Saturday, 04 September 2004
Austin Brook Trail
Sat, 4 Sep 2004: I wanted to sleep in AND hike today so I picked this little semi-loop hike that is only about 15 minutes from home. We made the trailhead on the North Road in Shelburne, NH by about 10:30. After checking out the dam were soon making our way through the turnstile to the Austin Brook Trail. The AB trail mostly follows logging roads of varying degrees of disuse. Most were at least moderately pleasant but there was one fairly long section of gravel road that is still accessible to most any vehicle. We decided that in the future, we would drive in along this road. (I think it is called the Mill Brook road and it leaves the North Road almost directly across from it's intersection with the Meadow Rd. I think this option is mentioned in the WMG.) A few times the AB Trail ducks into thewoods to avoid private property.
View from the top of Dryad Falls
After about 1.5 hours (slow, lazy day) we came to the junction with the Dryad Falls Trail. I was using the most recent WMG map but had torn the pages for this hike from the older edition of WMG (it's lighter than carrying the whole book, and usually not much has changed.) It took me a while to figure out that the trail had been relocated since then. It now leaves the Austin Brook Trail a bit further up than it used to. It starts out pretty gradual, and in about 20 minutes we came to a short spur that leads to the cascades near the top of them. It looks like the old trail came right up along the falls. What we could see of it from the spur path looked badly eroded and had been brushed in to discourage use. There was a nice view up the falls from that point, and a great view looking out from the falls. Very nice! We returned to the main trail and decided that it does not get walked on very much. It was very brushy, although never difficult to follow. We climbed more steeply for a while and gradually levelled off as we approached the ridge.
Helpful graffiti on a trail sign
We arrived at the junction with the Peabody Brook Trail and found that someone had written on thetrail signs. At first we were annoyed but then realized that the signs were incorrect, and that some of the "graffitti" was calling attention to that and showing the correct directions. Be careful if you hike past this junction (Peabody Brook & Dryad Falls Trails). It might be worth your while to pull your map out and have a look. Don't rely on the signs here. We got on the Peabody Brook Trail and soon came upon Dream Lake. After admiring it for a bit we got on the Mahoosuc Trail (AT) headed north.
Taking a break on the Mahoosuc Trail
Not long after we got on the AT I looked up ahead as we were hiking and saw a fairly small moose standing on the trail looking at us. We stopped, but it spooked and ran off into the woods. It may have been a yearling, it wasn't very big. We started hiking again but after about 5 seconds we saw a large cow moose enter the trail where the yearling had been, and she was followed by a calf. She was only about 25 meters away and we stopped, hoping she would not get defensive of her calf. She stared at us and we backed off about 5-10 more meters. After a few minutes the two animals moved slightly off the trail. After 5-10 minutes she started eating some leaves and laid down. We figured she must not be too worried about us so we hiked forward slowly. At the trail's closest approach we were probably well within 10 meters of her but the woods were very thick and we couldn't see her very well or get a good picture.
The Mahoosuc Trail in this section has many little ups and downs that don't show on the AMC topo so it was a little harder than we expected, but not bad. It was very pretty...lots of moss and ferns and beautiful boggy areas and a LOT of sinking or sunken bog bridges. Hiking poles were helpful to get across those very wet areas with dry feet. The trail carried us up to some slightly higher and drier ground and we decided to stop for lunch in these scenic woods. After our quick lunch break the trail started dropping steadily and we began to notice water through the trees. We came to Moss Pondwhich is about the size of Gentian Pond and is quite pretty. The trail comes to its shore so we got a nice clear view of it. We left Moss Pond and soon passed an interesting log and boulder on opposite sides of the path. Ourtrail continued to drop until we arrived at Gentian Pond and its eponymous shelter some time later. The view over the mountain-rimmed pond was spectacular, as was the view from the shelter over mountains to the south. We decided we definitely want to come back here and spend a night.
The Mahoosuc Trail in this section has many little ups and downs that don't show on the AMC topo so it was a little harder than we expected, but not bad. It was very pretty...lots of moss and ferns and beautiful boggy areas and a LOT of sinking or sunken bog bridges. Hiking poles were helpful to get across those very wet areas with dry feet. The trail carried us up to some slightly higher and drier ground and we decided to stop for lunch in these scenic woods. After our quick lunch break the trail started dropping steadily and we began to notice water through the trees. We came to Moss Pondwhich is about the size of Gentian Pond and is quite pretty. The trail comes to its shore so we got a nice clear view of it. We left Moss Pond and soon passed an interesting log and boulder on opposite sides of the path. Ourtrail continued to drop until we arrived at Gentian Pond and its eponymous shelter some time later. The view over the mountain-rimmed pond was spectacular, as was the view from the shelter over mountains to the south. We decided we definitely want to come back here and spend a night.
A small pond on the trail down from Gentian Pond
We picked up the Austin Brook Trail from the shelter. It dropped steeply for a short while but soon moderated and carried us through very attractive woods. We passed by a shallow ephemeral pond that was beginning to look autumnal, and a few steps later walked along a more permanent-looking body of water. After a while we got back to the Dryad Falls junction, having closed the loop. From here we were retracing our steps from the morning and the logging roads got to be pretty monotonous, but it was easy walking and it didn't take us long to cover the 2.5 miles back to the car.
In addition to the three moose, we saw one group of hikers near the beginning and one couple on the ridge, a garter snake, a huuuuuuge toad, chipmunks, red squirrels (well, we only heard those) chickadees, bluejays, and several other species of small birds that I could not identify
In addition to the three moose, we saw one group of hikers near the beginning and one couple on the ridge, a garter snake, a huuuuuuge toad, chipmunks, red squirrels (well, we only heard those) chickadees, bluejays, and several other species of small birds that I could not identify
