{"id":6257,"date":"2023-09-13T19:54:31","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T19:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/?p=6257"},"modified":"2023-09-13T21:03:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T21:03:07","slug":"ready-for-a-challenge-or-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/ready-for-a-challenge-or-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready for a Challenge or Two?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hedgehog Mountain<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m happy to be a member of the Forest Society<\/a> as well as the New Hampshire Rail Trails Coalition. (The two organizations are otherwise unrelated.) From that, you can guess that I love finding good places to hike anywhere in the state.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of the Society\u2019s \u201c5 Hikes Challenge,\u201d<\/a> which will be held once again this late summer into fall. I\u2019ll be signing up, and I look forward to visiting some favorite rail trails as I head to Forest Society properties. Here are two possible trail pairings, and maybe they\u2019ll give you some ideas for your own adventures. If you are already working on the NHRTC\u2019s Rail Trails Challenge<\/a>, so much the better.<\/p>\n

Deering: Hedgehog Mountain<\/a> and the Hillsborough Recreational Trail<\/a>. To reach the Forest Society\u2019s Hedgehog Mountain property, I climb uphill a little more than a mile from a tiny parking area in Deering to get to a bird\u2019s-eye view of the Contoocook River valley. Mount Monadnock is visible in the distance. The traffic below on busy U.S. 202 is concealed by all the greenery flanking the highway and river. If I\u2019m up for a longer up-and-down ridge hike – and if I have a companion with whom I can spot a car – I can hike all the way to the Society\u2019s High Five property five miles away.<\/p>\n

But I generally favor flatter paths, so after a visit to Hedgehog Mountain I can drive a few miles to Fish and Game Road for a trailhead on the unpaved Hillsborough Recreational Trail. The trail is eight miles long and extends from Hillsboro through Deering to Bennington. It passes by farms, under trees, and even past a small airport. Keep an eye out for Crotched Mountain in the distance.<\/p>\n

Concord: Merrimack River Conservation Area<\/a> and a segment of the Concord-Sunapee Rail Trail<\/a>. If you\u2019ve ever driven north out of downtown Concord on U.S. 3, you\u2019ve probably driven by 25 Fisherville Road (a short distance past Sewall\u2019s Falls Road) without even realizing it. It\u2019s worth finding! A small but well-defined parking area marks the east end of a pleasant unpaved trail that extends a little over two miles. This is one segment of what will one day be the complete Concord-Sunapee rail trail.<\/p>\n

Ready for another short walk? Stay in Concord and head to the east side of the Merrimack River off of I-93\u2019s exit 16. Look for the Forest Society\u2019s headquarters and educational center on Portsmouth Street. Trails wind through the property and lead to the riverside, within view of the highway. Birds and wildlife thrive there.<\/p>\n

The Forest Society\u2019s 2023 \u201c5 Hikes Challenge\u201d runs from August 31 to October 31. \u00a0The Rail Trails Challenge is ongoing, with no deadline.<\/p>\n

Photos and text by NHRTC Treasurer, Ellen Kolb.\u00a0 Read more on her blog: http:\/\/granitestatewalker.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hedgehog Mountain I\u2019m happy to be a member of the Forest Society as well as the New Hampshire Rail Trails Coalition. (The two organizations are otherwise unrelated.) From that, you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-exploring-nhs-rail-trails"},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6257"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6265,"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257\/revisions\/6265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nhrtc.org\/nhrtc-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}