The Mount Will Trail

 Sunday afternoon I took a hike around the Mount Will Trail in Bethel/Newry.  I had hiked up the trail to the South Cliffs last year but never completed the full loop until now.  The trail has a parking area for about 10 cars and is located right across the street from the Bethel Transfer and Recycling Station on Route 2.  I headed up the North Ledges Trail deciding to travel counter-clockwise.  The terrain is steep in some areas so you need to be in moderately good shape to tackle this.  The overall length of the trail is 3.25 miles and along parts of the trail you’ll see some Trilliums growing this time of year. 

 There are nice views from the North Ledges looking out to Hanover and the Bear River Valley but I think the view from the South Cliffs is the best.  Here you can see John and Tim Carter’s Farm (Middle Intervale Farm) just on the other side of the river, Mount Abram and downtown Bethel to the south and the Mahoosuc Range to the west.  I sat on this cliff for ½ an hour enjoying this view while the warm thermal updrafts blew in my face and kept the bugs away.  It was wonderful. Click here for some addtional information about the trail from the Town of Bethel.

Maggie’s Nature Park

A few weekends ago Lauren and I took our first hike at Maggie’s Nature Park which is located in Greenwood, Maine on the west side of South Pond. It was peaceful, beautiful and the trails were well marked. What struck both of us was the abundance and variety of mushrooms and fungus growing on the forest floor. At first I said “wow look at all these mushrooms” but then we were both calling to each other “look at this red one”, “look at this weird one.” I have never seen so much variety in such a short walk. Here is a small sample of some of the fungus we saw.

Table Rock Loop Trail

View from Table Rock in Grafton Notch State Park

I have been asking myself recently why I have not gone hiking more since I now live in the land of abundant mountains and trails. The White Mountain National Forest is practically in my back yard and Grafton Notch State Park is just a short ride to the north. So I kicked my lazy butt out of bed this morning, laced up the hiking boots, threw some water and trail mix in a day pack and headed to Grafton Notch State Park with the purpose of climbing the Table Rock Loop Trail. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this trail and it did not disappoint. You get a lot of bang for the buck on this particular trail (okay it’s a 2 buck honor system fee). They have a nice parking lot at the trailhead where you cross the road (Route 26) and begin hiking the Appalachian Trail for a very short while (0.1 mile) before you have a decision to make which is:

a) Do I go counter-clockwise and take the steep and rocky trail up? This is the orange blaze trail, or

b) Do I continue up the moderately steep Appalachian Trail for about one mile and then branch off to the right on a relatively easy trail toward Table Rock? (Blue blaze trail)

I chose option B and reached Table Rock in about 45 minutes. The views here are spectacular looking at Old Speck Mountain directly ahead, Sunday River Whitecap to the south and the Eyebrow to the north. Although the weatherman last night said a high pressure system would make this day sunny it was cloudy enough to keep the top of Old Speck hidden from view.

So I continued the loop which is 2.4 miles taking the orange blaze (steep and rocky) trail back down which is hard on the legs. I met a couple who said they have done this hike many times and think it is easiest to do it the other way. I have to agree with them so unless you only want to take the blue blaze trail back and forth I would recommend taking the steep (orange blaze) trail up and the (blue blaze) trail down. If you’re in pretty good shape this is really a worthwhile hike.

Old Speck

The Eyebrow