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Search Results for: route 120

Mink Brook Nature Preserve

This 112-acre preserve protects habitat for wild brook trout, bears, and many other creatures, while offering trails and quiet enjoyment of a peaceful place. This preserve is the result of deep generosity and community spirit. Substantial gifts from Dartmouth College and Brian and Allie Quinn, acknowledging the significance of this place to the Abenaki, joined 450 other gifts to protect the land in 1999. The Upper Valley Land Trust collaborated with our organization to purchase the land and now holds the conservation easement. The preserve links other protected lands — the Angelo Tanzi Tract and Mink Brook West, owned by the Town of Hanover, and UVLT’s brook-side parcel.

Mink Brook Nature Preserve offers a natural retreat just south of downtown Hanover. The predominant natural community is upland forest composed of white pine and hemlock. The smaller of the preserve’s two streams is Trout Brook, which winds northward to join Mink Brook. Mink Brook is a direct tributary to the Connecticut River and is affected by Wilder Dam’s activity up until just downstream of the log crossing. Many of the paths within the Preserve parallel Mink Brook and pass by pool and riffle areas of this dynamic boulder filled watercourse. The preserve has a fascinating history, and hosts black bears, wild brook trout, waterfowl, and other wildlife- not to mention a highly interesting plant community!

Mink Brook Guide cover
Click the image to view guide

Mink Brook Map
Mink Brook Map & Guide
Management Plan (2016)

How to get there

From Route 10 in Hanover, turn onto Brook Road just north of the bridge over Mink Brook. Parking is available in the pulloff by the trailhead on Brook Road. Walk through the gate to the kiosk just up the path.

Parking is also available at the Upper Valley Land Trust office at 19 Buck Road. Walk back along Buck Road towards Route 120; the trailhead is at the sharp corner in Buck Road, and is clearly marked.

The property offers a variety of walking terrain. The easy terrain of Quinn Trail is accessible to both strollers and wheelchairs and links up with the trails in the Tanzi Tract, a preserve of the Town of Hanover. Just across Route 10, the Town-owned River Trail continues as a fully ADA-accessible path to the Connecticut River. On the south side of Mink Brook, wooded hiking trails link up with trails to preserved land in Lebanon.

The preserve is open to the public for foot travel at all seasons. Please help protect water quality in Mink Brook by picking up after your pet and removing the waste. Pets must be under the direct control of their owners and not chase wildlife. Plants should be left growing in place. Fishing is permitted, as is bow hunting south of the brook (in season and accordance with state and local law). All other hunting and trapping is prohibited. No fires or camping, please.

Why no bikes? – To protect an area significant to Native Americans and to maintain wildlife habitat and water quality, Mink Brook Nature Preserve was created with the understanding that trails would be open only for foot travel. A bicycle rack is provided at the Brook Road gate.

About the trails – The Quinn Trail runs along the north side of the brook and connects trails west of Route 10 with Route 120. Grades are gentle with a few moderate slopes. Across the log bridge, the Wheelock Trail heads east to Buck Road on a sometimes narrow, rocky path, and west to Route 10. The red-blazed Indian Ridge Trail and orange-blazed Sachem Connector Trail lead south into Lebanon and can be difficult to follow after leaving the preserve. In 2011, we worked with the Town to create a new footpath linking trails on the west side of Route 10 with the Quinn Trail on the Preserve. Find this link near the corner of Brook Road and Route 10, just east of the small utility building.

Related Articles

Advocacy

Advocacy

The Conservancy has helped to facilitate the conservation of over 2500 acres of land since 1961, when we were founded as the Hanover Conservation Council. We work in partnership with landowners, town government, other conservation groups, and developers to find conservation opportunities and solutions in our town. The Conservancy can protect land through ownership, conservation easement or identifying other conservation resources. We support legislation that furthers conservation and sustainability and occasionally provide public comments on issues that affect water quality, land use or similar issues close to home.

Mink Brook Community Forest

Hanover’s newest conservation project, these 250 acres of upland forest, floodplain meadow, and corridor of Mink Brook, are found off Greensboro Road. The project is expected to close in early 2021 and will be called the Mink Brook Community Forest.

Trescott Water Supply Lands

Over 1200 acres of carefully managed land protects Hanover’s drinking water supply. This vast tract is a hidden gem in the middle of Hanover. Owned by the Trescott Company (50% Town of Hanover and 50% Dartmouth College), this unconserved parcel allows public access to its many miles of signed trails.

Dana Forest and Pasture Natural Area

This large parcel at the top of Moose Mountain abuts the Hanover Conservancy-protected Shumway Forest, Mill Pond Forest and Huggins Trail Access, as well as the Baum Conservation Area and trails leading to the Appalachian trail. This property has high wildlife value and a fascinating human history.

Wilder Dam

The federal operating license for Wilder Dam expired in 2018. Read about proposed updates to the operating plan, as well as a public comment submitted by the Conservancy.

A mowed path winds through green fields at Hudson Farm

Hudson Farm

The 175-acre Hudson Farm is now protected forever as a part of the Appalachian Trail corridor, with the March 21, 2017 transfer from Dartmouth College to the National Park Service. This is the first addition to the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in Hanover in more than 15 years.

Kendal Riverfront Park

The site of the former Chieftain Motel was purchased by Kendal at Hanover, and a 10 year lease was granted to the Town of Hanover. The riverfront parcel is the current home of the Upper Valley Rowing Club and the site of our annual Connecticut River field trip with the Richmond Middle School.

Route 120

Development proposals for the Route 120/Mt. Support corridor warrant special consideration, as the vast forested parcels provide incredibly important habitat for wildlife amongst some of the Upper Valley’s busiest towns.

What We Do

Mink Brook and Gile Hill

Complete PDF

 

Gile Hill mapDriving Directions

  • You can drive to the take-off point at Gile Hill OR walk from DHMC on medical center campus trails.
  • From downtown Hanover, take Lebanon St./Route 120 south to the first light after Greensboro Road, at Medical Center Drive. Turn R at the light, pass the gas station, cross the bridge, and take the first R to Gile Drive.
  • Turn immediately L into the gravel parking area encircled by large stones, and park. This is your starting point.
  • Today’s hike is a loop through the Mink Brook Nature Preserve and adjoining Gile Hill area, encircling the 800’ rocky knob highlighted on the map at R.

What You Should Know

  • This is a moderately challenging hike, if only because it uses every sort of path you can imagine – from wide and paved to narrow and rocky, flat to steep – and everything in between. Wear sturdy shoes!
  • You’ll pass through surroundings that vary from a deep hemlock forest to sculpted grassy slopes between apartment buildings. It’s good to know such wild places are so close at hand.
  • Dogs are welcome but must be leashed while walking through Gile Hill and must always be under your close control. Please pick up after your pet.
  • Bicycles are not permitted in the Mink Brook Nature Preserve.

Hiking Directions

  • To begin your hike, walk to the paved road to the Gile Hill development and turn L onto the paved sidewalk just beyond. Follow the sidewalk as it crosses the access road several times and continues down past the apartment buildings. When the sidewalk ends, continue a short distance to White Pine Oval. Take the nearer end of the oval – your destination is a crosswalk at the far end that leads you to a paved path. Along the way, notice a “wall” of stones inside a gabion cage, a stark contrast to the native boulders visible just beyond and the early stone walls you’ll observe later on this trip.
  • Walk past the wooden rail fence to a crosswalk where you’ll take the wide paved path to Buck Road. Just as it curves L, note a steep sided trench at R, built to capture stormwater runoff from the paved areas and roofs. Before 2006, when the Gile Hill development was built, this entire hillside was a steep, forested jumble of boulders. It presented such an engineering challenge that it was the field site focus of a regional conference on stormwater management techniques.
  • The paved path ends at Buck Road near Route 120. Turn L and head down the hill on Buck Road, which was once the main road linking Lebanon and Hanover before 120 was built. In a few minutes, Buck Road swings L just before the narrow bridge that once carried it over Mink Brook.
  • Wheelock trail signA few paces beyond the turn, look for the Wheelock Trail just before a fire hydrant.
  • Named for Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College (more about him in a minute), the blue-blazed trail begins as a narrow, rocky path threading among rocks and roots close to Mink Brook. You’re greeted by the sound of the tumbling brook and the cool sweet air of the protective forest, a stark change from Buck Road and Gile Hill. The Upper Valley Land Trust owns this land on the south side of the brook; you’ll pass beneath UVLT’s office perched at the top of the bank. UVLT was instrumental in protecting this parcel and the larger Mink Brook Nature Preserve in 1999, working hand in hand with the Hanover Conservancy (then known as the Hanover Conservation Council).
  • Five minutes from Buck Road, look for a rocky ledge on the far side of the brook where the water spills over a small falls. Amid the foliage above, you can make out the stone wall of an old mill structure. Watch your step among the tangle of roots across the trail. There’s a better view of the falls from below. You’re looking at the reason why Dartmouth College is in Hanover and not somewhere else!
  • 1778 map
    1778 map of SW Hanover showing Mink Brook and college and Wheelock holdings
    In the late 1760s, when Rev. Wheelock was searching for a town to locate his college, colonial governor John Wentworth and the proprietors of newly-founded Hanover and Lebanon joined together to offer him 2,000 acres surrounding this brook. This, the largest stream in Hanover, has an 18 square mile watershed, thus guaranteeing a good flow, and this falls offered a promising spot for a grist mill. This was essential gear for grinding grain to make flour to bake bread to feed hungry young men. The deal was sealed, and in 2019, Dartmouth celebrated its 250th anniversary, all thanks to Mink Brook. (After a first mill failed, Israel Woodward built this mill for Wheelock in 1771-1772).
  • But we digress. The Wheelock Trail continues into a cool glen shaded by hemlocks and becomes a wider path. Soon it heads up to a break in the canopy and bears R across land owned by Wheelock Terrace. Here, the sewer line passes under your feet on its way to the wastewater treatment plant at the mouth of Mink Brook.
  • Enter the woods once again at a small sign (TRAIL ->). In a few moments you’ll encounter a low stone wall marking an early boundary; today it announces that you have arrived at the Hanover Conservancy’s Mink Brook Nature Preserve. A remnant of barbed wire clings to a tree at L, and HC’s even more contemporary boundary marker, a 4’ plastic square, hangs on a tree at R. This stone wall marks the ancient property line between the 300 acre Wheelock parcel and the 1000 acre Dartmouth College parcel of land. That easterly property line makes a series of erratic westerly jogs as it runs north over the top of the hill and descends the northerly side. This reflects the fact that in 1771, after Wheelock had established his first mill on Mink Brook, it was found to be located not on Dartmouth property as the College Trustees had intended, but rather on Wheelock’s private property. Therefore, to appease the Trustees, the original property line was adjusted westerly, giving more land to the College.
  • Continue as the path becomes level and wide among the hemlocks. The brook’s floodplain may be flat, but you’re aware of steep, high slopes both across the brook and to your L. Soon they begin to crowd the path as steep ravines appear at L. What’s going on here? You are actually hiking along what was once the bottom of glacial Lake Hitchcock. This frigid lake covered the Connecticut River valley from Middletown, CT to Littleton, NH after the river’s waters were trapped by a dam of debris dropped by the glacier as it melted. Thousands of years later that dam broke, leaving us with the beautiful winding Connecticut River of today. While the lake was in place, however, soil washing in from the uplands settled on the lake bottom. In still water, such as that quieted by a veneer of ice, the finest particles of clay sink to the bottom. When the lake drained, Mink Brook’s braided waters flowed down through the newly exposed sediments, slicing deep channels through them on their way to meet the river. These old channels are now the steep ravines that surround you.
  • rocky gorgeAbout 15 minutes’ walk from Buck Road, you reach a beautiful rocky gorge. The trail briefly becomes indistinct on the slope but picks up later. Take a moment to visit the water’s edge and discover a lovely pool behind a low dam. This dam was built in the 1920s to create a swimming hole for a seasonal cottage once owned by the Tanzi family. The cottage is now gone, but a nearby private residence remains on the opposite bank. Continue west on the Wheelock Trail.
  • Four minutes’ walk past the gorge a flat terrace appears at L; this is part of the old glacial lake bed, formed when the lake had partially dropped.
  • Two minutes later, you arrive at a dramatic spot where an enormous boulder guards the brook. The footing is tricky here. Climb below the boulder to admire its sheer face, but please resist the temptation to climb it. A look toward the brook may reveal woody debris tossed here by high water. A nearby tree shows the scars of two strands of barbed wire, two and three feet off the ground, presumably set 150 years ago to protect grazing sheep from falling into the water.
  • Just beyond the huge boulder is a very old stone wall with hemlocks growing from it. Scan the hillside at L to marvel at another partial wall of larger boulders. This land has clearly been used for many, many years.
  • Mink Brook area mapFive minutes’ walk past the boulder brings you to a recently abandoned stream channel. Before Tropical Storm Irene, Mink Brook ran through this now nearly dry sandy area, but the August 2011 surge tore a new channel slightly north, where it now flows except in times of very high water. The trail heads toward the log crossing built in 2009. Just before the bridge are signs of erosion that began with Irene and continues today – a hemlock hangs out over the water, its roots exposed, and on the far side, the brook is scouring the north bank. Nearby at L, ferns occupy the swale of yet an earlier abandoned channel. This is a pretty busy place!
  • At the log crossing, you have a choice of exploring trails on the north side of the brook. If you do, please cross the log one at a time. A sign at L indicates that you have come from Buck Road and are headed toward Lebanon. Continue straight on the Wheelock Trail; it soon begins to swing away from the brook.
  • Just past a dead tree at R, look L for bright pink “whiskers” marking a study plot of Trillium. This study, conducted by the Biodiversity Committee of the Hanover Conservation Commission, is following survival of this native wildflower under heavy deer browse pressure.
  • A few steps further, a trail comes in at R. Take this for a few yards back to the streambank. Plans for a 32-lot housing development on this land included a road and bridge across the brook at this point. In 1999, to save this land as a refuge for the community – both human and wild – the Hanover Conservancy and Upper Valley Land Trust worked together to purchase the property. Over 500 households contributed, with Dartmouth College providing the major gift that ultimately made it possible to protect this land. Today, the 112-acre preserve is owned and managed by the Hanover Conservancy with help from volunteers. Conservation restrictions held by UVLT guide the preserve’s management.
  • Return to the Wheelock Trail, trying to visualize this place as a residential subdivision and yourself standing on a paved road leading to driveways, garages, mailboxes, landscaped yards, and houses with dogs and cats.
  • A few steps bring you to another junction, where the Wheelock Trail turns R and crosses a drainage over stones placed to allow both feet and water to pass. Here, you stay straight and continue on the orange-blazed Trout Brook Trail, a flat and gently winding pine-needle strewn path.
  • fernsAt R, pockets of ferny wetlands adorn the forest floor. It is easy to imagine how useful they are as sponges during heavy rains, holding back stormwater and protecting the brook from flooding and erosion.
  • Five minutes’ walk from the would-be subdivision bridge, arrive at another junction where a trail at R leads to Sachem Village. A small sign reminds that bicycles are not permitted at the Mink Brook Nature Preserve due to a condition placed on the College’s major gift that protected the land. The trail begins to climb as the mild music of falling water is heard.
  • Two minutes further, arrive at a small but picturesque waterfall on Trout Brook. At its foot are twin boulders, each wearing a rakish wig of moss and ferns. During a study of wild brook trout habitat by the NH Fish and Game Department and Trout Unlimited in 2012, biologists agreed that the protected forest in this area provides extremely high quality habitat for wild brook trout. (The trout are small, and deserve to live and grow another day.)
  • Keep the brook company for a short while, but watch for orange blazes as the trail swings L and heads up and away. Through the trees at L above is a flattish area where millet was grown by the Stone family when this land was part of their farm in the 1960s.
  • The Trout Brook Trail now heads steadily up, with Trout Brook singing away below to the R.
  • Seven minutes’ walk from the waterfall, you reach the height of land on the trail and emerge, blinking in the sudden change of light, into the clearing for a huge powerline. Needless to say, you’ve found the southern boundary of the nature preserve, which is also the boundary between Hanover and Lebanon.
  • Take a moment to adjust to the sharp contrast and then continue on the path, which bears L and down toward the power line. Coarse rock and gravel mark the route, which soon plunges up again, sometimes quite steeply, through clover, daisies, briars, coltsfoot, and 5’ white pines. It’s difficult to imagine that this area once looked exactly like what you just hiked. Replacing towering hemlocks with towering metal poles makes a big difference to everything beneath them!
  • About 10 minutes from the woodland’s edge, you arrive at another height of land affording a view of an electric transformer station below at R. Continue on the path, heading slightly L toward a gap in the trees and a yellow gate. Just beyond the gate is Trailhead Lane; turn R to reach the parking area where you left your car. If you walked from DHMC, turn R again at Medical Center Drive.

Old Highway 38 & Hudson Farm

A loop hike close to town that feels far away.

Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 2.6 miles round trip
Elevation gain: 180 feet
Time: 1 hour

Categories: Hike of the Month, Hudson Farm, September
Tags: Appalachian Trail

Trail Directions and Map – Full Hike

 

Hudson Farm hike mapDriving Directions

  • From the traffic light at Route 120 and Greensboro Road, take Greensboro Road east for 1.8 miles to its junction with Etna and Great Hollow Roads.
  • Park at the roadside pull-off. If you prefer off-road parking, turn in at David Farr Memorial Park and bear R and downhill to a shaded gravel parking area.
  • Today’s hike on an historic highway includes a loop through the now-protected Hudson Farm’s fields and forest.

What You Should Know

  • This is a fun and easy hike with a few sections of tricky footing among roots or rocks. The route is well-blazed.
  • The route follows an early road and then travels a loop on one of Hanover’s newest conservation lands. In 2017, the National Park Service purchased the Hudson Farm (brown-shaded area on map) to permanently protect it as part of the Appalachian Trail corridor.
  • Trails are maintained by Hanover Trails Committee volunteers and Berrill Farm neighbors.
  • Dogs are welcome but must be under your control; please pick up after your pet.
  • Snowmobiles, ATVs, and bicycles are not permitted.

Hiking Directions

  • Begin your hike on Greensboro Road at the blue town sign marking the Old Highway 38 Trail, directly opposite the town’s Farr Memorial Park.
  • The old road leads between two contemporary houses and shortly turns R (marked with arrow), immediately diving back into time at a pair of old stone walls – the first of many you will encounter today.
  • tree with yellow blazeDon’t be dismayed by the steep path that suddenly appears– the rest of the hike is gentle and rolling. Follow the yellow blazes into the woods.
  • Town Highway 38 has a murky history. Laid out in 1795, it connected Greensboro and Trescott Roads. It was later discontinued, but its exact route was so hard to trace that when planning began for Berrill Farms in 1979, the town agreed with the developer on a route to be called the “Old Highway 38 Trail.”
  • The trail passes through a knobby landscape covered with ferns and a young forest of white pine. The stubs of lower branches encircling each tree are clues that these pines grew up together in an abandoned field, self-pruning those branches as the canopy closed in and blocked out the sun. A few venerable, much older maples survive.
  • old stone wall
  • Eight minutes from the trailhead you cross a fine stone wall. Follow it with your eyes to another at R, running parallel to the trail.
  • A few minutes later, take care crossing a wet spot, where “tree cookies” placed as pavers can be slippery. A small wooden bridge takes the trail over a space that is wetter in other seasons.
  • Six minutes from the first wall crossing, a trail comes in at L at the top of a small rise. This trail is closed to all but Berrill Farms residents. Continue straight, toward a blaze on a large, triple-trunk white pine. The nature of the forest has shifted, with more deciduous hardwoods, belying a different history.
  • You soon encounter another stone wall, this one built with much smaller stones – a clue that it once bordered cultivated land. The builder wished to spare his plow and give his carrot seedlings a chance by stooping to move and stack smaller stones. Had he been grazing sheep here, he wouldn’t have bothered. Take a moment to peel the years off this scene in your imagination, to a time nearly 200 years ago when the only trees were a few young maples left as shade for sheep, when sunlight flooded the ground you’re walking, and the view stretched E to nearby Mill Village, now called Etna. Time, and the end of the sheep craze, brought back the trees.
  • path in fallen pineSeven minutes’ walk from the trail junction, you pass through a slot in the fallen bole of a big pine, nearly 3 feet through. That’s big – but trace it back to where it fell – it was once part of a massive ring of three trunks! These softwoods grow more quickly than hardwoods like maples and oaks, so despite its imposing size, it’s likely younger than most of the hardwoods.
  • The trail swings up and L and follows a stone wall that retains barbed wire from when cattle, not sheep grazed here. At R, a field appears.
  • Bear R at a fork in the trail, up onto a mown path into the E meadow of the former Hudson Farm, to begin a steady climb to a line of trees at the top. Monarchs and other butterflies join you at this time of year, alighting on milkweed, clover, and goldenrod among the grasses, and cicadas and grasshoppers contribute the music.
  • Five minutes from the woods trail, you arrive at the tree line, where a second field comes into view beyond. You are walking through one of Hanover’s iconic historical farm landscapes.
  • Stop for a moment to enjoy the expansive view. Straight ahead, the open slopes of Lebanon’s Storrs Hill stand out, even more so in winter when covered in snow. At R are the Rix Ledges, some of the most interesting terrain and wildlife habitat in Lebanon.
  • Approach the small white pine growing by itself in the field, 20 paces away. From this vantage point you can see Mount Ascutney rising in the distance, to the right of Rix Ledges. You won’t be the first to have “The Sound of Music” pop into your head – nobody’s watching, so twirl around and sing!
  • A group stands with honorary plaques during the June 2017Hudson Farm conservation celebrationIn June, 2017, this was the site of a grand celebration. A partnership between the Trust for Public Land and the Town of Hanover, assisted by the Hanover Conservancy, resulted in purchase of the 175-acre Hudson Farm by the National Park Service to permanently protect it as part of the Appalachian Trail corridor. In addition to major federal funding, many local contributions made this possible. Owned for many years by Dartmouth College, the property had been eyed as a site for everything from a cemetery and golf course to a housing development. Today, the AT Conservancy manages the land. The beautiful meadows will be kept open for their spectacular views and valuable grassland bird habitat.
  • Returning to the tree line, cross a low stone wall to the other field and a brown and yellow trail sign where two mown paths meet. From here, you can see a 20th century home built as a country retreat by Archer Hudson, a retired architect. Dartmouth College later purchased the property and carved off the house for resale, keeping the land. While the College referred to it as the “Hudson Farm,” the property ceased to be a farm when Hudson arrived.
  • Old Highway 38 signWhen leaves are off the trees, you can also see the Adams Farm house, a late 18th/early 19th century white cape with a single chimney. This was home to the family that once owned the farmland you are exploring today. Hudson purchased land that included the Adams barn – and then burned it down.
  • [NOTE: To return along Etna Road, bear R here and take the mown path down through the meadow to Trescott Road and the Hudson Farm trailhead. Turn R on Trescott Road and R on Etna Road to your car.]
  • To continue today’s hike, bear L toward the woods to the lowest point in the rolling field.
  • Two sets of boardwalks offer dry footing across drainages. The second, larger one was built in 2018 by Hanover Trails Committee volunteers (thank you!). Protecting such headwater wetlands and streams from heavy foot traffic benefits water quality and trout habitat in Mink Brook.
  • Soon you’ll see a stone wall at R, reminder that this was once grazing land. Continue as the trail heads gently downhill, with the slabby stone wall on your R until the wall neatly turns a corner of the old pasture.
  • Shortly after, a blue sign at R indicates you are heading toward the Appalachian Trail.
  • [NOTE: For a much longer adventure, continue straight here, turn L (southbound) on the AT to the Conservancy’s Greensboro Ridge Natural Area, L at Oli’s Trail, L at the Greensboro Highlands Trail, L at the Silent Brook Trail, and then L onto Greensboro Road and walk 1.6 miles back to your car.]
  • To continue today’s hike, turn L at the blue sign and follow the yellow blazes past impressive white pines. The trail slabs along the contour. It is discouraging to note the invasion of non-native barberry (a prickly shrub) and glossy buckthorn (find its black berries underfoot among the pine needles). Consider volunteering for organized work parties to remove these pests from conservation land. Or, volunteer to remove them from your own property, to help keep them from spreading. Learn more about these invasives from the Hanover Conservation Commission’s Biodiversity Committee.
  • Continue down the hill to a small drainage that may be nearly dry at this season. The trail crosses it in two places and bears R. About 15 minutes from the top of the fields, you return to the path you took into the first meadow. Continue on the woods path and stay L to avoid a R fork leading over a stone wall. It’s another 15 minutes back to your car from here.
  • The trail soon swings R and down toward Greensboro Road. Listen for the two-part whistle of a broad-wing hawk and keep an eye out for mushrooms. These fungi decorate the forest floor at this time of year, in colors ranging from purest white to bloody red.
  • The sound of traffic is a clue that you are nearing Greensboro Road. A pair of granite boulders serve as your gateway back from Hanover’s past to its present.

8/30/2018

The Velvet Ledges of Greensboro Ridge

A quick but invigorating loop hike close to town.

Difficulty: Medium
Distance: 1.5 miles round trip
Elevation gain: 350 feet
Time: 1 hour

Categories: Greensboro Ridge, Hike of the Month, June
Tags: Appalachian Trail, hay-scented fern, porcupine, purple trillium

Greensboro Ridge Hike – Full PDF

Map of Greensboro Ridge trailsDriving Directions

  • From the traffic light at Route 120 and Greensboro Road, turn east on Greensboro Road.
  • After 0.4 miles, turn left onto Velvet Rocks Drive.
  • Proceed up the hill to the parking area at the road’s end.

What You Should Know

  • Foot travel only, except on the Silent Brook Trail where bikes are allowed. Dogs are welcome but must be under close control; please pick up after your pet. Be aware that this Natural Area is prime porcupine habitat!
  • The trails are blazed in colors matching the trail map: blue for Oli’s Eagle Trail, white for the Appalachian Trail, and light orange for the Greensboro Highlands Trail. The wider Silent Brook Trail is not blazed but is easy to follow.
  • The Hanover Conservancy owns and manages the Greensboro Ridge Natural Area. The Town of Hanover holds a conservation easement on the land. After a housing development was proposed for this entire forested hillside, the Hanover Conservancy and Town worked with the developer to cluster homes close to the road and conserve the remaining acreage. The Conservancy acquired the land in 2008, protecting valuable wildlife habitat, a scenic backdrop, and a wonderful natural area with trails for the new Velvet Rocks and Silent Brook neighborhoods and the greater community to enjoy.

Brief Directions

  • Take Oli’s Eagle Trail north from the trailhead kiosk to the junction with the Appalachian Trail.
  • Retrace your steps a short distance to turn L onto the Greensboro Highlands Trail.
  • Follow this down to a T with the Silent Brook Trail.
  • Turn R to return to your car.

Full Hiking Directions

  • Take a moment to check the trailhead kiosk display and map. We are grateful to Trumbull-Nelson for the gift of this beautifully hand-crafted kiosk.
  • Oli’s Eagle Trail begins just to the L of the kiosk, heading up through a narrow rocky cleft. The contrast between this rough terrain and that tamed for the Velvet Rocks development is dramatic.
  • This trail was built in 2008 by Oliver Simpson for his Eagle Scout project with help from the Hanover Conservation Commission’s Trails Committee.
  • In early June, the foliage of purple trillium is still apparent near the trail entrance, although here at the warmer, lower end of the trail, the wildflowers may have gone by.
  • You’ll soon reach an open expanse of unfurling ferns, primarily the sweetly fragrant Hay-Scented Fern. Watch your footing here. This opening was cleared from the forest as a demonstration house site before the land was protected. It will be kept open to provide habitat variety for wildlife.
  • Heading back into the woods, you can hear the gurgle of a small stream as the trail curves gently to the right. Fisher and mink inhabit this area. The Natural Area is located in the Mink Brook watershed; protecting this land helps keep the waters of Mink Brook cool, clear, and comfortable for wild brook trout.
  • Eight minutes from your car, you’ll begin climbing the ridge. Follow the blazed trail as it crosses a tiny drainage and winds up through a narrow cleft in the rocky ledges.
  • trillium
  • By 18 minutes’ hike from your car, you’ll notice the rise in elevation and cooler forest conditions. The trillium has noticed it too, and may be still in bloom along the trail (photo L).
  • A few minutes later, you might notice the work of pileated woodpeckers on an old tree on the L side of the trail.
  • At 22 minutes from your car, you’ll reach the junction with the Greensboro Highlands Trail, marked with a wooden sign. You’ll soon return to this junction but now continue straight on Oli’s Trail for a minute or two to reach the white-blazed Appalachian Trail. The AT actually dips off federal land and onto Hanover Conservancy property for a short distance. At that junction, you could turn R to head to Etna or Mt. Katahdin in Maine or L for Velvet Rocks, downtown Hanover, or if you’re really ambitious, Springer Mountain in Georgia.
  • Instead, turn around and retrace your steps for a short distance on Oli’s Trail, turning L onto the Greensboro Highlands Trail to continue your hike. The Hanover Conservancy, with help from the Upper Valley Trails Alliance and a team from Hypertherm, built the Greensboro Highlands Trail in 2012 to create this loop.
  • 25 minutes from your car, you’ll note a fragment of stone wall at L, a reminder that this heavily forested land was once an open sheep pasture.
  • old branch collar in treeIn 2 more minutes, a fun photo opportunity appears on the right, where an old branch collar on a dead snag forms the perfect frame (R). Friends can take a photo of faces looking through it to post on our Facebook page!
  • Black bear make their home here, and it’s easy to find bear claw marks on the smooth bark of beech trees, evidence of a bear seeking tasty beechnuts.
  • 32 minutes into your hike, the trail winds to the R around a ledge featuring a huge and handsome vein of white quartz.
  • "face" in old tree
  • In another 2 minutes, see if you can spot the guardian of this forest. This “face” on a tree (photo L) appears on the L side of the trail.
  • 38 minutes into your hike, the trail splits around a large boulder, then a few yards later turns somewhat sharply L. There are a lot of well- worn game trails here and it would be easy to follow one if you were looking at the ground- be sure to look for the orange blazes!
  • Look carefully for signs of one of the Natural Area’s hidden gems –its 8 vernal pools. These usually ephemeral wetlands are essential breeding habitat for salamanders and frogs, as they are free of fishy predators. (Please keep your dog from cooling off here.)
  • At 45 minutes, another stone wall appears at L, marking the HC boundary. A wetland is visible just behind it as you near the trail junction for Silent Brook.
  • 48 minutes into your hike, you’ll reach the Silent Brook Trail. This trail, designed to link the Silent Brook and Velvet Rocks neighborhoods, is open to bicycles. If you turn L, you’ll reach the Silent Brook neighborhood in less than 5 minutes. To return to your car in just a few more, turn R onto the Silent Brook Trail.
  • volunteer mounting a trail signCross a small drainage on a footbridge and enter another ferny opening. Here, white pines are doing what they do naturally – reclaiming old openings – and volunteers are working to keep this area, another demonstration house site, open for wildlife.
  • The trail drops steeply and crosses another small wooden bridge before returning to your car and the parking lot at the end of Velvet Rocks Drive.

Note: The Hanover Conservancy is seeking volunteers to advise us on managing the Natural Area, monitor trails, and help out with very occasional work parties. We also warmly welcome donations to our Land Stewardship Fund to help maintain the Natural Area. More info about the Natural Area can be found here.

June 2016, revised September 2020

Pine Park Perambulation

DOWNLOAD FULL PDF OF DIRECTION …

Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 2 miles
Elevation gain: 150 feet
Time: 1.25 hours

Categories: Hike of the Month, Lands, November, Pine Park
Tags: Connecticut River, Hike of the Month, Pine Park, hike, history

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 

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

info@hanoverconservancy.org

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