Phoebes Nable Loop Trail Opening Hike 7/4/15

- PLEASE email me to sign-up for this event! hikethesummits@gmail.com

* All hiking abilities are welcome as well as children who are comfortable and able to hike.

* Bring/wear appropriate clothing, food/lunch and water.

*We will meet at the parking area at the end of New Portsmouth Road in Middleton, NH. We will hike out and back to Phoebes Nable Mt. summit via Burrows Farm trail and Phoebes Nable Loop trail. We will break for lunch on the 180 degree open summit.

*When: July 4th, 2015 at 10:00am to 3:00pm

The time has finally come! This project at Moose Mountains Reservation began with the desire to cut out a side-path to by-pass an extremely washed out, slippery section of the North side of Phoebes Nable Mt. Trail. We wrote a grant to get funds so the Forest Society could hire a trail builder to help and train us and volunteers on trail building.

A grant was awarded (if I remember right by the http://lwcfcoalition.org/about-lwcf.html) September 2013 we began the lay-out of a 1/2 mile new trail that would completely replace the old one! Guided by Nate Preisendorfer of North Star Trails, we scouted, flagged and cut the corridor and began a 2-month long construction of a stone staircase. The year-and-a-half to follow Scott and I spent dozens of hours a week building the trail and leading work days that saw nearly 2-dozen volunteers putting in approximately 500 hours of trail work!

This will be the first sustainable hiking trail built on Forest Society property and perhaps the first in decades in all of NH. (what is a sustainable trail?http://www.campingroadtrip.com/outdoor-living-newsletter-july-2010/sustainable-trails) It was with great excitement that Steve Smith of White Mountain Book Store thought it would be great to include this and our other trails in the 2015 AMC Southern NH trail guide book. The timing was perfect! And now as we make finishing touches to the trail the book is released and we want to get it open for everyone to enjoy.

July 4th is a special time for us at MMR. It was the day we put our first trail blaze on this neglected property in our first year as land stewards in 2011. So much has changed here to make MMR a family friendly, wonderful place to hike and enjoy the natural beauty of this area! We hope you join us, and if not, hope you can hike it on your own soon!