Trail Tending In The Belknaps

Mt. Anna to Goat Pasture Hill

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

Five years ago Bria O’Neil attended the BRATTS (BelknapRangeTrailTenders.org) annual meeting because she was interested in helping maintain the trails she enjoyed hiking. She ended up being able to adopt the section of the Red Trail from its southern intersection of the Blue Trail over Goat Pasture Hill to its intersection with the Belknap Range Trail near Mt. Anna’s summit.
She asked one of the experienced trail maintainers, Jeremy Clark, if he would walk the trail with her and give her some suggestions on what she could do to make the trail better. He ended up helping her on several more outings. They liked doing trail work and they discovered they liked spending time with one another. So much so that a few years later they got married.
Last week I joined Bria Clark to help her do the spring clean-up on her adopted trail. We met at 9 am at the trailhead parking at the dead-end of Alton Mountain Road in Alton. Nearing the parking area there are numerous No Parking signs, please be respectful of the private landowners. If people park smartly there is room for more than a dozen cars. There is a kiosk with a large map of the hiking trails here.

In our backpacks we each carried our tending tools–loppers, a folding saw and a hoe/rake. And we were happy to beat the Black Flies out this spring. We headed west and down the hill on the Old Stage Road/ red-blue trail. At the bottom there is a small pond and we had no issues crossing its outlet. It appears the beavers have left town and the culvert and stone work done by the snowmobile trail folks are working well.
Where the Red Trail crosses the Old Stage Road/red-blue, there is a mini-kiosk trail sign pointing the direction to the trails and mountains, but no distances. There is a nice map on the BRATTS website, trails are blazed with the color they are named and there are signs at each intersection.
We turned right on the Red Trail and we headed up to Mt. Anna. In a short distance the ruins of a farm’s old stone cellar hole are on the right. Then, with our loppers in hand we clipped branches and tossed sticks off the trail.
When we reached a small stream crossing Bria took her hoe/rake off her pack and extended its handle and then she began to rake the leaves out of the water bar. As she worked she told me they had built this with stones they found nearby; this was one of their first projects together. The stone water bar allows the water to cross instead of running down the trail. It is important to keep water bars clear of leaves and debris so the water can run through it and protect the trail from erosion.

Near the intersection of the Belknap Range Trail we worked trimming the Juniper Brush back from the trail and we tried to do it neatly so it looked natural. This took a little extra effort.
We took a short detour into the woods to walk over the actual highpoint of Mt. Anna, which is a short distance north of the red Anna sign at the intersection.
Instead of retracing our steps we decided to take the Blue-Anna Trail all the way to the intersection of the Red/Goat Pasture Hill and make a big loop hike. Just 2/10th down the trail there is an open ledge with a wide vista to enjoy. We could see the nearby lakes below and many far off mountains including Pats Peak! The trail then follows along the bank of West Brook. Its cascading waters looked and sounded beautiful.

We crossed the Old Stage Road and continued on over rolling terrain and past a wonderful rocky perch looking over a swampy pond that West Brook flows through and there is a large beaver lodge in the middle of it. We took a short break here. I ate my peanut butter and honey sandwich while Bria munched on cold pizza.
We resumed our trail work back on the Red Trail/Goat Pasture Hill. This climb was our steepest of the day and a chipmunk taunted us with puffing cheeks as it peered between a crack in the ledges.
Bria reminded me several times that this was one of her favorite trails. We clipped a lot of suckers growing off of previously clipped growth. Just north of the Hill’s highpoint there is a wonderful outlook to the northeast over to the cliffs above the Precipice Path and since the trees are still bare we could see ledges on Straightback Mountain.
As we descended we ran into a tree that had blown down across the trail. We whipped out our saws and Bria beat me to the punch. She made quick work of cutting that 5 inch diameter tree and it went clunk onto the trail. The two of us worked together to drag the tree off the trail.
Back at the Old Stage Road we followed it back to our cars. It was nearly 1pm and we had covered just over 5 miles. Before we hit the road we sat at the picnic table next to the parking lot kiosk and enjoyed delicious lemon blueberry cookies.
Have Fun.

The BRATTS annual meeting is 6pm on May 5th at the Gilford Town Library.

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