Hanover Conservancy

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Headwaters Forest Spring Loop

Driving directions:

  • From Etna Village, take Ruddsboro Rd for 1.5 miles to Three Mile Rd.
  • Turn left and proceed for 1.8 miles. Turn right onto the Wolfeboro Rd and park on right before red gate.
  • Please park courteously and do not block gate or private drives. Try not to run over clumps of red trillium!

What you should know:

  • Leave no trace — please carry out your own trash
  • Trails are open for foot travel at all seasons
  • Please pick up after your pet; dogs must be under the direct control of their owners
  • No camping or fires
  • Hunting is permitted in season
  • Leave wildflowers, fungi, and wildlife undisturbed
  • The 140-acre Headwaters Forest on Moose Mountain is owned and managed by the Hanover Conservancy.

Headwaters Forest Spring Loop – Full PDF

 

BRIEF HIKING DIRECTIONS

  • Begin at the red gate and walk east on the Wolfeboro Road to a gray metal gate at left
  • Visit the kiosk before taking the Tamarack Trail left to the frog pond
  • Skirt the wooded wetland to a far corner of the meadow marked by birches
  • Turn left and follow a boardwalk to a secluded meadow
  • Retrace your steps to the main meadow and walk uphill to the opening in the woods marked Peregrine’s Path
  • Follow Peregrine’s Path up through the forest to a stone wall-lined sheep lane
  • Turn right, following the lane, cross Mink Brook on a small footbridge, and continue to the Harris Trail
  • Turn right onto the Harris Trail and follow it to the Wolfeboro Road
  • Turn right onto the Wolfeboro Road and walk down the slope to return to your car

FULL DIRECTIONS

  • Begin your hike at the red gate marking the historic Wolfeboro Road’s change from Class V to Class VI.
  • A few minutes’ walk brings you to a grey metal gate across a gap in the road-side stone wall at left. Walk around the gate to visit the trailhead kiosk. You’ll find a map and trail guide in the dispenser along with a
    grateful acknowledgment of all those friends, families, and organizations who helped the Hanover Conservancy purchase and protect this land in 2023.
  • Take a moment to inspect the antique cultivator parked beneath the kiosk. It speaks volumes about the hard work involved in farming this land in years past. Not long after the Wolfeboro Road was cut over Moose
    Mountain to Three Mile Road in 1772, a farm family set up at the junction and began clearing the slope behind you, first for a subsistence farm. Later came sheep, then cattle. The last to farm this land was Dick
    Kendall and his family, from whom the Conservancy purchased his 150 acres.
  • Turn left on the Tamarack Trail to visit the little frog pond at the base of the slope. Look for egg masses and hope for a visit from the handsome pair of mallards who greeted us the day we visited. Beyond, the red farmhouse rests on the site of the original late 18th century cape, rebuilt by Dick Kendall 60 years ago.
  • Facing the pond, note the tall stand of tamaracks gathered around a single pine off to your right, and make a point of visiting again in late fall to catch them in their golden
    glory. In early May, bundles of bright green needles are just erupting from the trees’ glowing russet twigs. Tamaracks, also known as larch or hackmatack, are our only
    native deciduous conifer.
  • Head toward them, following the curve of the wetland edge. At this season, a variety of willows showing off their yellow twigs and others with fluffy green foxtail-shaped
    inflorescences dominate the scene. Willows love wet feet, as do speckled alders, whose unlikely-looking fat cones top each branch. (If you don’t appreciate wet feet,
    admire these wetland dwellers from a distance). Shrubby wetlands like this offer great cover for a variety of wildlife while storing water from heavy storms to release it slowly downstream – in this case, to Mink Brook.
  • Follow the wetland edge to the right and gradually uphill through the moist meadow. At this season, “camo”
    colored trout lily leaves underfoot seem out of place but are curiously thriving. In high summer, this is a great
    place for lowbush blueberries.
  • Climb the far side of the meadow opposite the kiosk to a gathering of graceful white-barked birches and popples. Turning left around this corner reveals a wooded passageway marked by a bog bridge. Here, the antique cultivator rested for years – keeping a 1960s VW bus company (now reincarnated elsewhere). At right, a yellow sign indicates the continuation of the Tamarack Trail. Follow the boardwalk north, thanking a grant from Mascoma Savings Bank for the lumber keeping your feet dry.
  • The boardwalk invites you to visit a beautiful secluded meadow. Near the middle is a pile of stones, left by a long-ago farmer who had picked the rock out of his fields and moved them here on a stoneboat (a low wooden sled) with the help of his horse, but never got around to using them in a stone wall.
  • Years ago, the wooded wetland before you was an open beaver pond where the Kendall children learned to skate. The beavers eventually ate themselves out of house and home, and moved on. In their absence, birch and popple returned.
  • Return via the boardwalk to the larger meadow and turn left up the hill. As you approach an opening in the woods ahead, pass a cluster of old apple trees on your left. Every farm once had an orchard, not only for fruit to eat and cook, but also for apple cider vinegar, a useful preservative.
  • Find the entrance to Peregrine’s Path, which follows an old woods road into the forest. The family of
    Peregrine Spiegel, who often hiked and skied this path, was instrumental in helping the Conservancy protect
    this land after the passing of its owner. The path is marked with cranberry blazes.
  • Soon after leaving the meadow, note a group of honeysuckle bushes at left, marked with orange tape. This property has suffered only slightly from invasive plants such as these, but it’s not surprising to find them along what was a log-hauling road. They are on the list to be removed so they cannot spread further.
  • Pass through a log landing and an area of close-growing small trees. This new forest was the last area where Kendall cut firewood to heat his home, and it is now growing back. Beyond, white birch represents a slightly later stage of this early successional forest.
  • Continue on as the old woods road climbs gently up and bears left on the last bit of uphill walking today.
  • Just after this turn, be on the lookout for handsome patches of our three most common clubmosses, beginning with ground pine on the left, followed on the right by the well-named erect shining clubmoss and then ground cedar with its flattened, scale-like leaves. These ancient plants spread along the forest floor by creeping rhizomes.
  • About 10 minutes after leaving the meadow, you arrive at a surprising sight – a bob house in the middle of the woods! What is an ice-fishing shack doing here? After
    spending time on Post Pond and other more conventional places, it took up duty as a place for Dick Kendall to store his chainsaw and get out of the rain. The Conservancy
    is hoping to retrofit it for a new role. The opening visible at right is the former site of Dick Kendall’s portable sawmill operation. Here’s a good glimpse of the Moose
    Mountain ridge above.
  • Continue on Peregrine’s Path, passing left of the bob house on the straight, flat trail. In a few minutes you’ll arrive at a large red maple, double-blazed to indicate a turn at a stone wall. A flat stone at its base invites you to sit for a drink and snack. Healthy outdoor recreation in a natural place like this is one reason why the Moose Plate program made a grant to the Hanover Conservancy to
    help protect this land.
  • While you’re there, gaze up amid the bare branches to admire the maple’s lesser known showy season – its tiny yet brilliant red flowers, which can make quite a splash
    against a bluebird sky. Sugar maples have yellowish-green flowers. Both are wind pollinated and typically have separate male and female flowers on different branches.
  • After admiring the flower show overhead, look down at your feet for an eye-catching boulder of quartzite. Moose Mountain features many quartzite intrusions. The milky white
    stone gleams on the sunny forest floor in early spring before foliage emerges to shade it. The tiny single green lily-like leaves at your feet are Canada mayflower.
  • Before continuing, look back at the crowded young forest you’re leaving behind as you turn right onto the old sheep lane and into an older forest where competition has thinned out the trees over time. From the 1820s until the Civil War, the Sheep Craze took hold in the Upper Valley, and Moose Mountain’s slopes were cleared up to about the 1700’ elevation to provide pasture for them. In 1840, over 11,000 sheep grazed in Hanover. As the wool textile industry moved south, farmers abandoned their most distant pastures and the forest returned, with older forests on pastures abandoned the longest. We see the signature of that here.
  • Follow the stone wall down the sheep lane, alert for a few remaining stubs of young trees that had been cleared from the path. In six minutes, reach a tiny valley where the wall ends at a large angular boulder with an embedded intrusion of white stone. What sort of animal does it remind you of?
  • Arrive at a new footbridge, built by the Conservancy in 2024 with the help of the Upper Valley Trails Alliance High School Trail Crew to protect nascent Mink Brook. The tiny stream’s waters are clear and cold, a sign they are well protected by the undisturbed forest and will provide good rearing habitat for young brook trout downstream. This is one reason the Greater Upper Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited provided a grant to help build this bridge. Young red spruce, important for ruffed grouse, cluster nearby.
  • Cross the bridge and follow the new red-blazed, winding path back out of the little valley past stands of trout lilies into a mature, open forest of glistening yellow birch, maples, ash, and beech.
  • A few minutes’ walk from the bridge, arrive at the Harris Trail, which runs north-south along the contour, halfway up the mountain ridge. The original route of the Appalachian Trail, built in the 1920s, the Harris Trail is a favorite with backcountry skiers and hikers. It runs from Moose Mountain Lodge Road north to Goose Pond Road. The longest single section is across the Headwaters Forest.
  • Note the trio of gray-barked beech trees on the far side of the Harris Trail. Two, including the one marked with pink flagging, display the pitted and scarred bark of trees suffering from beech bark disease. The largest, however, has completely smooth, healthy bark and appears to be genetically resistant to the disfiguring disease. Moreover, its sturdy stem exhibits curious wrinkles that resemble an elephant’s leg. We’ve consulted many experts, and the only explanation offered is that the tree must have responded to strong winds at one time.
  • Turn right on the blue-blazed Harris Trail and head south through a gap in a stone wall. At this season, before the understory leafs out, you can see far up the hillside on your left to a line of ledges that could offer good bobcat denning. Bobcats share the forest with other wide-ranging wildlife like moose, deer, black bear, coyote, and other smaller mammals. Connecting this forest with the protected Appalachian Trail corridor and the Conservancy’s own Mayor-Niles and Britton Forests is one reason why the Land and Community Heritage Investment program made a major grant to the Hanover Conservancy to help protect this land.
  • As you walk this wide, flat trail, keep an eye out for the evergreen Christmas fern along with ephemeral spring wildflowers such as red trillium, wild oats, and tiny
    roundleaf yellow violets.
  • Five minutes’ walk from the elephant beech, you’ll encounter a second, larger footbridge, also built by the high school trail crew, to keep hikers from tramping through Mink Brook’s headwaters and seeps. The muddy area that once surrounded this site is now beginning to heal, and the water flows clear. One end is tapered to help skiers cross without catching a tip.
  • These tiny seeps and streams play a key part in climate change resilience for downstream communities like Etna Village. Far up here in Mink Brook’s headwaters, the forest and undisturbed duff layer on the floor not only lock up carbon in leaves, wood, and soil, they also hold back stormwater like a sponge, keeping flooding under control and streamflow steadier throughout the year. This is one reason why the Upper Connecticut River Mitigation and Enhancement Fund made a major grant to the Hanover Conservancy to help protect this land.
  • Four minutes later, cross a third new bridge. Not only do these dry crossings protect the water, they keep skiers out of icy conditions in winter. Look for the lush bright green accordion-leaved foliage of false hellebore nearby. This exuberant member of the lily family appreciates wet woods like this.
  • Continue south on the Harris Trail through a forest showing a healthy range of tree species and ages. Some of the oaks and maples are truly impressive. Such diversity makes this forest more resilient to severe storms, insect attacks, and other stressors. This is one reason why The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Appalachians grant program made a grant to the Hanover Conservancy to help protect this land.
  • On the right you’ll soon begin to notice small green HC boundary markers indicating the Harris Trail has crossed onto the neighboring private lot. Orange tape warns of remnants of barbed wire along the boundary.
  • Six minutes’ walk from the last bridge, cross over a short wooden structure to deliver you dry-footed to the old Wolfeboro Road. It’s a complex junction out here in the woods! Uphill to your left, the historic road bears
    right and up the mountainside to cross the Appalachian Trail before plunging down to the valley of Tunis Brook and Goose Pond. Branching to the left is a private drive. Across the road, the Harris Trail continues
    south through Dartmouth College land.
  • Turn right to head down the hill, following the path colonial governor John Wentworth built in 1772 from his home in the Lakes Region so he could attend commencement ceremonies at Dartmouth College. Did he really
    think it was a good idea to run a road straight up a mountain and down the other side? The story goes that he enjoyed roughing it so much that he camped out with his survey crew while his wife was busy planning the
    new ballroom at the governor’s mansion back in Wolfeboro. The early road does continue on to the college campus, passable mostly by foot and in some cases by car.
  • As you follow the road gently downhill, another of Mink Brook’s headwater streams follows on the right. Soon, the sound of actively flowing water alerts you that all the streams you crossed earlier have blended and
    are now on their way downhill.
  • Six minutes’ walk past the Harris Trail junction, the Wolfeboro Road bends gently left between a leafy hemlock and a pine. On your right an open area appears, bounded by three strands of barbed wire over the
    early stone wall, indicating a former cattle pasture. The former owner referred to this place as “the bean patch” – perhaps he grew beans here at one time, or perhaps he just enjoyed having a quiet place to visit with a view. Because Mink Brook is so close by and should be protected with streamside vegetation, the Conservancy will allow this area to grow up, providing good habitat for grouse and some habitat diversity while fast-growing young trees pack away carbon at a high rate.
  • Continue down the Wolfeboro Road for a few more minutes to where the road flattens out. Admire the dainty waterfall at right, where tiny Mink Brook leaves the Headwaters Forest and continues under the road on its
    way to Etna and the Connecticut River. This is where, in 2012, NH Fish and Game biologists and Trout Unlimited volunteers recorded one of the five best sites for wild brook trout in Mink Brook’s entire 18 square mile
    watershed. That’s one reason why the NH Fish and Game Department’s fisheries habitat program made a grant to the Hanover Conservancy to help protect this land.
  • Continue on down the Wolfeboro Road for another five minutes to return to your car. Thank you for visiting!

 

Thanks to The Conservation Fund, the NH Land and Community Heritage Investment Program,
Upper Connecticut River Mitigation and Enhancement Fund,
The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Appalachians Program,
New Hampshire Moose Plate Program,
NH Fish and Game Department,
Greater Upper Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited,
Upper Valley Trails Alliance,
the Kendall family, and the many friends and neighbors
who contributed in so many ways to the protection of the Headwaters Forest.
Learn more about the Headwaters Forest here. 

Pine Park Perambulation

DOWNLOAD FULL PDF OF DIRECTIONS –  PineParkPerambulation

Driving directions:

  • From Hanover Green, go N on N. Main St.
  • Continue straight onto Rope Ferry Rd.
  • Park at the end of the road or near the clubhouse

What you should know:

  • Foot travel only. No bicycles.
  • Dogs welcome if under close control. Keeping dogs off river and stream banks will protect against erosion. Please pick up after your pet.
  • The hike explores a newly built all-person trail through open meadows and continues along the Connecticut River to an old-growth forest in the Girl Brook Gorge.
  • Pine Park is the oldest conservation land in Hanover. The first 43 acres were purchased in 1899 by a group of 17 Hanover residents to prevent the Diamond Match Company from harvesting trees along the river.
  • The park is owned by a private, non-profit Pine Park Association governed by a board of trustees, with representatives of the Town of Hanover and Dartmouth College. Seven acres of the former golf course (parts of holes 1, 5, and 18) occupied Pine Park property for a century.
  • The Town of Hanover and Dartmouth College generously help to maintain the land. The Association receives no direct funding from the Town or College for conservation or maintenance. A major community fundraising effort has recently resulted in extensive improvements at the Park .

BRIEF HIKING DIRECTIONS

  • Begin at the new stone gate and proceed 2100′ along the new accessible Rope Ferry Trail through a recovering golf course landscape.
  • Continue straight on the Rope Ferry Trail into the forest and down to the Four Corners.
  • Turn sharply L onto the Fern Trail.
  • Turn R onto the North Connector Trail.
  • Turn R onto the River Trail to Bailey Point at the Four Corners.
  • Bear L downhill on the Girl Brook Trail and cross the Carolyn Tenney Bridge.
  • Continue on the Girl Brook Trail and through the gorge, then bear R uphill onto the North Ravine Trail.
  • Turn L onto the new Rope Ferry Trail and retrace your steps to return to your car.

FULL DIRECTIONS

  • Begin your hike at the handsome stone gate announcing your arrival at the newly reconfigured Pine Park entry. The park immediately presents you with the first of many contrasts, right beneath your feet: you’re stepping onto a Class IV road originally laid out in 1766, but rebuilt with three layers of gravel in 2022 to accommodate strollers, wheelchairs, and walkers of all ages.
  • Pause for a moment to admire the handsome plantings of native trees and shrubs at the entrance, chosen for two-season color. Shadbush, viburnums, feathery amsonia, birch, and Stewartia replace invasive plants and scrubby growth. The stone gate, built by Standing Stone, is gathered with old-fashioned mortar. Stones are hand-chipped to fit, and the upright coping on the uppermost layer echoes a traditional method to make the wall stronger.
  • Start down the gently arcing trail. The friendly path is a feat of engineering, requiring an investment of $185,000 raised in the community. Until recently, park users had to be very fit – quick enough to dodge flying golf balls and strong enough to deal with steep terrain. Today it’s possible to simply stroll. The 2100’ long trail allows everyone to venture deep into the park.
  • Passing the corner of a neighbor’s new cobble wall, you step from the Class VI road onto park land.  The Class VI section is 400 feet long. A flat area at L is the former 18th green, one of several removed by Dartmouth College after the golf course was closed and nine acres were returned to Pine Park. Back in 1913, after the Park Association signed an agreement with the college to manage the area, the growing golf course spilled over onto park land, which included a 7.5 acre gift from neighbor Emily Hitchcock. This agreement is being revised, along with boundary adjustments to benefit both. The result will be a natural Pine Park for all, consisting of 100 acres.
  • A berm at L follows the presumed route of Old Ferry Road in this part of the park. Its exact path is unknown, and planners rely on a 1925 map drawn from memory by a college professor.
  • 7 minutes’ walk from the entrance, arrive at an iconic pine tree with boulder benches at its feet. Pause to admire the sweeping view over the former golf course, where in mid-fall, red maples blaze on slopes mixed with the subtler tones of beech and red oak. The wind makes waves in the golden, newly planted grass. Here and there, new tree plantings attract birds and soften the transition to forest.
  • Along the treeline, non-native buckthorn and honeysuckle are also attempting to colonize the area. The Park Association will work with natural resource consultant Redstart to control these invasives with a grant from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Restoring natural drainage on the former golf course is another task.
  • The Rope Ferry Trail makes a gentle U up to the L, providing a view of the former clubhouse. Art professor Homer Eaton Keyes    designed the shingled Arts and Crafts-style structure around 1915 as a remodeling of an earlier “golf barn.” The building holds both charm and contamination. Asbestos and lead paint are among the challenges preventing its creative adaptation to a new use.
  • Reach the rise in the path to discover another group of three boulder benches, arranged for conversation.
  • Now it’s time to enter the woods and discover an entirely different face of Pine Park. As you do, check the forest floor at R for a patch of delicate sweet woodruff, whose starry white flowers will bloom in May.
  • Shortly past the transition to the wooded path, another trail enters at L; if you have lingered too long on the benches, this is your quickest route back to your car. To continue, stay straight on the route of Old Ferry Road.
  • The trail truly feels like a road as it leads you easily over the highest ridge in the park. Note the steep drop-offs to either side. Here and there, hazard trees have been felled to protect trail users. Tawny beech leaves decorate the nearly level trail until it begins to head down through a dense hemlock stand.
  • Suddenly, the ancient road becomes even more obvious, its bed deeply incised in the soft soil. Laid out in 1766, five years after Hanover was incorporated, the road led to a rope-operated ferry across the Connecticut River that ran until 1786. A tavern waited on the Vermont side, and we can imagine Dartmouth students eager to try the crossing. It’s no surprise that it was the ambitious tavern keeper who sought the license to build the ferry. The ferry landing spot is unknown, but likely was at the sandy mouth of Girl Brook.
  • Don’t miss the mound and pit topography of the forest floor at R. These lumps and depressions are characteristic of undisturbed forest, and are what remain many years after a tree blows down. The lifted root ball eventually decays to become a mound next to the pit where it used to rest. Some people call these “pillows and cradles.” By looking at one in relation to the other, you can tell what direction the wind was blowing when it took down the tree.
  • Continue down the slope over a few waterbars built to keep runoff from eroding the trail. Long-time volunteer Ron Bailey built these. Bailey Point, ahead at the confluence of Girl Brook and the Connecticut, is named in his honor.
  • About 10 minutes’ walk from the meadow, the river appears ahead. Look for a trail junction (signs coming soon) at L. At the foot of the hill take a sharp L onto the Fern Trail, heading S and away from the river. It’s time to explore yet another side of Pine Park. Invasive plants were removed here during the summer of 2022, and hay-scented ferns, briars, and other young sun-seeking growth are colonizing the opening made in this once cathedral-like part of the forest. Attacked by beetles and a needle-cast fungus, the tall pines that once stood here had become a danger in this heavily-used park, and were taken down in 2019 under the supervision of professional foresters. The decision was a difficult one for all. Merchantable sections were removed and branches were chipped, but many downed trunks remain, still storing the carbon they contain. The arrangement makes for tricky footing for deer, discouraging them from browsing new tree sprouts. Viable saplings will be protected with tubes. On the forest floor, patches of bearberry are increasing.
  • 4 minutes from the last junction and just before the Fern Trail swings R ahead, turn R onto the new North Connector. This short trail is easy to follow, with its 15” thick log “guard rails.” About this open area, Pine Park Association President Linda Fowler says, “if Mother Nature doesn’t come up with seedlings soon, we will help her out.” Plans call for a grove of trees with a bench for quiet reflection. 
  • 4 minutes from the Fern Trail, arrive at a 3-stemmed pine at the junction with the River Trail. Again, if you’re running out of time, turn L here to return to your car.
  • To continue, turn R onto the most familiar part of Pine Park, where the trail hugs the river. Even the sounds of cars on Route 5 across the water can’t dim the pleasure of this path. In the late 1800s, the Diamond Match Company hoped to buy this patch of forest and literally turn it into matchsticks. Concerned locals stood up to the corporate giant and purchased 44 acres to create Pine Park, the very first conservation land in Hanover. Those burly would-be matchsticks have now reached a size that would catch the eye of old King George, who in the 1700s claimed every pine greater than 24” in diameter for the Royal Navy. “Mast pines” still stand tall here thanks to action by concerned citizens.
  • A close look reveals the eroding riverbank. Pine Park, like other lands in the impoundment behind Wilder Dam, is affected by daily raising and lowering of the water for power production. Unlike other landowners, Pine Park has a long-standing agreement with the power company to protect its riverbanks, and work has been done to safeguard trees that might topple into the water and tear open the bank.
  • Please stay away from the water’s edge – dogs, too – to keep from destabilizing the bank further.
  • Near the N end of the park, two rustic benches offer a chance to stop and enjoy the largest river in New England as it makes its way from a tiny beaver pond near the Canadian border through four states to Long Island Sound, a journey of 410 miles. It’s probably pretty peaceful today, but imagine what it might have 4 been like before the dam was built and the log drives went through here. You’d be able to walk over the logs to Vermont if you’d brought your spiked boots.
  • Just S of the farthest bench is the Four Corners trail junction. From this point the Rope Ferry Trail you came down on appears up ahead. Instead, bear L and downhill amid slender yellow birches to the Girl Brook Trail.
  • This soon flattens with Girl Brook at R and a river “setback” at L. Might the ferry landing have been here?
  • A sewer manhole cover seems out of place in the middle of the trail, but reminds that in 1961, the line here prompted the Town of Hanover to plan a wastewater treatment plant here – at Pine Park! Wiser heads prevailed, and it was built instead at the mouth of Mink Brook.
  • In the early 1900s, Emily Hitchcock gave additional land to Pine Park including the area you’re now walking.
  • Erosion on the banks of Girl Brook has been a problem for years, evidenced by random squares of old sidewalk brought years ago to armor its bank. The Byrne Foundation recently gave $20,000 to shore up the brook-side trail in a more esthetically pleasing way.
  • A few minutes’ walk from the Four Corners, the Firehouse Trail heads uphill at L; you bear R to cross the Carolyn Tenney Bridge. Carolyn was co-founder and first president of the Hanover Conservation Council, now the Hanover Conservancy. She lived on Rope Ferry Road, was a Town Commissioner for Pine Park, and was a lifelong conservationist. In their first project together, the Pine Park Association raised the funds for the bridge and the Town built it.
  • You’re now entering the most dramatic, ancient, and mysterious part of Pine Park, the Girl Brook Gorge. A lush variety of ferns blankets the slopes at right – delicate maidenhair and sturdy Christmas fern, as well as foamflower. Yellow birch, with its glistening golden bark, grows big and old among towering pines, hemlocks, and others. It’s noticeably cooler here in this steep and shady gash in the land, cut by Girl Brook in the 14,000 years since glacial Lake Hitchcock drained downriver. Slippery clay soils underfoot are remnants of lake-bottom sediments, easily sliced by a roaring brook. This gorge is 120’ deep in places, setting it apart from the world above. Imagine – Girl Brook once flowed far above your head!
  • The creator of this valley is the most hydrologically challenged stream in Hanover. Its small and intensively developed watershed reaches from CRREL to Balch Hill to the Dartmouth campus. Much of its watershed – except here – lost its natural forest cover more than 150 years ago. Think farmland followed by pavement, rooftops, rugby field, and golf course. At the former driving range on the E side of Lyme Road, swales show where this land sheds water toward the brook. Rain falling on this mowed or developed land has nowhere to go but run off, and can’t easily soak into the soil where it could feed the brook more consistently. During a drought and even in normal times between rains, the brook runs dry. A rainfall will drain through quickly, leaving the channel empty. Not a healthy thing for amphibians, fish, and other creatures that require year-round wet habitat.
  • While Girl Brook may remind you of a well-landscaped storm drain, the towering slopes of its valley walls support something of wonder – a rare remnant of old growth forest. Too challenging for the axman, the forest remained largely untouched and now shows the variety of species, age classes, and structure that only develops over hundreds of years.
  • About 10 minutes from the Tenney Bridge, arrive where recently cut hazard trees line the trail. Look L to see an immense, spidery root system of a large tree that has fallen across the brook.
  • The valley begins to open up and you soon come to a fork in the trail. Bear R up a short, somewhat steep hill. Watch your footing – angular stones underfoot were placed to slow runoff down the path. Halfway up, a large cut stump at L offers a place to catch your breath.
  • Pavement appears ahead as you emerge from the woods. At L is the site of the high bridge that once carried golfers across the gorge from one part of the old course to another. The 90-year old bridge was removed a few years ago for safety reasons.
  • At the top of the rise, bear R at a fork to rejoin the Rope Ferry Trail in 25 paces.
  • Turn L to return to your car. Consider how many communities you know with such places within walking distance of downtown – so diverse, from meadows to old growth forests, a major river, and a tiny stream. Pine Park is a true treasure.

October, 2022

Thanks to Linda and Steve Fowler of the Pine Park Association, and to the many friends and neighbors who contributed in so many ways to the rejuvenation of Pine Park.
Learn more at https://pinepark.org

Thanks to the Coop Food Stores’

program for supporting this hike of the month 

Pasture Road Peregrinations

DOWNLOAD FULL PDF OF DIRECTIONS -Pasture Road Peregrinations

Driving directions:

  • From Etna Village, head N on Hanover Center Road
  • Turn R on Ruddsboro Road and drive 1.8 miles
  • Turn L on Old Dana Road
  • Turn R onto Moose Mtn. Lodge Rd just past an old barn
  • Drive 0.8 miles to top of steep road. Park at the marked trailhead parking area.

What you should know:

  • Foot travel only.
  • Dogs welcome if under close control.
  • Bring binoculars for viewing waterfowl on Mill Pond.
  • This hike explores a trail newly built and blazed in spring, 2022 and visits the Dana Forest and Pasture Natural Area, co-owned by the Town of Hanover and a Dana family heir, and the privately owned Baum Conservation Area. These lands are part of a 3,800-acre contiguous block of protected higher-elevation wildlife habitat on Moose Mountain.

BRIEF HIKING DIRECTIONS

  • Begin at the sign reading “Mill Pond Forest & Huggins Trail Access.”
  • Bear L at first trail junction to visit Mill Pond
  • Return to trail junction and turn L onto Pasture Road
  • Follow signs for Pasture Road Trail.
  • Turn R onto Stone Wall Trail at gap in stone wall
  • Turn L onto Blue Loop Trail, heading downhill
  • Turn L onto Pasture Road Trail
  • Continue straight after junction with Stone Wall Trail
  • Bear L at junction with Pond Trail
  • Retrace your steps to return to your car

FULL DIRECTIONS

  • Begin your hike at the sign reading, “Mill Pond Forest & Huggins Trail Access.” To forever ensure public access to the network of trails you’ll be exploring, the Shumway and Huggins families donated conservation easements on this area to the Hanover Conservancy in 2016.
  • Cross a small drainage and note the grassy area beyond the trees at L. By 2017, the beavers left when their preferred food supply ran out, after years of entertaining their neighbors with tail slaps on the water plus plugged culverts and “free-range forestry.” The thread of infant Mink Brook has reappeared in the absence of management by these aquatic engineers, and the series of pools is growing up to grass.
  • 3 minutes’ walk from your car, bear L at the first trail junction. In 15 paces look for a cellar hole at L, difficult to see amid the lush growth at this time of year. Here stood the home of David Woodward, who built the dam on Mill Pond and a sawmill and gristmill on the small, steep falls of Mink Brook below where you left your car.
  • Continue on the path a few minutes further to Mill Pond, the highest water body in Hanover and the primary source of the town’s largest stream. Set in a saddle on the mountain ridge, it originally may have been a smaller pond or perhaps a marsh. Around 1800, Woodward built a drylaid stone dam (out of view at L, beyond the spruces) to raise the water level some 6-8 feet (since partly silted in). Beavers later took over managing water levels but since they departed, the pond has shrunk to half its size. Directly across the water is the remains of their impressive lodge. Today, the entire shoreline remains undisturbed as Hanover Conservancy easements protect the N side and the S side is the Dana Pasture Natural Area. It is this 132-acre parcel straddling the mountain ridge that we’ll traverse now
  • Scan the pond for waterfowl and other birds. On the day we visited, elegant black and white dragonflies, looking as if they were dressed for a formal affair, darted over the surface. Punctuating the green bristly growth of sedges (left) are the paired reddish (when emerging) leaves of St. John’s Wort.
  • Retrace your steps to the trail junction, marked with a sign for Pasture Road and a green moose. Turn L onto this historic Class VI road. Where it once met Moose Mountain Lodge Road is anybody’s guess – we bet it’s now under an old beaver dam.
  • Pasture Road follows an old stone wall through mixed woods. You’ll soon arrive at a pair of hefty bog bridges, built in 2022 by the Upper Valley Trail Alliance’s High School Trail Corps to provide dry footing across a wet part of the old road. The road climbs gently and in a few more minutes, cross another wet area. These seeps may seem pesky to hikers but are an important part of the mountain’s water retention system, holding moisture in the soil rather than letting it run quickly downhill. This is especially important with the sudden, heavy downpours that are accompanying climate change
  • Note two of the “junior” members of the forest community that both feature paired leaves: striped maple, with its goose-foot shaped leaf, and hobblebush (left), a viburnum just setting fruit at this time of year. As fall approaches, it will turn a deep purple and its fruits, beloved by birds, will turn bright red
  • Four minutes’ walk from the last wetland crossing, pass the Orange Diamond Ridge Trail at L. Ahead at R is a sign for Pasture Road. Continue straight.
  • 8 minutes later, bear L at a set of signs posted to help you navigate the uncertain route of historic Pasture Road toward the Baum Conservation Area and Stone Wall Trail.
  • You’ve been passing through true northern hardwoods forest, with some of its most handsome members on display. We’re fond of the glistening golden bark of yellow birch like the one on your L (photo), a northern species that is more shade-tolerant and long lived than its familiar, iconic cousin known as canoe, paper, or white birch. The forest here looks to be about 75 years old, with beech, northern red oak, red and sugar maple, and hemlock.
  • The forest is in recovery from its years as the Dana Farm’s summering grazing grounds. The Dana family farmed this area since the late 1800s. Into the 1960s, the family drove their cattle up the mountainside to graze on the remaining open pastures in summer.
  • From the signs, continue for 7 minutes on the yellow-blazed trail, keeping an eye out for the colorful mushrooms and fungi that begin to appear at this time of year. Spring wildflowers have mostly wound down, but you may spot the delicate pink-striped white blossoms of mountain woodsorrel, Oxalis montana, shown at R mixed with the similar but glossier leaves of goldthread.
  • Suddenly, Pasture Road delivers you to a large and dramatic stone wall, built of huge, angular, coarsely laid blocks. A yellow-blazed pin indicates that the wall marks a property boundary – to the S is the Baum Conservation Area, owned by a local Dartmouth alumnus with a keen interest in trails and the public benefits of protected land. Bear L along the wall for a few minutes to a gap at the junction of the Pasture Road Trail and the new Stone Wall Trail. Take a moment to check the signage here, as you’ll be returning to this spot in a little under an hour. If your time is limited, you can just explore the Stone Wall Trail (11 minutes one way) and retrace your steps.
  • Turn R and down the hill on the Stone Wall Trail, built in 2021 to replace 2 trails retired to reduce impact on wildlife habitat. Volunteers led by the Hanover Trails Committee spent 34 person-hours in one week in 2022, blazing 10-12 miles of trails here and elsewhere. It takes lots of work, time, and bug-swatting, all powered by a spirit of good will, to provide such trails for you to enjoy.
  • On the R, the massive stone wall is in view upslope; soon you’ll notice a parallel wall at L. The forest is younger here, and wild sarsaparilla is common in the understory.
  • The Stone Wall Trail ends at a connector trail not long after the wall itself ends. Note a closed trail at R and a sign ahead on the opposite side of a tree. Continue your hike by bearing L and gently downhill, crossing a small drainage to the extensive trail system on the Baum Conservation Area.
  • 4 minutes from the Stone Wall Trail, turn L on the Blue Loop Trail and head down through a fern-covered former skid trail. In 3 minutes the trail briefly levels out. Look L for a sign reading “Blue Loop to Pasture Road” and head downhill again.
  • Enjoy this old logging road with a few short steep sections and some low ledges. Now’s a good time to admire the variety of ferns growing here – wood fern, cinnamon fern, interrupted fern (photo) and the delicate, dual-tapered New York fern. Sturdy three-part bracken fern and the coarser fronds of sensitive fern enjoy damp spots.
  • The trail bears L at the bottom of a hill. A short section of blocky stone wall is visible at L. Cross a small drainage that may be dry at this season. On the other side, back on the town’s Dana Forest and Pasture Natural Area, pick up the yellow blazes again. The trail moves gently downhill.
  • 10 minutes from your last turn, cross another drainage and look L for another Pasture Road sign. Turn L here; the Blue Loop Trail you’ve been following continues downhill. Natural stone steps lead up and the trail bends L and slabs across the slope. Keep your eye out for yellow blazes to guide you on this less-beaten path that curves up and around a ledge.
  • Here, forest patches are composed of pole-sized saplings of young beech and goose-foot (striped) maple, belying a recent forest disturbance. Arrive at an opening filled with blueberries and bracken fern and then move more steeply up into hemlocks, whose dense shade discourages understory growth. As the trail becomes less steep, note a scarred beech at L that appears to be a favorite for bucks to rub velvet off their antlers. Pine and oak join the hemlocks. The flute-like calls of the wood thrush provide orchestration for your hike. The wind in the trees overhead reminds that you’re climbing on a mountain ridge.
  • The trail reaches the top of a gentle ascent and bears L. Mossy flat stones decorate the treadway. In 2 minutes another stone wall appears ahead. Bear R to keep it on your L. The angular flat rock at L bears evidence of many squirrel picnics.
  • The wall follows the Baum/Dana boundary, and the trail takes a sharp R where the wall meets a ledge.
  • 4 minutes from your meeting with the wall, you’re back at the signed junction with the Stone Wall Trail, closing the loop. Continue straight on the Pasture Road Trail, keeping that impressive wall on your L; bear R to follow the yellow blazes.
  • What are such massive stone walls doing in the forests of Moose Mountain? When they were built, likely during the Sheep Craze of 1820-1850, the forests were largely gone, cut to provide building materials, heat, and especially open pastures for merino sheep. In 1840, there were over 11,000 sheep grazing Hanover’s hillsides, tended by a human population of only 2,800. As the region’s wool market and textile industry succumbed to competition from the Midwest and South in the Civil War era, the departure of nibbling sheep allowed the forest to return, yet the timeless walls remained.
  • Continue straight (N) on the Pasture Road Trail, passing several signs for the Orange Diamond Ridge Trail. As you go, note signs of forest succession – dead snags of white birch, blowdowns, and more. All these are signs of rejuvenation and provide habitat for various birds and small mammals.
  • 10 minutes from the Stone Wall Trail stay L on the Pasture Road trail. The opening visible through the trees off to the R is the S end of Mill Pond, filling in with grasses now that beavers are no longer maintaining their improvements on David Woodard’s dam. If the beavers do not return, you’ll soon find alders and other wet-tolerant woody plants here. Eventually, the forest will reclaim this space.
  • Pasture Road’s more formal walls accompany you until you arrive at the path at R leading to the water. Turn L at this fork to return to your car.

July, 2022

Thanks to the Coop Food Stores’

program for supporting this hike of the month 

Hikes of the Month

Needing to escape the holiday prep and get some fresh air? Don’t forget our Hanover Hikes of the Month – offering you a safe self-guided breather outdoors. For December, try Behemoths of Balch Hill (an easy, half-hour loop – a perfect trip for visiting family) or Fullington Farm and Old Highway 38 (do part or all).

Mink Brook & Tanzi Tract

DOWNLOAD FULL PDF OF DIRECTIONS – Mink Brook & Tanzi Tract

Driving directions:

  • From downtown Hanover, drive S on Main St. (Rte 10) 0.5 miles to Brook Rd.
  • Turn L just before Route 10 crosses Mink Brook.
  • Follow Brook Road for 0.1 mile to a sharp bend.
  • Park here near the trailhead gate.

What you should know:

  • Dogs are welcome but must be under close control (better yet, leashed); please pick up after your pet.
  • Foot travel only. Bicycles are not permitted in the Mink Brook Nature Preserve.
  • Trail maps are available at the trailhead kiosk near the Brook Road gate.
  • The Preserve is home to bears who may emerge from hibernation as early as March (another reason to leash your dog). If you encounter a bear, do not run but speak softly to it and move away slowly. Mother bears are as protective of their young as we are.
  • You will visit the 112-acre Mink Brook Nature Preserve, owned and managed by the Hanover Conservancy since 1999, and the 15.8 acre Angelo Tanzi Natural Area, owned by the Town of Hanover.

BRIEF HIKING DIRECTIONS

  • Take the Quinn Trail through the gate and visit the kiosk.
  • Continue on the Quinn Trail along the N side of Mink Brook, past the Norman Overlook.
  • Bear R to view the brook, then bear L to return to the Quinn Trail. Turn R and up the hill.
  • Enter the Tanzi Tract at a stone wall and turn R onto the Brook Loop. Follow back to Quinn Trail.
  • Cross the Quinn Trail onto the Forest Loop and return along the stone wall.
  • Turn R onto the Quinn Trail to return to your car.

FULL DIRECTIONS

  • Pass through the gate onto the Quinn Trail. Take a moment to check the kiosk display just ahead and pick up a trail guide. Note the map outlining Mink Brook’s 18.5 square mile watershed.
  • Hanover’s largest stream begins high on Moose Mountain at Mill Pond, gathering waters from other headwater streams and flowing through Etna, where it once powered so many mills that the village was first known as Mill Village. Below Etna, the brook turns and runs S of Greensboro Road through the Mink Brook Community Forest, protected in 2021. Crossing under Route 120 and past the remains of a mill built for Eleazar Wheelock, the brook rushes W past the Tanzi Tract and through the Mink Brook Nature Preserve toward the Connecticut River.
  • You are walking the easy, flat Quinn Trail, named for a Hanover family we’ll hear about later. This part of the trail follows a buried sewer line marked by covers labeled “Hanover Sewer 1976.” While they seem out of place on a woodland walk, we can forgive the intrusion since the building of this sewer line to collect waste from hundreds of Hanover homes meant the transformation of Mink Brook and the Connecticut River from noxious open sewers back to the safe, clean waters they are today.
  • Note the nature of the water in the brook. If ice-free, does it appear to be lazy and slow-moving, or is it locked silent under a cover of snow and ice? In this area, both the Connecticut and Mink Brook are pond-like, backed up behind Wilder Dam just downstream in Lebanon. Farther along the trail, stay alert for a change in character to the naturally free-flowing, musical stream that flows off the uplands.
  • 5 minutes’ walk from the gate, the trail takes a sharp L by a crabapple tree. Pause here to note the thick, ropy stems of river grape (Vitis riparia) growing up the trees at L. This native vine is common along streams and offers a rich food source for birds and other wildlife.
  • Now look R for a path heading towards the brook through young pines, and take a short trip down to the water where stepping stones offer a way to cross the brook at certain seasons. In the 1990s, a 30+ lot subdivision was laid out for the 112 acres of today’s Preserve. A road to serve the subdivision was to cross the brook here. Give a cheer for the 500 donors, the Quinn Family, and Dartmouth College for recognizing the natural value of this place and stepping up to help the Conservancy and Upper Valley Land Trust protect it. The Hanover Conservancy now owns and manages the land, with conservation deed restrictions from UVLT.
  • Return to the Quinn Trail and note the exposed roots of a large tree on the steep bank opposite. This clay bank was mined at one time for clay that was used to build Dartmouth’s tennis courts!
  • Turn R to continue on the Quinn Trail; you’ll soon arrive at the Norman Overlook at R, marked by slabs of granite offering a pleasant perch for observing the brook. Bob Norman, a founder of the Hanover Conservancy in 1961, was its President in 1999 when the Preserve was protected. A demonstration planting of native shrubs includes red osier (Cornus sericea), whose brilliant red stems are especially ornamental in late winter. This handsome shrub is a great choice for wet areas, as it tolerates wet feet and its white berries offer high quality food for wildlife in fall. You may see it growing naturally nearby.
  • At this point, the brook is clearly more lively, with patches of open water roiled by its flow. Wilder Dam may be far out of sight, but it controls the character and movement of Mink Brook here in the Preserve and of other tributaries as far north as Haverhill NH and Newbury VT, 45 miles upstream. The Hanover Conservancy is closely following re-licensing of this dam and studies of how it affects erosion and sedimentation, fish, wildlife, invasive species, and even archeological sites. As this hike is published, a welcome new proposal from the hydropower company suggests altering dam management to more of a natural, run-of-river flow than an up-and-down “peaking” flow, meaning that more of Mink Brook would be allowed to behave like a proper stream instead of a pond.
  • Note the stone riprap on the streambank near the tree line. Tropical Storm Irene sent so much water down Mink Brook that the brook changed course and began to erode this bank. Because the sewer line runs close by, the Town of Hanover is intervening to protect it from erosion.
  • Just past this site, bear R off the Quinn Trail toward the old log crossing. The beautiful log bridge, crafted in 2009 from a nearby tree, served for over a decade to connect trails on the north and south sides of the Preserve. Mother Nature began to reclaim it and the crossing was closed in August, 2021 for public safety. From this point you can still enjoy views of the brook and a distinctive square-topped stone.
  • Follow the path, bearing L at a fork to return up a short narrow path to rejoin the Quinn Trail. Turn R and take care on the stony slope as you approach the pine and hemlock forest on the hill above.
  • Note the plaque at R honoring the Quinn Family, who helped protect this land in 1999. Both Brian and Allie Quinn were members of the Conservancy’s board of directors, with Allie leading environmental education efforts in Hanover schools in the 1970s and 80s.
  • 5 minutes’ walk from the brook, arrive at a mossy stone wall marking the boundary with the Tanzi Tract. In 1966-67, working with the newly formed Conservation Commission, the Conservancy took an option on this 15.8 acre parcel and provided half the funding for its purchase for the Town. Angelo Tanzi (1899-1969) was a beloved local figure who managed a grocery market on Main Street (R), and whose family once owned this land.
  • Turn R to follow the Brook Loop for a few minutes along the stone wall to a lookout over a particularly pretty section of Mink Brook.
  • The Brook Loop bends left past a private inholding and returns in a few minutes’ walk to the Quinn Trail. Cross it to explore the 10-minute Forest Loop, marked “Foot Trail Only.”
  • Soon, a wooded slope looms up ahead – one of the strangely steep sides of ancient channels of Mink Brook. This region was once inundated by the frigid waters of glacial Lake Hitchcock. Its fine sediments were easily sliced by the rushing waters of such brooks after the lake receded, leaving these ravines. The Storrs Road neighborhood, up out of sight on the terrace above, is set on part of the old lake bottom.
  • The Forest Loop follows the base of the slope, bending L and passing over two boardwalks through great bear territory. In the hollow is a beautiful forested wetland that begins to hum with life in early spring. Note evergreen Christmas ferns and tipped-up trees in the wet soils.
  • High quality habitat abounds here, for bears, wood frogs, and many other creatures and plants. In fact, the NH Fish and Game Department’s Wildlife Action Plan identifies this area as some of the highest quality habitat in the state, shown in pink on this map.
  • The stone wall soon reappears at R. Keep a lookout for an old pine snag that gives an up-close-and-personal view of pine anatomy, branch collars and all.
  • Return to the Quinn Trail and the Mink Brook Nature Preserve boundary sign on a large pine. Turn R and follow the trail down the hill, watching your footing and taking no turns.
  • At the foot of the hill, the path may be damp with drainage from a wetland that is an extension of the one you skirted on the Forest Loop. This space is lively in spring with wood frogs and other amphibians courting and laying eggs.
  • Continue W on the Quinn Trail past the Norman Overlook and kiosk to return to your car. As you do, note the change in character of the brook as it shifts from a free-flowing stream to one whose flow is captured by Wilder Dam.
  • Be sure to come back as spring unfurls at the Preserve. This is a great walk at any time of year.

  September 2021

  This Hanover Hike of the Month is generously sponsored by

Storied Stones of the South Side

DOWNLOAD FULL PDF-Mink Brook South Side Storied Stones

Driving directions:

  • From downtown Hanover, drive south on Main Street (Route 10) 0.5 miles
  • Cross the bridge over Mink Brook
  • Turn R into Pine Grove Cemetery and park.
  • Walk across Route 10 to begin your hike.

What you should know:

  • Dogs are welcome but must be under close control (better yet, leashed); please pick up after your pet.
  • Foot travel only. Bicycles are not permitted in the Mink Brook Nature Preserve.
  • Trail maps are posted at trail junctions and are available at the trailhead kiosk near the Brook Road gate.
  • The Preserve is home to bears who may emerge from hibernation as early as March (another reason to leash your dog). If you encounter a bear, do not run but speak softly to it and move away slowly. Mother bears are as protective of their young as we are.
  • After crossing a small town-owned space next to Route 10, you will visit the 112-acre Mink Brook Nature Preserve, owned and managed by the Hanover Conservancy since 1999.

BRIEF HIKING DIRECTIONS

  • Take the Wheelock Trail along the S side of Mink Brook.
  • Continue past the old log crossing to a group of large boulders.
  • Return past the log crossing on the Wheelock Trail.
  • After the Wheelock Trail turns L, bear L onto the Trout Brook Trail.
  • Bear R onto the Mink Link across a set of bog bridges.
  • The Mink Link meets the Sachem Connector at Trout Brook.
  • Turn R onto the Sachem Connector and L onto the Wheelock Trail.
  • Stay on the Wheelock Trail to return to your car.

FULL DIRECTIONS

  • Begin your hike by walking through the open area toward a telephone pole visible ahead on the easy, flat Wheelock Trail, named for Dartmouth’s founder. This land and a mill privilege just upstream on Mink Brook were offered to Eleazar Wheelock as an incentive to locate his new college in Hanover.
  • You’ll soon encounter a Hanover Conservancy sign as the trail heads into the woods. A smaller sign reminds that bicycles are not permitted on the Preserve, a condition of the generous gifts that made purchase of the land possible.
  • The trail enters the woods and 5 minutes from the road, passes through a natural gate of two impressively large (for them) musclewood trees (R). A look at their limbs hints at the reason for this odd name – they look like they’ve been to the gym!
  • The blue-blazed trail passes briefly under a power line and then through a richly mixed hardwood forest.
  • 4 minutes from the musclewood gate, look for a large multi-stemmed cherry tree at L. Bear L at a Y here, where a private trail enters at R. The Wheelock Trail traverses Mink Brook’s flat floodplain.
  • 2 minutes later, a pair of logs takes you across Trout Brook. This stream rises in Lebanon and flows north to meet Mink Brook. It might not look like much here, but in its upper reaches on the Preserve it provides very high quality habitat for (albeit small) wild brook trout, here almost within sight of downtown Hanover.
  • 4 minutes later, the trail rises to a junction with the Sachem Connector, a red-blazed trail at R. You’ll return on that path. For now, stay L among the big pines.
  • You’ll soon cross a small drainage on a series of stepping stones. Just beyond is the junction of the orange-blazed Trout Brook Trail. You bear L to stay on the blue-blazed Wheelock Trail.
  • A few steps further, at a big double pine, the Wheelock Trail turns R. A spur trail at L leads to stepping stones across Mink Brook to the N side of the Preserve. This is where a bridge was planned to serve a proposed 32-lot residential subdivision in the area you’ve been exploring. Give a cheer for the 500 donors, the Quinn Family, and Dartmouth College for recognizing the natural value of this place and stepping up to help the Conservancy and Upper Valley Land Trust protect it. The Hanover Conservancy now owns and manages the land, with conservation deed restrictions from UVLT.
  • Continue E on the Wheelock Trail for a few minutes to the former log crossing. Crafted in 2009 from a nearby tree, it served as a temporary trail link until the fall of 2021. A replacement crossing is planned. A sign on a tree opposite the log crossing directs you to continue E on the Wheelock Trail toward Buck Road. We’ll turn around well before that, but recommend that route for a summer’s day. Note an island in the brook on your L; until Tropical Storm Irene came through in 2011, Mink Brook flowed mostly between the path you’re on and this island. High water caused the brook to change course to the far side of the island, and this area is wet only a few times each year. Brooks are dynamic!
  • Continue to follow the brook upstream through deepening hemlock and pine forest.
  • 3 minutes’ walk from the log crossing, note a large, flat-faced stone ahead at R. Stop and look more closely – a jumble of large stones nearby appear to have been placed a very long time ago – but by whom?
  • Watch your footing as the trail bears L among boulders, ledges, and roots, past an ambitious hemlock growing over a low stone wall.
  • The most massive stone of all rears up at L. Follow the trail up a few yards to a nearby lookout above a small waterfall on Mink Brook. You have reached your destination.
  • These silent stones clearly have stories to tell. We don’t know what the stones might say, but in our imaginations, they must be eloquent – they are the original and timeless inhabitants of this beautiful stream valley.
  • Through the millennia Mink Brook, or Mosbasak Zibosiz in the Abenaki language, has been a key part of local Abenaki village and subsistence grounds. From the time of Dartmouth’s founding, Abenaki and other Native families lived in this area to support their children who were enrolled in Moor’s Charity School and the College. Abenaki families have lived nearby to this day.  What is known today as the Mink Brook Nature Preserve has long been known as a “woman’s place,” and when Eleazar Wheelock arrived to raise his college, Abenaki grandmothers met with his people to lay out their expectations for how the land would be used.
  • It’s hard to imagine this place as a residential subdivision and yourself standing amid driveways, garages, mailboxes, landscaped yards, and houses with dogs and cats. Turn your thoughts instead to the public-spirited vision of those who worked to protect this place so the stones could continue to speak to all.
  • After visiting with the stream and the stones, retrace your steps past a glistening yellow birch and head W on the Wheelock Trail. Pass the old log crossing and bear L at the forked pine, leaving the brook behind.
  • In a few paces, reach the junction with the orange-blazed Trout Brook Trail. Bear L here, following the little rivulet upstream.
  • In 2 minutes’ walk, pass a big rock at R and arrive at another trail fork marked with a “no bikes” sign. Bear R onto the Mink Link. Cross the wetland here on a new bog bridge.
  • This crossing and another you’ll soon encounter were built in 2019 by Andrew Chen of Troop 45 for his Eagle Scout Project. The task was to create a dry crossing of split and peeled hemlock logs through a wetland that had been trampled by hikers making an informal shortcut. With the bog bridge in place, the wetland has recovered well. An incredible 176 hours went into this project. The Hanover Lions Club and the Rankin family contributed to the cost of materials. Thanks to all!
  • The Mink Link Trail moseys up and among the hemlocks and pines, soon reaching another of Andrew’s log crossings. Note a posted map at L marking the junction of the Mink Link and Sachem Connector. Hop up on the bridge, which crosses Trout Brook.
  • Andrew’s bridge replaces another one that previously washed away in high water. Does the tame little stream you’re viewing today seem capable of such a feat? Had this land not been protected and the area altered with construction of roofs, driveways, and other surfaces that would prevent rain from soaking into the ground, this brook could have become downright dangerous during the heavy storms now associated with climate change. Now, a thick forest canopy and a blanket of natural duff over the soil act as a sponge to let the water flow more slowly and with less force when the hard rains come.
  • Return to the trail sign and bear L to take the Sachem Connector Trail up and around a small knoll. The trail is blazed red, but you won’t see the next blaze until you’ve gone around the bend.
  • 10 minutes from the Trout Brook Trail, you return to the Wheelock Trail amid some impressively tall pines. Bear L at a Y around two of them.
  • You’ve just passed most of the way around one of many oddly steep ridges that mark the sides of ancient channels of Mink Brook. This region was once inundated by the frigid waters of glacial Lake Hitchcock, and the clay/silt lake-bottom sediments were easily sliced by the rushing waters of the brook after the lake receded, leaving steep-sided ravines.
  • 3 minutes later, cross Trout Brook again. Just a few yards beyond, note two large “basket ash” trees, one on either side of the trail. These are a species of ash with pale, finely flaked bark that are favored for the making of baskets by Native American craftspeople.
  • Bear R at the many-stemmed cherry tree to avoid the neighborhood trail at L.
  • 9 minutes from your last crossing of Trout Brook, arrive back at your car. Resolve to return as spring unfurls at Mink Brook. This is a great walk at any time of year.

 Note: The Hanover Conservancy seeks volunteers to monitor trails and help out with occasional work parties. We also warmly welcome donations to our Mink Brook Stewardship Fund to help maintain the Preserve.  Get in touch at info@hanoverconservancy.org. For more about the Mink Brook Nature Preserve, visit www.hanoverconservancy.org/lands/mink-brook/.

 This Hanover Hike of the Month is generously sponsored by Snyder Donegan Real Estate Group

September, 2021

71 Lyme Road
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 643-3433

info@hanoverconservancy.org

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