Exploring Pawtuckaway's Northwestern Corner

Two weeks away from the mountains has not meant two weeks without outings.  Last weekend Erick agreed to go somewhere new with us and we were lucky enough to also be sort of near Hannah's neck of the woods so she joined us for our first (overdue) visit to Pawtuckaway State Park in Nottingham, NH.

Based on a suggestion from a Facebook friend, we parked at the end of Round Pond Road.  Despite what the GPS says, it does not go through the park; there is a gate and if it directs you there via Reservation Road, it is leading you astray).  It was so busy, we had to park in the overflow area a little ways back towards the main road.  One of the reasons I wanted to go to Pawtuckaway was the ability to let the dogs off leash so as soon as we passed the gate, we released the hounds!

Frankly, I believe I am writing a report simply because it has been awhile since my last post because, despite having a loose plan to go up North Mountain via the Boulder Trail, we mostly wandered so I have very little helpful input for info-seekers.

The main trail we began on was perfect for a stroll: packed dirt and wide with no obstacles.  After skirting around Round Pond, we crossed a small stream the bore right at the first noticeable intersection (left indicated it was for the Round Pond Bypass).

If a challenge is what you seek, this isn't the trail for you
but it was perfect for our needs that day!

While the tree cover transformed into shade-forming evergreens, the trail continued with its easy, meandering style.  I mentally rejoiced at finding a place that engaged Erick, not typically a hiking guy.  All the while, Tango was upbeat and Ty was a joyful mix of her critter-chasing self, a perfect listener, and a new brand of puppy-like I don't think I've ever seen in her.

Round Pond

The trail descended after a few minutes and turned left to avoid one of the first massive boulders (glacial deposits, I believe) where there was an American Bulldog accompanying his boulder-climbing owner.  To the right and out of range of the bulldog were more massive boulders and I wandered off trail for photos ops and gawking.

A little blurry but I have to show off her parkour skills!

Finding our way to the pond

It would be awhile before we rejoined a trail because those rocks were super cool, which led me to other interesting rocks which led us down the hill to the swampy edge of one of the ponds.  Sitting on a shoulder-high rock, we watched Ty be the swamp thing for a long time while enjoying the sunshine and observing her in her "natural habitat" (Carolina Dogs are native to swampy areas in the south).

Can you spot her?

Lilo keeping watch

Awhile later, we made our way back up to a trail.  "A" trail because we didn't hop back on where we departed from.  This trail (perhaps the same one as before for all I know) followed the pond at a distance.

This trail had a little light scrambling that added some extra fun and entertainment because Ty was absolutely in heaven.  She would disappear up into the rocks and mysteriously reappear in the woods ahead of us.  It was at that point I realized how massive the park is.  So many cars in the lot but we hadn't encountered hoards of people.  Quite a few, but not a quantity difficult to manage with off leash dogs.  Many of them were there to climb/boulder.

Erick leading the way

A man and his dog <3

The trail we followed from the pond was narrower and more typical of a wooded path with some small obstacles (photos above).  We passed an intersection or two, all with promises of more boulders to marvel at and climb up, but we stayed the course and eventually landed back on the trail we started on that led back to the car.

Scooted up towards the tree with Tango. Ty did not approve.

Erick making his way back to the trail after giving me a hand.
Tango fared impressively well on his own!

We easily spent an awesome 2.5 hours wandering around and barely covered a small corner of the park.  It is massive and diverse; I cannot wait to bring the dogs back.  It is a park where anyone with a remote interest in being outdoors can have fun. Many of the trails are wide enough to walk side by side, enabling conversation in a way many of the mountain trails don't.  The boulders are fascinating and fun.  Even Tango enjoyed them and had my back when I scrambled up a steep hill that was more challenging than I had anticipated to get down from.  (Erick had to help and it's a wonder he's allowing me out again!)  My understanding is that the lake at the other end of the park allows canoeing but we enjoyed sitting on the pond's banks and taking in the experience.  And the woods are simply enchanting.  Despite the large number of park-goers, we saw bear scat right on the trail!  With the variety of interests between the six of us, everyone was a happy hiker; we wholeheartedly recommend this park to everyone! Hopefully we'll have a tale of paws on peaks in the near future but if not, expect some more local reports!

Tybee approved!
(And Tango too but I have a regrettably small number of  crisp photos of him.)

Click here for Pawtuckaway's website.  Scroll down for the pet-related rules.
Click here for the official map (which I managed to struggle with and wish had more description to match trail signs)

Local Diversions: Biddeford's Clifford Park

Never did I think I would ever say I got lost in the woods off Pool Street in Biddeford!  But that's just what happened on Sunday and I'm a happier person for it.

Clifford Park has about 5 miles total of marked trails (I read that somewhere) for walking, running, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and cycling.  I had seen and heard of it but it took over year for us to finally check it out.  Some of the talk about town wasn't all good and I was happy to see an empty parking lot and be accompanied by three dogs when we arrived.

After a dicey few steps between the lot and trailhead, we were welcomed by a beautiful, dry, broad trail through open woods and I was instantly in love.  We started with the main loop, identified by black blazes and totaled 1.3 miles.  The trail was generally very spacious.  Only a few spots had standing water or ice (and the accompanying mud).  What I instantly loved about these woods were the rocks.  How were there so many random boulder deposits?!  A couple were graffiti-ed and I could understand why there have been issues there in the past (more of our interesting finds later) but I felt very safe and peaceful.

Rocks!

Some standing water.  In the shade, pools like this were still frozen as of  2/28

I was truly mystified by these natural edifices!

Looking super handsome!

Wide trail

Upon finishing the black trail loop, we ran into a family with their small dog and decided to head toward's the park's height of land via the green trail, as it looked potentially rocky and I was bumming we weren't on Cabot with our friends as initially planned.  I'm not so great at  reading maps but I could not figure out the green trail.  For example, I would be at a three-way intersection with green blazes in all directions but the map never indicated such a location.  I gave up after a few minutes and followed an unmarked and subtle trail heading upwards.  At the top were rocky outcroppings and was essentially a clearing (sparse trees).  Of course, being one of the coolest locales in the park, there was lots of evidence of illicit activity like fires and drinking.  Be Aware: there is a lot of broken glass.  At the other side of the clearing, we picked up the pink trail which brought us back to the green then black trail.

Heading up the hill

The misuse of the land is frustratingly obvious.

Shenanigans

 Instead of staying on the interior of the loop, I waited for the second (and final) chance to take the red trail and veered left at the opportunity (when heading clockwise).  The red trail was a little narrower and more rugged but still well within the bounds of what I call "Mass State Parks terrain."  Before long I could hear running water and when the trail took a sharp right, we skidded down the hill and found a small cascade and another awesome hangout spot... again, if it weren't for all the glass.  It's such a bummer to find an awesome place and simultaneously discover it's trashed in the coolest spots.  The trails themselves were, by and large, very clean.  We hopped back on the red trail and enjoyed the meander along the brook (West Brook if I'm not mistaken).

Leading the way

ledges where we departed from the trail and old fire pit.
The water ran behind me.

Tybee the cheater....

Never imagined we'd see something so wild and beautiful
in Biddeford!

Red trail following the water

The red trail ran into the orange and continued to provide an enjoyable and easy walk, albeit on a narrower trail than previously.  Some ice remained and we had to skirt around it, sometimes meaning I was dragged between saplings!  My original plan was to take the longest option available back to the car via the yellow and blue trails.  The intersection where the yellow should have been had no markers.  We took it anyway and got lost.  I'm not a fan of getting lost.  We reached where the hill we were traversing dropped into a neighborhood and turned around. Back at the junction, we turned onto the blue trail (opting for the longer stretch since it was unevenly bisected).

Clear beginning of the orange trail

The most "elevation gain" of the day

Came upon this peculiar, dismantled structure while lost.
Notice Ty's ears on high alert!

The blue trail was pretty cool and reminded me of our small handful of walks in the Blue Hills of Mass (with less elevation change).  The blue trail took us through some younger woods and skirted a marshy area.  I loved walking over the smooth rock for a short stretch before coming to another intersection with two arrows that pointed right.  (to the left were folks' backyards and what are probably their personal trails).  Shortly beyond the righthand turn, I saw what I think was the other end of the yellow trail but a half-hearted attempt to follow it wasn't any more successful than trying to follow the other end.  We walked up the hill and Tango led us along a narrow footpath that dropped down into what looked like an old quarry.  He led us to the end and we turned back and hopped back on the blue.

My handsome man making me think of primitive man's first dog!
(A better thing to focus on than the fact that there is illicit camping going on!)

Absolutely in love with Tango's swagger.
Believe it or not, I spared you most of the photos!

To the left is the aforementioned hill with the steep drop on the other side

Top of the hill.  More fires but no glass.

Moments later we encountered a couple of off leash dogs.  I fully admit (as it is obvious by the photos) that I had Tango off leash (more for my safety than anything else considering the fact that we were essentially alone and he is crazy good off leash, though he certainly loved to lead knowing the girls couldn't).  It appears the park does have some off leash areas so I will look more into that.  I hope to run into some regulars sooner rather than later to accelerate my knowledge of the area and maybe have some walking buddies.

No reason to share other than her cuteness!

I am so glad (and slightly regretful it took so long) we visited Clifford Park.  The official trails are very well marked (my confusion about the green and yellow ones aside) and there are many unmarked ones as well if you're feeling confident.  We easily spent two hours or so exploring; Clifford Park is great for short walks just enough to get off the pavement or a worthy substitute for a hike (sort of!). I did a little "googling" and confirmed my hunch about the scattered rocks and large, curved drop off on the blue trail - the land was once home to several quarries according to this article.

Nature walk win with a sleepy foster pup!

A trail map can be found here.


3/7/2016 UPDATE:

We went back to Clifford Park yesterday and I followed the dogs aimlessly.  They loved the small waterfall and Ty was intent on getting up the embankment on the other side but there are houses at the top.  There were about eight cars in the lot but we never directly crossed paths with anyone for the full hour and a half we were there.

Our wanderings put us on the green trail for awhile (the one I could not figure out last week) and it is actually quite long and more rugged than the others.  I will try to get there by following the blazed trails next time to provide directions.  There were some really cool sights like a tiny cave that Ty found.  We also passed another illegally created (and largest observed thus far) lean-to.

We revisited the top of the quarry site (I believe) near the northern junction of the yellow and blue trails and spent some time practicing the dogs' bouldering skills.  I never expected that to be possible to close to home!

Finally, here's a link to the official leash rules for the park.  I'd rather provide it directly from the town than repeat second-hand information.

Local Diversions: Portland's Back Cove Trail

Saturday, I had two antsy "dingos" and the disappointing feeling we would be bailing on the next day's hike.  I also had gorgeous skies and freakishly warm weather to lure me outside in spite of my commitments.

I was vaguely aware of the Back Cove Trail, a 3.5 mile loop around Portland's Back Cove and knew it was the perfect day to make our first visit.  I threw Tango a new marrow bone and snuck out with the girls.

Upon arrival, I realized we had just missed crashing a road race so there were plenty of people and a few dogs around - all great socialization/manners practice!

We started at the official entrance on Preble Street where there was a long parking lot.  At the beginning, there were a couple of short (2-5 minute) loops we later used to cool down and some army-style obstacles in the field for strength training.  We immediately set off jogging on the stone dust pathway, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the balancing effect of the cool breeze.

About a mile into our jog, we hit the portion of the trail that runs alongside the highway (weird!) and I accidentally bailed, taking us onto the Sebago Trail and almost reached the Eastern Promenade, another great Portland outdoor spot with trails, off leash areas, and a beach.  We could have done the Prom loop instead but I much preferred the stone dust to pavement  for the girls' joints so we turned around - but not before taking photos!

Detour!

We were briefly back on the highway bridge before bearing left to continue on the Back Cove Trail.  The views for the next mile and a half or so were a pretty city/nature combo. On our other side, a broad median of grass with the road was perfect for giving wide berth to other dogs or groups.

That's a hard face to say 'no' to!

I was really proud when we were within a half mile (and a few minutes) of the lot but Ty was a machine and trotted through the lot without blinking, leading us on a second lap that I can truthfully say we completed as a jog, effectively doubling my jogging distance record!  The girls were ready for lap #3 but we were well into the afternoon by then so I had to apologize and head home.

Cool place to sit

We will definitely be back though, I loved the open, vista-centered loop.  3.5 miles is perfect and there is the opportunity to link up with other trails or wander the city, although it's not really within walking distance of the Old Port.  The only incline is to go over the Rt 295 bridge.  I imagine it is perpetually windy so I recommend a light wind-resistant layer.  There are sparse trash receptacles as well as a few bubblers.  Most of the trail is plenty broad and there was a natural flow between the runners, walkers, and dog owners but it got a little narrow by the bridge and I was happy for the traffic handle on the girls' Ruffwear leashes.  Personally, I like to be able to quantify my progress so I really liked the distance markers every quarter mile too.  No peaks, no hiking, but certainly a worthwhile local adventure!

Back Cove Trail's official page here.

Woohoo!