Lynn Freeman's Land

Ten of us walked land off of Grantham Mountain Road this morning, a day earlier because of Thanksgiving and a lousy weather forecast.  There were also two dogs.  The walker who went to Thailand was back with us after a wonderful trip.  Her next trip is to Ireland.

The trails are wide and good for snowshoeing and also for horses.  We walked from there to Bean Rd and then back on slightly different trails, not completely backtracking. .  Penny knew the way and it turned out to be a great walk! No one brought  cameras  today so no pictures.  There was a Buddha statue or shrine that I wished we could have photographed, maybe I'll go back.  Nearly everyone came back to my house for cranberry orange bread and coffee.

Great way to start off the Thanksgiving season.  Less than an inch of snow on the ground so it looked wintry and it was very cloudy.  I walked and talked and didn't pay too much attention to the woods today!  Thus, no interesting reports.

Pine Park

We walked in Hanover today following the Pine Park trail and then walked around Occum Pond. This is an easy walk and only about three miles but pretty as it follows a brook and then follows the Connecticut River for a ways.  Then back up to the golf course where it starts.  Great this time of year as you don't have to worry about golf balls.  The course is very popular in golfing season.  Also this land is owned by Dartmouth College so we didn't have to worry about hunters.

As the name implies we do walk through an old growth pine forest.   The deep ravine by the brook surpasses some we saw the last two weeks in Norwich.  However this brook was dry!  I took a few photos and Kate and Penny took photos of the walking crew.  There were 12 of us and 4 dogs.  A great turnout for a late November walk and even a sunny day!

Pictures of us. First one missing Kate. Second one missing Penny! Also pictures of the river and brook,

"Grand Canyon" of Norwich- Not so Grandiose!

Nine of us ventured out to find the "Grand Canyon" of Norwich!  We were not impressed with the hype in the name but a nice walk on a cold day.  It was 17 earlier and in the low 20s when we started out but once you go up and down the various brooks in these woodlands you warm up fast!  Many smaller brook crossings but the trail is a continuation of the one we did last week so it follows the brown brook and the road so you can't get lost.  Not sure if we took all the right trails but it didn't matter  as the woods were so peaceful and open this time of year.  Myra, our tree hugger hiker knows her trees and is teaching us how to identify trees in winter.  The grand canyon is a ravine or gorge of modest proportions!

The trail signs are identified by minutes or hours to them, not miles.  Looking for a map to figure out where we did go today.  We started at parking lot 5 off of School House Lane but never found a cross trail that was suppose to be 1.3 hours in.

Here is a photo of us taken by Kate.

Here is the canyon

Next week Pine Park Trail in Hanover. Rifle hunting season so off the major wood trails for 3 weeks!

Ballard Trail Trek

This week there were 7 of us walking and no dogs!  It was a beautiful November day and warmer
than we thought.  We took the Bill Ballard Trail to School House Lane.  This is about an hour hike up and another hour down following the Charles Brown Brook.  From there you can hike to the "Grand Canyon" of Norwich which we plan to do next week from Parcel 5, a different parking lot 1.4 miles further than the swimming hole turnoff.

The swimming hole is no more thanks to Hurricane Irene. The dam and waterfall further up was damaged and is yet to be fixed.    I took a picture of 7 of us and also of the waterfall.   Further up we had to cross a side brook and I ended up getting one foot in the brook.  Fortunately I had an extra pair of socks with me.

5 of us had a wonderful lunch at King Arthur Flour after but next week we will bring a lunch with us so we can explore more of the trails.   Need Orange hats and vests and hiking poles.   The week after is shot gun season for deer so we will walk along the Connecticut in Hanover where there is no hunting, yet we can be in the woods.