Northern Rail Trail, Boscawen, New Hampshire

August 25, 2020

We arrived in Lincoln, New Hampshire Sunday evening August 23rd after an 11 hour drive from Ohio. Once again we packed food, water and all supplies needed for the week. It’s our Covid MO. Only made 2 stops for gas and that other necessity.

View from our condo – thunderstorm on the way.

We had a thunderstorm in the evening. We were thankful we had the bikes inside before it arrived. Enjoyed watching storm move in over the mountains and hearing the thunder.

We spent yesterday getting our bearings and setting up a shuttle for Wednesday morning to top of Franconia Notch Trail.

New Hampshire’s longest rail trail – 57.6 miles between Lebanon and Boscawen, built in 1847 by the Northern Railroad.

We began our ride in Boscawen about an hour from our condo in Lincoln. The trail is an uphill slope from here to Lebanon. We always attempt to ride uphill going out and downhill on return.

It was a warm, sunny day with widely scattered thunder showers predicted.

Merrimack River – looked refreshing on this hot day.

We followed the Merrimack River north and east from Boscawen. At times we were high above the river, other times almost on the bank and still other times we could not see the river.

Merrimack River

The trail surface was crushed stone and very well maintained. Even with storms the evening before we road, the trail was dry.

Railroad ties – remnants of Nothern Railroad.
Many areas had exposed railroad ties.
Turntable once assisted in changing the direction of locomotives.
Turntable
Because of limited diameter of turntable it could only accommodate the American type. 4-4-0 locomotive pictured.

With the downhill slope, our return was a bit easier. The temperature was about 91 upon our return to the car. We loaded the bikes and were ready to get on the freeway when we noticed some very dark clouds headed our way. We turned around and stopped at a gas station to cover the bikes. Wish we had a video showing our struggles to get the cover on the bikes. We did get them covered and sat out the storm. As we head back to the freeway a tree had fallen over the road. So thankful it missed us.

Corn field at end of trail in Boscawen.

The trail guide said the trail ended in a corn field. They weren’t kidding!!

We will be up early tomorrow morning to catch the shuttle to Canon Mountain and the start of the Franconia Notch Trail.