Church Pond Trail fixed!

[John in NH]

Redliners rejoice! The once dreaded Church Pond Trail, (no longer a loop, the eastern part is closed), that heads 1.1 miles to church pond from campsite 19 at Passaconaway Campground is now in delightful shape! Crews have installed extensive new bog bridging with commercial grade materials over all the swampy parts. You do have to ford the river at the start though, and even in current low water, it was mid calf deep. Awesome foliage hike, as all the mountains around the pond were covered in orange and red. If it wasn't for the river ford at the start, I'd go so far as to say its a nice family hike for small kids. Can't believe I enjoyed this one.

 

[Maineman]

IMHO, If you haven't done the loop, there should be an asterisk next to your name in the record book

Kidding aside, this is great news - quite a beautiful spot indeed!

I love the natural progression of redlining, as your experience grows and you start hitting more obscure trails your routefinding skills come into play more often. I'm just shy of a thousand miles completed and now that the remaining trails become more remote I actually have to use my map occasionally!

 

[Amicus]

I can only summon two cheers for this bit of good news. I hiked this Trail in June, on Father's Day. At the Swift River ford at the start, I carefully switched from boots and socks to a pair of water socks, keeping said boots and socks nice and dry and clean. All in vain, as this proved to be the wettest, muddiest trail I’ve ever hiked. At that time, they had replaced the bog bridges that had disintegrated only about halfway. The new ones stopped just before the wettest, muddiest section, and in some places the glop was knee-deep. The Trail did finally climb a bit onto some dry ground shortly before it ended, at a point on the NE shore of Church Pond, with a good view to the west. On my return, I trudged through the River in my boots, to get the mud off. It had started to rain, which seemed appropriate. This was formerly a loop of twice the distance, but what was the eastern half was abandoned because it was too wet. That must have been something!

In my defense, there was no sign indicating that trail repairs were underway and incomplete. I don't have my copy of the latest (29th) Ed. of the AMC Guide at hand, but I'm not sure it flagged the situation either. It was fun, sort of, anyway.

 

[kltilton]

I used to run this loop in conjunction with the Rob Brook Trail from Bear Notch Rd. to make a 13+ mile loop. It was just a little wet.

 

[Lefty E]

kl was it difficult doing your run with waders on?? We were lucky enough to complete the Rob Brook Trail before it was closed and we were swimming with muskrats and beavers that day!! Church Pond was not much better about a year ago....will have to check it out again!!

 

[TDawg]

I hiked this trail for the first time a week or two ago and found it to be a pleasure, short stream ford included. Nice foliage in the swamps. Good views of the Sandwich Range.

https://picasaweb.google.com/TMHHikes48/ChurchPondRailNRiverDiscoveryTrails92313