Seemed like I should go for a bike ride today, and after a conversation at Rose Mountain I thought I'd check into a long-standing mystery.
Where does the (asphalt) bike path from Concord along I-89 start? And how far does it go?
Well, it turns out that it starts on Silk Farm Road, past NH Audubon, off Clinton St. just south of I-89 exit 2. As to how far it goes .... well, only a couple of miles. I had hoped for some thing longer, and I noticed a possibility with a Concord city trail that could be accessed from the asphalt trail and runs out to Hopkinton Rd ( aka "Franklin Pierce Highway" aka US Rt 202). Then E on 202 and catch Dunbarton Rd back to the asphalt trail or to Silk Farm Rd itself. Hmmm. a few unknowns here, notably how to get across I89 at the end of Dunbarton Rd. And also whether it would be OK to use Dunbarton Rd , which runs thru the campus of a private academy ( St Paul's School).
There was also a big question in my mind whether to ride some of the Silk Farm Road Trails. I heard of these from searches for trails in Concord. Every reference sounded like some sort of private enterprise, like Kingdom Trails or something. Cost? Where to sign up? Maps? Where is the headquarters? I couldnt find the answers online, so I figured I'd ride by.
So ... off to Silk Farm Road to explore for some answers. Just past the I89 underpass Silk Farm Rd ends in a parking lot outside a gate. The gate was open, but is to private property - St Paul's School. Turns out Silk Farm Trails is an area of open trails on St Paul's property. I was really more interested in the bigger loop, so , curiosity satisfied about what Silk Farm Trails is, and finding (from signage) that St Paul's is apparently OK with riders using their roads, I decided to check out the Dunbarton Rd question. The answer to that turned out to be that there is no way to use Dunbarton Rd to return under I89 to the asphalt path; the end of Dunbarton Rd toward I89 is closed with a fence and locked gate. But riding thru campuis along Dunbarton Rd was no problem.
That led to a second thing I was curious about - I noticed an odd item on google earth, which turned out to be a dam on the outlet of Turkey Pond. I like dams, so I thought I'd ride out to that. There is signage that basically says the trail is for cross country runners & skiers only; however, several people I met on the St Pauls roads told me that that was only for winter ( and maybe mud season) , to avoid damaging the ski tracks that cross country skiers use, and no problem for me to ride out there to look at the dam. So I did.
The dam is lovely, but there was no water to speak of. It's been just too dry :( Hardly any water at all in the Turkey River.
After appreciating the dam for a little while I decided to explore a little of the trail out there , and eventually found myself out on Rt 202.
So I rode down 202 , somewhat white knuckled - there is not much room for a bike and there is a lot of fast traffic; I was very happy to turn in to Dunbarton Rd and get off 202. From there I rode back to the junction with Silk Farm Road, and back out to the asphalt trail.
The asphalt trail had some walkers and a couple of bikes. It's separated from I89 by a fence. It has a very nice bridge across the neck between the two segments of the Turkey Ponds. It ends at Stickney Hill Rd ( with the dumbest thing I think I've seen on a trail ever ).
Stickney Hill Rd immediately lives up to its name with a short climb, and then intersects with I89 exit 3. This can be used to cross under I89 to the aforementioned trail. The trail was much rougher than I wanted to tackle with this bike, so at this point I turned back and rode uneventfully back on the asphalt trail to my truck, passing what I think is a State of NH EPA response depot. It's very official looking , with a fence, a spiky gate and no signage to speak of :( I thought maybe it was federal, but I saw one sign that indicated State.
