Everything was going fine and I was a few minutes late already, but after I left Keene, New Hampshire and continued driving down Route 10 I had a minor accident involving a deer. I managed to see it as it was running full tilt out of the woods but not soon enough. I hit the brakes and swerved a bit to the right but it hit right around my drivers side light and skidded across the hood and landed on the pavement. It got back up and ran down the road a bit and then into the woods. So hopefully it was okay; my car suffered a small dent in the hood and I am still picking deer hair out of it.
Attleboro Mountain
Mileage: 1.65
Elevation gain: 475 feet
Trails used: road walk, bushwhack.
Al had already started hiking earlier in the day so I met him at a road that heads into the Quint Preserve and runs along side Attleboro Mountain which was right off of Lang Road. He is working on hiking in different area's and hiking all peaks with three hundred feet of prominence or higher (in New Hampshire). It is a rather ambitious goal but if anyone can do it, it will be him.
Attleboro Mountain is located in Richmond, New Hampshire and also in the Quint Preserve. I couldn't find much information on the Quint Preserve, other than a few website and a facebook page that are trying to prevent the Preserve from falling into the natural gas pipeline that is being proposed. Just what we need, more wind turbines, pipelines and solar farms.
There are no trails that reach the wooded, view-less summit of Attleboro Mountain so it requires a short, steep bushwhack.
We started off on a snowmobile trail off of Land Road and then started bushwhacking, rather steeply, towards the summit of Attleboro Mountain.
One of two potential high points for Attleboro Mountain (elevation: 1418 feet). The other possible high point is in the picture below.
Walking back down the snowmobile trail and back to the car.
Once we were done, we hopped back in our cars and headed down the road for the next hike. Reaching the end of the driveable road on Scott Mountain Road, we parked and Al went in search of the owner of the property to ask permission to use his land to hike up to the summit. We were given the green light to proceed so up we went.
Scott Mountain
Mileage: 1.45
Elevation gain: 635 feet
Trails used: none. old logging cut, bushwhack.
This peak is to the west of Attleboro Mountain and we asked for permission from the home owner to use his property to access the summit. The heat of the day started making its presence known as we headed into the woods, via his yard.
Scott Mountain is located in Richmond, New Hampshire. There are no trails to reach the summit of Scott Mountain, although we found a possible ATV trail and used logging cuts to reach the summit which is wooded but had one view point.
We started off bushwhacking and eventually came upon some old logging cuts as well as a possible ATV trail, which we would take to the summit of Scott Mountain.
This is pretty much the only view point from the summit of Scott Mountain looking towards nearby Mount Monadnock.
The high point of Scott Mountain (elevation: 1396 feet) which looked, surprisingly, like it had been mowed recently.
Al heading back down to the car through the thickest woods we would see on this hike.
Another peak done and on to the next one. We stopped in Winchester to get something to drink and eat before we continued on. The next peak looked to be quick, depending on how we could get access to it.
Meetinghouse Mountain
Mileage: 0.8
Elevation gain: 300 feet
Trails used: none. service road.
We had to find a good spot to access this peak as it is surrounded by houses and would be a longer walk in the woods coming from the east. So Al parked near a Private Drive sign and ran to ask the homeowners if we could use it to access the peak. Another go ahead from the property owner and we were on our way up the road.
Meetinghouse Mountain is located in Winchester, New Hampshire. It is located almost in the middle of town and has an access road that goes up to its wooded, view-less summit. There is a communications tower on the summit.
We walked up the access road to the summit area of Meetinghouse Mountain where there was a communications tower on the summit.
Al on the high point for Meetinghouse Mountain (elevation: 886 feet) which had these three wooden stumps but we weren't sure what they were for.
We walked this dirt service road up to and down from the summit of Meetinghouse Mountain.
Because of the time of day and it being a Sunday, I had time to do one more peak before I made the long drive home. The next peak would be back in Richmond, New Hampshire and a short drive away.
Willard Mountain
Mileage: 1.8
Elevation gain: 725 feet
Trails used: bushwhack, old logging roads, snowmobile trail.
We drove to the northern end of Stone Mountain Road and pulled off on the side of the road at a spot that looked pretty good to start the bushwhack. What we didn't realize is that only about 50 feet down the road is an old woods road that most likely also is a snowmobile trail in winter. We did use it when we hiked down but it would've gone a bit quicker if we had known it was there.
Willard Mountain is located in Richmond, New Hampshire. There are various old logging roads and even a snowmobile trail that go up towards the wooded, view-less summit, which requires a short bushwhack to reach.
We started off bushwhacking up towards the summit of Willard Mountain through open woods but then we found some old logging roads and a snowmobile trail and took those up.
The high point for Willard Mountain (elevation: 1365 feet) is wooded and view-less.
The snowmobile trail on the way down and back to the car.
While it is fun to explore in different areas in New Hampshire, I doubt I will ever have the ambition that Al has by trying to do all 600+ peaks in New Hampshire with 300 feet of prominence. Maybe as the years pass by, I will pick away but I will reserve that for the more hardcore hikers.
It was a nice day of hiking, and other than the mishap before the hikes started, it was still nice to be out. I wore long sleeves so the bugs weren't too bad but the weather was nice so having that extra protection was nice.
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