Another short hike close to home, on a Concord trail.
This one is located behind and a little W of Concord Hospital, with a parking lot on the S end of Fisk Rd. Note that the lot is gated , and the area description says it is locked at dusk. I hustled out before that, I'd rather not find out the hard way.
I did get started a bit late, so I didnt dawdle much at the kiosk. Straight off onto the trail, and shortly foound it a bit rougher than expected, with a section that was pretty rocky.
Once past the rocky part of the White trail, the treadway becomes very smooth. Pretty attractive to mountain bikers, I saw several.
I took the Orange train at the junction, . At the bend of the Orange Trail there is a sign for the Cart Trail. Basically, there is a marked but unmapped trail segment linking this point on the Orange trail to a point on the "Cart Path" . On the map, the Cart Path is a trail colored orange but not shown as connected to the "Orange" trail. This unmapped link provides an alternative to going back over the (small) hill that the Yellow and Blue trails climb.
Climbing the hill via the Orange Trail gave a short bit of elevation gain and a decent view to the SW.
Circling around the hill on the Yellow trail took me to an old growth tree, which I enjoyed contemplating. I remember the sign saying it had a 22 ft girth, but looking at the pic now I'm not sure that is correct. Perhaps I misremembered. Anyway, it's a heck of a lot older than I !!
The trsil description mentioned another view, including a glimpse of the State House. The view is pretty much obstructed by trees, but it is possible to see just a tiny bit of the State House gold dome.
From here I headed for the Backwoods Loop. This was a little rougher but not much, a very pleasant walk. A couple of spots, one near each end, need some brushing, but nothing serious.
The description at the kiosk mentions that there are old, unmarked trails. I counted more than 10 junctions with old paths as I meandered this park. Most of these are seemed to be in good shape; it would not be hard to get onto one of them and bit realize it for a little while, anyway. Easy enough to avoid if you're not daydreaming too much.
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