Gap Mountain

It was quite cool this morning so I thought it would be a great day to do a little trail work.  There is a point on the North Trail of Gap Mountain where hikers create short-cuts along a switchback in the trail.  I needed some new material to brush it in so I figured I may as well take the brush from a nearby view point in an old orchard.  One thing led to another and now the view is open again.  Maybe I will return in the spring to do a little trimming on the apple trees.

Before

After

If you have never hiked to the top on Gap Mountain in Troy, autumn is the time to do it.  The trail is much quieter than any of the trails on Monadnock and the view at the top is great and at only 1 1/2 miles, about half the distance of Monadnock.

Thank You Volunteers!

More than 50 people gathered this week for our annual Forest Society Volunteer Appreciation Dinner.  Guests included not only land stewards but also office volunteers, participants in Monadnock Trails Week, and green building and floodplain tour guides.  President-Forester Jane Difley welcomed the group and announced our Volunteer of the Year award, which is being given to land steward Linda Howes this year for her wonderful work providing visitor outreach at Grafton Pond Reservation.  Then it was time dig in and eat lasagna, salad, bread, and cake...while of course socializing with fellow volunteers and staff.  Thank you to everyone who came to the dinner and made it a great success, and thank you to those who could not make it, but should absolutely still be thanked!!

Dump Pickers 101

Last week we had probably one of the least appealing land steward workdays I can think of at Moose Mountains Reservation: a dump clean-up.  This wasn't just a collection of materials left by people not wanting to pay a dump fee to dispose of their waste now and then; this was years (decades even) of household trash dumped in a single location.  Since that location is very visible - right next to the Moose Mountains parking area and kiosk - we scheduled this workday to get as much of it cleaned up as possible.

 "before" shots of the MMR dump

Land Steward Bob Lyon and DRED employee Bob Spoerl haul trash to the dumpster

Jason finds an old knife

 The metal pile (L) and the site when we were finished (R)

Thankfully the trash had been there long enough that most of the organic material was gone, leaving mostly glass bottles and metal, but when we started digging and bottles started breaking it definitely got stinky pretty quickly.  From some of the items we found (old license plates, soda cans, etc) we were able to date the dump to the late 40s and early 50s.  The coolest finds were probably old bottles and farm equipment (including a horseshoe); the creepiest were old doll parts, and the grossest a full jar of cold cream from the 1950s (wrinkle treatment, anyone?).  When we had cleaned up several layers of trash, we covered over the site with branches and leaves to conceal it, and called it a day.  Only about a quarter of the 30yd dumpster was filled, but we also hauled out a half dumpster full of metal (taken by scrappers within minutes of Wendy listing it on Craigslist) and about 25 tires.  We are truly grateful for the 8 volunteers who came out to help on this workday- it was not a pretty one!

creepiest find

The dump crew (minus Wendy, taking the photo)

Clear Views from Silver Mountain

The views from the top of Silver Mountain on the Forest Society's Ashuelot River Headwaters Forest in Lempster were much improved last week thanks to a crew of land stewards and staff.  Sue Lichty, the land steward for Ashuelot River, suggested the workday since the top of the mountain has been growing in steadily since the last time the view was cleared.  This turned out to be the Land Management interns' last day, so they ended on a high note with their chainsaws running all day!  We had about 5 chainsaws going and at least that many people with hand saws and loppers, so the work progressed quickly and we were done by 1pm... which was good, since the day was hot and we were all plenty tired by then.  Sue baked homemade cookies to share, and we ate them while enjoying our newly expanded view before hiking down the mountain.  Workday perfection!

Stefan Pouliot working at the summit

Bob Lyon hauls cut trees

Dogs loved the workday too

Sue Lichty in one of her favorite places

Check out Phoebe's Nable!

Phoebe's Nable on the Forest Society's Moose Mountains Reservation may win the prize for the strangest named mountain in New Hampshire.  No one I've talked to yet has been able to tell me what a Nable is, or what someone named Phoebe might be doing with it.  Nevertheless, it's one of the many great hikes you can find at our 3,000+ acre Moose Mountains Reservation in Middleton and Brookfield.  Land Stewards Jason Morris and Scott Lavoice have been very  hard at work on this vast property making it possible (and enjoyable!) for hikers to explore all the wonderful out-of the-way vistas and scenic landscapes at Moose Mountains.  To that end, Jason recently directed our two Land Management interns, Will and Eric, for two days of view expansion on Phoebe's Nable Mountain.  The result is below, before and after.  If you haven't been to this property, you've got to check it out soon!  A link to Jason's blog is in the sidebar too- if you need any further convincing...

View at Phoebe's Nable- before

View at PHoebe's Nable NOW!!

High Blue Gets a New Addition, Trail & View!

High Blue Reservation in Walpole just got a little bigger and a little brighter.  A 59 acre addition to this forest was acquired by the Forest Society last month, thanks in large part to a single donor named Steve Grega who provided most of the funding to purchase the parcel.  The new piece abuts the original High Blue property, as well as Walpole's town forest, creating a very significant block of conserved land in this area.  The parcel also extend's High Blue's trail system considerably, adding a new 3/4 mile loop to the existing network of hiking trails.

Bud Ross, High Blue's land steward, is excited about the new addition!

Last week a crew of land stewards and volunteers, including Steve Grega himself, who had hiked this land for many years prior to his donation, gathered to clear and mark this "new" trail system, officially connecting it to the trails at High Blue.  We also spent some time clearing a magnificant view from the high point of the new parcel.  Now, visitors will be able to enjoy views to the west (on the original High Blue property) and also to the south and east (from the new addition).  As soon as I wrangle some photos of the finished view cut (I was working in another area when they finished up) I will post them here!

Walter Weeks trimming up the trail

Hiel Lindquist and Ruth Ward working in the view cut area

More Cleaning Up!

There seems to be no shortage of clean-up tasks this summer.  We went from hauling tires at Hedgehog Mountain one week to bagging up more trash at Hills Family Forest and Grandpa Watson's Woodlot the next.  Hills Forest and Grandpa Watson's Woodlot are relatively new Forest Society properties, on the Durham/Madbury line. We knew that there was a significant amount of dumped material to pick up there from previous visits to the property, but when our crew arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find that a good deal of it had already been cleaned up by some mysterious environmentalist or good neighbor group!  Still, there was a good half dump truck's worth of trash to keep us busy there, and we installed two new property signs for the reservations too.  Thanks to all who slapped on their rubber gloves for this one!

Gale Tobbe and her granddaughter Emma bag trash at Hills Family Forest

Loading it up

Someone does not appreciate "No Motorized Wheeled Vehicles" signs.... hmm.