RoySwkr
New member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2003
- Messages
- 4,467
- Reaction score
- 285
I took advantage of the fine weather yesterday to wander deeper into part of the National Forest I'd never visited but is well known to rockhounds and mountain bikers. The basic loop is maybe 4 miles but I extended it to maybe 8 with side trips which I mostly won't mention. As usual, I did not take photographs or run a track log.
The trail I used is not in the AMC White Mtn Guide perhaps due to space limitations although it has Forest Service signs and yellow blazes, but it isn't on the map either where that excuse doesn't apply. I'd be interested in whether other maps show it.
I started at the extension of High St off Passaconaway Rd in Albany (FR-380). The route is marked by FS symbolic signs which could be interpreted as "go pound sand". There is a gate which is closed in snow and mud seasons just beyond the last house (one branch of FR-379 enters there), then an old gravel pit where several horse trailers were parked (met the riders later). I parked at a sharp turn where gated FR-379 leaves again, the best space being occupied by mountain bikers.
FR-379 starts off moderately downhill, and there are still some large trees in the woods although the road was presumably built for logging. The road which enters R at the foot of the hill looks rarely used. A screech owl tried to simulate the brakes on my car. There is a long level section of road with 2 branch roads entering R, then the road zags and begins a moderate climb parallel to the brook. There is a FS gate seemingly in the middle of nowhere a little further along.
After awhile, an unmarked path led L and I wondered if that was the mine trail, but a few steps further was another path with a FS sign. I continued a few hundred yards to an unmarked path R which led to Thompson Falls. The path starts off level but then descends to the top of the falls. There are several good viewpoints of the upper falls - the lower cascade is less impressive and harder to get a good look at. The falls is not labelled on the USGS 7.5' map but can be found on the 15' http://docs.unh.edu/NH/cnwy45sw.jpg
Then back to the mine trail which I started up. It looked like a new trail with switchbacks which I wasn't expecting, and a bushwhack L led to the old path which went more directly up the mountainside and was becoming overgrown. The trails rejoined before levelling off and reaching the mine area, which is not a single quarry but a group of seemingly random diggings. The trail out from there is an old road, not as steep except for one dip across a rivulet. There is a parking lot for miners with a kiosk but no fee tube, then an easy walk downhill on the road half a mile to where the car was parked.
The trail I used is not in the AMC White Mtn Guide perhaps due to space limitations although it has Forest Service signs and yellow blazes, but it isn't on the map either where that excuse doesn't apply. I'd be interested in whether other maps show it.
I started at the extension of High St off Passaconaway Rd in Albany (FR-380). The route is marked by FS symbolic signs which could be interpreted as "go pound sand". There is a gate which is closed in snow and mud seasons just beyond the last house (one branch of FR-379 enters there), then an old gravel pit where several horse trailers were parked (met the riders later). I parked at a sharp turn where gated FR-379 leaves again, the best space being occupied by mountain bikers.
FR-379 starts off moderately downhill, and there are still some large trees in the woods although the road was presumably built for logging. The road which enters R at the foot of the hill looks rarely used. A screech owl tried to simulate the brakes on my car. There is a long level section of road with 2 branch roads entering R, then the road zags and begins a moderate climb parallel to the brook. There is a FS gate seemingly in the middle of nowhere a little further along.
After awhile, an unmarked path led L and I wondered if that was the mine trail, but a few steps further was another path with a FS sign. I continued a few hundred yards to an unmarked path R which led to Thompson Falls. The path starts off level but then descends to the top of the falls. There are several good viewpoints of the upper falls - the lower cascade is less impressive and harder to get a good look at. The falls is not labelled on the USGS 7.5' map but can be found on the 15' http://docs.unh.edu/NH/cnwy45sw.jpg
Then back to the mine trail which I started up. It looked like a new trail with switchbacks which I wasn't expecting, and a bushwhack L led to the old path which went more directly up the mountainside and was becoming overgrown. The trails rejoined before levelling off and reaching the mine area, which is not a single quarry but a group of seemingly random diggings. The trail out from there is an old road, not as steep except for one dip across a rivulet. There is a parking lot for miners with a kiosk but no fee tube, then an easy walk downhill on the road half a mile to where the car was parked.
