rosy flower clusters of shrubby meadowsweet attract pollinators and dragonflies patrol the skies.
Beyond the summit sign, the path S of the clearing is the AT southbound, which would take you straight back to Three Mile Road about ¼ mile S of your car (and downtown Hanover, if you keep going). If a thunderstorm threatens, this is your best bet. But we’ve got much more to see today, so retrace your steps and strike N (path at L of ledges). In a few yards bear R on the AT northbound at a pair of orange signs, past the Nat Thompson Trail.
The white-blazed AT soon heads down into the saddle between the N and S peaks. The wind rising up both the E and W slopes plays in the trees overhead, keeping the bugs too entertained to bother you.
13 minutes from the S Peak, a sign announces you’ve reached the Moose Mountain Shelter “FPA” (government-speak for Forest Protection Area). 5 minutes further, an orange sign indicates the shelter is 0.1 miles beyond Wolfeboro Rd. Just beyond is the historic road itself, rising up from the Tunis District to the E and quickly disappearing down toward Hanover to the W.
SHELTER STOP – You can visit this shelter with an easy out-and-back 0.2 mile, 15 minute hike, or if time is short, simply turn L and head down Wolfeboro Rd. To find the shelter, cross the Wolfeboro Rd and follow the AT northbound as it winds gently uphill for 5 minutes to a cheerfully illustrated orange sign at the shelter access path. Turn R here and within moments, the shelter comes into view at L. A bench of Aldo Leopold’s design rests on a nearby ledge, and must offer great views when leaves are off. Be sure to sign the ledger tucked by the shelter’s N wall. A lot of work by volunteers goes into maintaining places like this. Return to the Wolfeboro Rd the way you came.
Stand for a moment at the four-way junction of two of the most historic routes in New Hampshire. The 2,190 mile-long Appalachian Trail, proposed nearly a century ago, threads through a national park that spans the eastern seaboard from Maine to Georgia. Conservation efforts along its route have also protected valuable wildlife habitat and cool forests. The Wolfeboro Road, built 250 years ago when New Hampshire was still a colony of Great Britain, reached from the colonial governor’s home in Wolfeborough up and over this mountain to Hanover, a distance of 55 miles as the crow flies. Governor John Wentworth ordered its construction so that he could attend commencement at Dartmouth College, having assisted its founder, Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, in securing its charter from the King. Wentworth was an eager outdoorsman, relishing camping out with his road survey crew in the NH woods and leaving his wife at home to worry about decorating her new ballroom in the governor’s mansion.
This spot also marks an important watershed divide. All rain and snow falling E of where you stand on the AT flows into Tunis Brook, Pressey Brook, Goose Pond, and then to the Mascoma River. All that falls on the W side ends up in Mink Brook. Waters from each reach the Connecticut River, but by much different paths.
It’s time to head down. Take the Wolfeboro Rd W and down the mountainside for about 15 minutes. Adventure-seeking jeep drivers have created ruts in places, and the footing is wet for the first 5 minutes until you encounter rough gravel laid down by the Hanover Dept. of Public Works so emergency vehicles could reach the AT to assist injured hikers.
Along the way, imagine Governor Wentworth riding this rugged route to the Dartmouth Green. For more hiking on this historic road, see our Hike of the Month for June, Wolfeboro Road West.
15 minutes from the AT, an old stone wall appears at L and you reach an open area at the bottom of the slope. You’re back in former sheep country! Continue straight, passing a chained-off drive at R. A few paces further, a metal gate comes into view at L and an orange sign just beyond indicates the Harris Trail. Walk around the gate and back onto Dartmouth land, following a woods road past a log landing and bearing R to re-enter the woods.
Here, the Harris Trail follows a gravel-surfaced woods road used to deliver supplies to the college’s Class of ’66 Lodge. After crossing a new wooden bridge, there’s a more natural surface underfoot.
Peter and Kay Shumway after signing the Shumway Forest conservation easement, June 2017
10 minutes from the gate, spot the green Shumway Forest sign at R. Peter and Kay Shumway (L), owners of the historic Moose Mountain Lodge from 1975 to 2018, purchased 313 acres on the mountain from a lumber company in 1986 to keep the land from being developed. In 2017, to permanently protect public access to its foot trails, they conveyed a conservation easement to the Hanover Conservancy.
A short distance past the sign, follow the Harris Trail as it bears R off the woods road. While the red and black DOC blazes have long since faded, the former route of the AT is easy to see. The forest is younger here than on the mountain ridge, punctuated with occasional massive white pines.
5 minutes past the fork arrive at a junction where a trail at L heads over a footbridge to the Class of ’66 Lodge. Continue straight and soon the orange sign appears at R directing you back to Three Mile Road. You’ve now closed today’s loop. Bear R for the 10-minute return on the now-familiar path, over the wooden bridge, and back to your car.

Old Highway 38 & Hudson Farm

September 1, 2018

Trail Directions and Map – Full Hike

Driving Directions

From the traffic light at Route 120 and Greensboro Road, take Greensboro Road east for 1.8 miles to its junction with Etna and Great Hollow Roads.
Park at the roadside pull-off. If you prefer off-road parking, turn in at David Farr Memorial Park and bear R and downhill to a shaded gravel parking area.
Today’s hike on an historic highway includes a loop through the now-protected Hudson Farm’s fields and forest.

What You Should Know

This is a fun and easy hike with a few sections of tricky footing among roots or rocks. The route is well-blazed.
The route follows an early road and then travels a loop on one of Hanover’s newest conservation lands. In 2017, the National Park Service purchased the Hudson Farm (brown-shaded area on map) to permanently protect it as part of the Appalachian Trail corridor.
Trails are maintained by Hanover Trails Committee volunteers and Berrill Farm neighbors.
Dogs are welcome but must be under your control; please pick up after your pet.
Snowmobiles, ATVs, and bicycles are not permitted.

Hiking Directions

Begin your hike on Greensboro Road at the blue town sign marking the Old Highway 38 Trail, directly opposite the town’s Farr Memorial Park.
The old road leads between two contemporary houses and shortly turns R (marked with arrow), immediately diving back into time at a pair of old stone walls – the first of many you will encounter today.
Don’t be dismayed by the steep path that suddenly appears– the rest of the hike is gentle and rolling. Follow the yellow blazes into the woods.
Town Highway 38 has a murky history. Laid out in 1795, it connected Greensboro and Trescott Roads. It was later discontinued, but its exact route was so hard to trace that when planning began for Berrill Farms in 1979, the town agreed with the developer on a route to be called the “Old Highway 38 Trail.”
The trail passes through a knobby landscape covered with ferns and a young forest of white pine. The stubs of lower branches encircling each tree are clues that these pines grew up together in an abandoned field, self-pruning those branches as the canopy closed in and blocked out the sun. A few venerable, much older maples survive.
Eight minutes from the trailhead you cross a fine stone wall. Follow it with your eyes to another at R, running parallel to the trail.
A few minutes later, take care crossing a wet spot, where “tree cookies” placed as pavers can be slippery. A small wooden bridge takes the trail over a space that is wetter in other seasons.
Six minutes from the first wall crossing, a trail comes in at L at the top of a small rise. This trail is closed to all but Berrill Farms residents. Continue straight, toward a blaze on a large, triple-trunk white pine. The nature of the forest has shifted, with more deciduous hardwoods, belying a different history.
You soon encounter another stone wall, this one built with much smaller stones – a clue that it once bordered cultivated land. The builder wished to spare his plow and give his carrot seedlings a chance by stooping to move and stack smaller stones. Had he been grazing sheep here, he wouldn’t have bothered. Take a moment to peel the years off this scene in your imagination, to a time nearly 200 years ago when the only trees were a few young maples left as shade for sheep, when sunlight flooded the ground you’re walking, and the view stretched E to nearby Mill Village, now called Etna. Time, and the end of the sheep craze, brought back the trees.
Seven minutes’ walk from the trail junction, you pass through a slot in the fallen bole of a big pine, nearly 3 feet through. That’s big – but trace it back to where it fell – it was once part of a massive ring of three trunks! These softwoods grow more quickly than hardwoods like maples and oaks, so despite its imposing size, it’s likely younger than most of the hardwoods.
The trail swings up and L and follows a stone wall that retains barbed wire from when cattle, not sheep grazed here. At R, a field appears.
Bear R at a fork in the trail, up onto a mown path into the E meadow of the former Hudson Farm, to begin a steady climb to a line of trees at the top. Monarchs and other butterflies join you at this time of year, alighting on milkweed, clover, and goldenrod among the grasses, and cicadas and grasshoppers contribute the music.
Five minutes from the woods trail, you arrive at the tree line, where a second field comes into view beyond. You are walking through one of Hanover’s iconic historical farm landscapes.
Stop for a moment to enjoy the expansive view. Straight ahead, the open slopes of Lebanon’s Storrs Hill stand out, even more so in winter when covered in snow. At R are the Rix Ledges, some of the most interesting terrain and wildlife habitat in Lebanon.
Approach the small white pine growing by itself in the field, 20 paces away. From this vantage point you can see Mount Ascutney rising in the distance, to the right of Rix Ledges. You won’t be the first to have “The Sound of Music” pop into your head – nobody’s watching, so twirl around and sing!
In June, 2017, this was the site of a grand celebration. A partnership between the Trust for Public Land and the Town of Hanover, assisted by the Hanover Conservancy, resulted in purchase of the 175-acre Hudson Farm by the National Park Service to permanently protect it as part of the Appalachian Trail corridor. In addition to major federal funding, many local contributions made this possible. Owned for many years by Dartmouth College, the property had been eyed as a site for everything from a cemetery and golf course to a housing development. Today, the AT Conservancy manages the land. The beautiful meadows will be kept open for their spectacular views and valuable grassland bird habitat.
Returning to the tree line, cross a low stone wall to the other field and a brown and yellow trail sign where two mown paths meet. From here, you can see a 20th century home built as a country retreat by Archer Hudson, a retired architect. Dartmouth College later purchased the property and carved off the house for resale, keeping the land. While the College referred to it as the “Hudson Farm,” the property ceased to be a farm when Hudson arrived.
When leaves are off the trees, you can also see the Adams Farm house, a late 18th/early 19th century white cape with a single chimney. This was home to the family that once owned the farmland you are exploring today. Hudson purchased land that included the Adams barn – and then burned it down.
[NOTE: To return along Etna Road, bear R here and take the mown path down through the meadow to Trescott Road and the Hudson Farm trailhead. Turn R on Trescott Road and R on Etna Road to your car.]
To continue today’s hike, bear L toward the woods to the lowest point in the rolling field.
Two sets of boardwalks offer dry footing across drainages. The second, larger one was built in 2018 by Hanover Trails Committee volunteers (thank you!). Protecting such headwater wetlands and streams from heavy foot traffic benefits water quality and trout habitat in Mink Brook.
Soon you’ll see a stone wall at R, reminder that this was once grazing land. Continue as the trail heads gently downhill, with the slabby stone wall on your R until the wall neatly turns a corner of the old pasture.
Shortly after, a blue sign at R indicates you are heading toward the Appalachian Trail.
[NOTE: For a much longer adventure, continue straight here, turn L (southbound) on the AT to the Conservancy’s Greensboro Ridge Natural Area, L at Oli’s Trail, L at the Greensboro Highlands Trail, L at the Silent Brook Trail, and then L onto Greensboro Road and walk 1.6 miles back to your car.]
To continue today’s hike, turn L at the blue sign and follow the yellow blazes past impressive white pines. The trail slabs along the contour. It is discouraging to note the invasion of non-native barberry (a prickly shrub) and glossy buckthorn (find its black berries underfoot among the pine needles). Consider volunteering for organized work parties to remove these pests from conservation land. Or, volunteer to remove them from your own property, to help keep them from spreading. Learn more about these invasives from the Hanover Conservation Commission’s Biodiversity Committee.
Continue down the hill to a small drainage that may be nearly dry at this season. The trail crosses it in two places and bears R. About 15 minutes from the top of the fields, you return to the path you took into the first meadow. Continue on the woods path and stay L to avoid a R fork leading over a stone wall. It’s another 15 minutes back to your car from here.
The trail soon swings R and down toward Greensboro Road. Listen for the two-part whistle of a broad-wing hawk and keep an eye out for mushrooms. These fungi decorate the forest floor at this time of year, in colors ranging from purest white to bloody red.
The sound of traffic is a clue that you are nearing Greensboro Road. A pair of granite boulders serve as your gateway back from Hanover’s past to its present.

8/30/2018

Corey Road and the AT

March 1, 2018

Corey Road and AT – Full PDF

Driving 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 1.2 miles, arrive at the AT parking area on L opposite telephone pole 31-50 (if parking area not plowed, park on shoulder)
Today’s out-and-back hike, shown on the map at R, takes you to two fascinating historic sites.

What You Should Know

In winter, we suggest hiking poles and micro-spikes or snowshoes for traction, especially for the brook crossings. If rising temperatures threaten to melt snow/ice cover on the AT, we strongly advise taking your hike in the morning while surfaces are still frozen, to protect the treadway. Corey Road can be wet if snow cover has melted, and boots are advised.
You’re about to visit lands owned by the federal government (permanently protected) and a small portion of private land protected for AT corridor. Corey Road is a Class VI road open to the public subject to gates and bars.
The Corey Road portion of this hike makes for great skiing. If you’d rather do that, enter Corey Road at its south end, at the junction of Three Mile, Old Dana, and Chandler Roads. Park with respect for the private residence at the historic red cape at this intersection and walk up its driveway and through the gate to continue on the Class VI portion of this road.
If you can’t bear to stop, you can combine this hike with a one-hour loop on the E side of Three Mile Road, posted as the February, 2018 Hike of the Month: Mink Brook & the Harris Trail.
Dogs are welcome if under your control; please pick up after your pet.

Hiking Directions

Begin your hike at the wooden AT sign set back from Three Mile Road and proceed gently downhill through a young mixed forest of pine and northern hardwoods. Here and there, the gleaming bark of yellow birch catches the sun.
The 1855 and 1892 maps show no homes on this side of Three Mile Road between Chandler and the Wolfeboro Road, and so it was likely that most of this land served as sheep pasture then.
We missed the turkey parade!
If snow conditions are right, you can mark the passage of many creatures in these woods. Red squirrels, deer, and turkey are the most obvious.
Eight minutes’ walk from your car, you encounter the remains of an ancient tree that split like a giant lily at its base. Three large trunks fell at R, and another to the L was cleared away.
Five minutes further, some kind soul has placed rough planks to help you cross a series of small rivulets. Send silent thanks to the dedicated trail maintainer of this section of the AT (we know who he is!) for keeping your feet dry.
The largest of these brooks marks a transition to larger pine, and you note five blowdowns at L. Their fallen boles all lie SW of their tipped up root systems, hinting that a nor’easter took them down. As the years pass their root masses will decay, leaving only the mounds and pits we find all over New England forests that speak softly but eloquently of such forest disturbances.
Soon you reach a stone wall lined with large sugar maples, signaling your arrival at Corey Road. A close look at L reveals strands of barbed wire caught in the wood of one old tree, still on duty to keep the cows out of traffic.
Corey Road
From the center of the road, turn completely around to note two wooden signs placed (thank you, Hanover Trails Committee volunteers!) to identify the historic road. You’ll want to keep an eye out for them on your return trip.
Corey Road was laid out and surveyed on November 14, 1793 from the Wolfeboro Road S to Chandler Road, and was once an important link between Hanover Center and Enfield. One house stood on the road in 1855, but it was gone by 1892. By 1948, Corey Road was in disuse and Town Meeting voted to discontinue it subject to gates and bars. The AT was busier – Dr. Goldthwait noted a crossing of “the D.O.C. trail to Moose Mountain” when mapping the area in 1926.
Turn R and head N down Corey Road. Stone walls line both sides. As you proceed, some sections of the R wall are composed of much smaller stones than elsewhere, hinting that the ground nearby may once have been tilled. This more intensive use would have motivated the landowner to remove smaller stones that could damage a plow, and dispose of them in the wall.
Six minutes from the AT junction, you’ll head down a short, steeper pitch toward a brook – the same one you crossed on the AT. A formidable stone foundation appears at L on the other side. Stone walls and barbed wire mark boundaries.
Cross this small brook carefully – there is no bridge, although the Trails Committee is contemplating one. The size of woody debris caught just below indicates that this brook can punch above its apparent weight during a heavy rain.
Corey-Woodard cellar hole
Hike back up a few yards beyond the brook and past the stone foundation. Just as you reach more level ground, step off the road to discover a cellar hole, about 20 paces to the L. Likely the original Corey homestead, it was the home of one O. Woodard by 1855. The cellar hole is lined by a drylaid stone foundation. If it seems too small, consider that a cellar was needed under only a part of the home, and a glance to the N reveals a flat rectangular area where the rest of the house stood. Sited just above the road with SW exposure for solar gain and a good water source close by, this must have been a fine place to live. What happened to prompt its abandonment by the 1890s? We don’t know.
After exploring the cellar hole, return to Corey Road and continue N. Here, the stone wall at R is composed of coarse boulders topped with barbed wire – the edge of a pasture, not a garden.
Corey Road stone culvert (fall 2012)
Seven minutes after leaving the cellar hole, you arrive at a second brook crossing, this time forded with the most impressive surviving drylaid stone culvert in Hanover. Walk down to the L on the S side to get a good view up to the moss-covered structure that has lasted here for 225 years. A close look reveals a flat stone lintel that carries Corey Road across the brook. The opening is tall enough to accommodate a short person. Imagine what it took to build this crossing! Even more incredibly, the home-grown engineering created a stable bridge that has withstood not only the centuries but also – so far – the sudden, higher flows from microbursts and other heavy storms associated with climate change.
Bright sky appears across the brook and above to the L, indicating an open field. Below the slope and along the streambank is a collection of what can politely be called “cultural debris,” such as an old milk can. It was once common practice to toss unwanted items over a bank, often near a stream. This spot is a little open air museum thanks to that habit.
Like us, you’re probably tempted to linger by the bridge a bit longer, so we’ll tell you about the stream. This is Monahan Brook, the principal N tributary of Mink Brook. It rises N of Wolfeboro Road and flows SW to the Third Reservoir near Hanover Center Road. From there, much of the water is diverted from Mink Brook and piped under the road and into the woods above the Parker Reservoir in the Trescott Water Supply Lands. From there, it’s a short trip to downtown kitchens and drinking fountains. You’ve been hiking through more drinking water supply lands! However, the watershed of the Third Reservoir is only minimally protected – the Town owns only a narrow strip within 175-200 yards of the water’s edge. Federal land and AT easements protect a bit more, as do two privately conserved parcels at Monahan Brook’s headwaters, but otherwise this watershed is protected only by the good will of private landowners.
Monahan Brook 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, assisted by the Hanover Conservancy. They found that “Hanover’s little Mink Brook and its tributaries showed a surprisingly healthy population of native Eastern Brook Trout.” You are now standing at one of those study sites.
Corey Road continues as a Class VI Road up to Wolfeboro Road, but today we’ll retrace our steps and head S.
Nine minutes’ walk brings you back to the first brook, where several channels join upstream of your crossing. Make a note of the time.
Step over the brook and continue a gentle but steady uphill walk for about eight minutes. Even under the snow, you can see the depression of the old road bed even though it has not been traveled for at least 70 years. Keep an eye out for the Corey Road sign at the AT crossing.
Reach the AT and stop to listen to the sighing pines overhead, imagining the open sunny pastures that once flanked the road on both sides, shaded only by the old maples lining the stone walls.
Turn L onto the AT and head E toward Three Mile Road (and ultimately, N to Maine!).
15 minutes’ hike on the gently rising trail will bring you back to your car.
A reminder – if you can’t bear to stop, you can combine this hike with a one-hour loop on the E side of Three Mile Road, the February, 2018 Hike of the Month: Mink Brook and the Harris Trail.

Mink Brook & the Harris Trail

February 1, 2018

Harris Trail Loop full PDF

Driving 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 microspikes 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.

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 new 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.
The 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 ->” recently 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.
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!

General’s Trail

Hike Directions and Map – Full PDF

Driving Directions

What You Should Know

Hiking Directions

Trescott/Paine/AT Loop

Hike map and directions – full PDF

Driving Directions

What You Should Know

Hiking Directions

Moose Mountain Ridge Loop

Complete PDF

Driving Directions

What You Should Know

Hiking Directions

Old Highway 38 & Hudson Farm

Trail Directions and Map – Full Hike

Driving Directions

What You Should Know

Hiking Directions

Corey Road and the AT

Corey Road and AT – Full PDF

Driving Directions

What You Should Know

Hiking Directions

Mink Brook & the Harris Trail

Harris Trail Loop full PDF

Driving directions

What you should know

Hiking Directions

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