Neals Hill, VT 1312 12/6/2013

[RoySwkr]

I decided to skip across the border to where rifle deer season had ended and hike in the Hartford Town Forest. There are several mapped trails and probably twice that many unmapped mountain bike trails, which seem to grow like weeds in the Upper Valley. I was surprised that Reservoir Road was pavement with a yellow line, but it soon enough changed to squishy mud. There was no snow in the woods but a few remains of plow drifts along the road, trails were wet from rain earlier in the day with some ice on puddles.
http://www.hartford-vt.org/downloads/520

I followed mapped trails to the SW ridge then a series of deteriorating mtn bike trails to the summit area, there was no obvious highest point but it was easy to wander the open woods. I went down a better mtn bike trail that seemed to head in the wrong direction, but switchbacked around to a junction I remembered from the way up. [Should have gone straight instead of right.] With plenty of extra time, I took another mtn bike trail over to the South Side Trail and looped back to the car. I skipped the hike to the old airway beacon - maybe next time.

 

[mirabela]

Neat. Note that deer season reopened again today (muzzleloaders) and continues through next Sunday.

 

[blacknblue]

I grew up on that hill. We used to run around and mountain bike and x-country ski those trails as kids. It was a lot less official back then, but it sure was fun to explore as a kid (and as an adult, for that matter).