Trails Used

Miller Pond Road, Croyden Turnpike, bushwhack, herd path, logging roads, ATV trail, Mountain Road

Trail Conditions

Notes

After work trail run/hike/bushwhack up Chase Pond Peak. Started out at the town forest parking lot on Miller Pond Rd & ran Croyden Turnpike out past Chase Pond. From there, bushwhacked straight up Chase Pond Peak, passing a nice open ledge partway up. Reached the flagged herd path along the ridge, followed it to the summit & south along the ledgey ridge past the point where the flagged trail veers downhill to the west. Continued on the ridgeline via sporadic herd/game paths & bushwhacking to the next deep col, then bushed east & downhill to a grassy logging road & followed to south a nice beaver pond & dam. From the pond, bushwhacked a short distance east to an ATV trail & ran it S to Mountain Road near the border of Corbin Park, then ran the old road back to the parking lot.

Parking

Dedicated parking lot for Grantham Town Forest at the end of the maintained part of Miller Pond Rd.

Water Crossings

Snowmobile bridges in places. Mountain Road at Lily Pond is flooded out but there is a herd path around it.

Wildlife

Did not find any ticks on me after this adventure.

Trails Used

Logging road, bushwhack, abandoned Kimball Union trail

Trail Conditions

Notes

I made this one way harder than it should have been. From the parking spot, I followed the newer of the two parallel roads heading SE. There's an intersection with another trail shortly, then just before the curve others have referenced, there's a well-defined old logging road heading SW. I contemplated taking this, but saw no sign of the yellow tape or paw print blazes other mentioned and since this was seemingly heading in the wrong direction, I continued on. I found the open area with the shooting bench that Danielle referenced, but no obvious trail here. After a couple trips back and forth between the old road and the open area, I saw Danielle's comment about the 'dig out' which allowed me to find what I thought was a trail, blocked by a giant blowdown. So we started up this way, around the blowdown and there was a faint, unmarked trail that we lost very quickly and just started whacking straight to the summit. Easy whack in open woods. Only took 30 mins to summit once we left the open area. Summit has a bunch of goodies, but no jar. There was ample evidence of a trail over the summit ridge, so I decided to follow this down. Trail headed south for aways then cut west. Just as I thought the trail disappeared and I was regretting my life choices, I saw a wrinkled piece of yellow tape! Followed this for a bit and saw some of the famous paw print blazes. But overall trail was worse maintained than my whack up. Eventually lost the trail, at which point we were WSW of the peak - not super helpful! Decided to whack to another marked old road running between Chase Pond Peak and the sub peak to the west. Found this to be in good shape and followed it out to the main logging road I approached from. Took a solid 40 mins to descend - would have been 20 if I just retraced my steps. My guess is that the old road just before the bend would have connected to the blazed trail somehow, but it'd be a really inefficient route up. Also learned this area is property of Kimball Union Academy, who are the Wildcats, explaining the blazes, so I'm calling this the Kimball Union trail. If I were doing this again I would go to the open area with the bench, whack straight to the peak and descend the same way.

Parking

Parked at the corner of Old Croydon Turnpike. The road getting here was a bit muddy/slippery and relatively steep, but manageable with caution.

Wildlife

not yet