"Yet Another Woods Road" (
pictures)
Difficulty:
Easy (gravel/dirt road)
Directions: From North Main Street in Farmington, NH take 153 North. Continue onto Kings Highway in Middleton and follow for 4 miles. Entrance road sign is on the right set back. Follow road for a short distance to the gated trail head and sign.
Report: After spending the morning at the Moose Mountains Reservation we decided to look around for other trail heads in the area. I was trying to find Jones Road so we could walk the Horn Brook trail but somehow missed it. So I got back onto Kings Highway and looked for other signs of a trail. Shortly I spotted a sign in the woods for Ellin R. Hatch WMA. I backed up and drove down the short road to the gate. We walked a gravel and dirt road for approximately a mile passing a marsh and taking a right at a road junction and followed the road 100 feet to a kiosk and what appeared to be a half dried up pond. Upon looking on my Flickr satellite map I could see that it was once a large pond. Google map has there's updated as it is now. If you check this out it is the marsh area that is shaped like a tall boot. Not sure if a dam was removed or what happened to cause the water to recede so much but it looks to have been that way a while. Not sure where the road continued to and the weather changing from warm and sunny to cool and windy, we decided to call it a day and head home. Total time 30 minutes.
This used to be some of the best remote fly-fishing in the area before the dam washed out. The most beautiful wild brook trout used to live in the pond. There was some effort to get the money together to rebuild the dam a few years ago after the wash-out. I haven't heard any more about it though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. Jeff! Too bad about the dam, this looks to have been a beautiful pond at one time! There doesn't even seem to be any wildlife either. Hope the dam can be replaced someday.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you want the dam to be replaced? It's a beautiful wetland without us warping it to our own desires.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there are any fish left. Would love to go and try sometime soon.
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