Epsom Town Forest – Neville Peak and Nottingham Mountain
The temps were in the high 40s when I got to the parking spot. The last section of road was a bit rough and I questioned if I was going in the right direction. But after a few hundred feet or so I came to a sign that said “Park Here” and pointed to a dirt lot that could have 6-8 vehicles.
| Date: | 9-18-2022 |
| Location: | Epsom, NH |
| Distance: | 6.4 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 828′ |
| Total Time: | 4 hr 38 min |
| Parking: | 6-8 cars |
| Difficultly Rating: | Easy/Moderate |
I met up with a few friends of mine who arrived a few minutes after I did. We started out down a heard path that lead to an old caller hole. In side there were a bunch of painted rocks that said “class of 2021”
We continued on down the dirt road and passed the Mill Sluice trail on the right. We planed to take that trail down on the way back. So we continued on till we reached the Neville Ridge Scout Foot Trail which lead us up to Neville Peak.
The sunlight shined bright through the trees and the air was crisp. We climbed gently for about a mile when we cam upon a false peak with a cairn. We kept moving until we reached an opening that lead up to the actual summit.
From there we had some excellent views to the north west. We could see Moosalaukee, the Belknaps, Franconia Ridge along with many others. To the east we had a pretty good view of Blue Job mountain.
After enjoying the view for a bit and taking some pictures we moved on toward Nottingham Mountain. We missed the turn to this mountain and almost made it down to the road before realizing it.
So we climbed back up and realized the turn was almost at the Neville Peak summit. Back on course we made our way across the ridge to Nottingham Mt. On our way we found another opening that looked like it might have had some views at one point but now it was overgrown with trees.
A little ways down the trail we finally made it to Nottingham Mountain. At the summit is the remains of an old chimney that I heard was a center piece of a glass house. Off to the side there were a number of old artifacts laying around the ground.
We hung out and explored a bit and took few more pics. After about 20 minutes or so we started heading back across the ridge and joined back up to the Scout Trail. This took us down to the class 6 road that travels through the valley.
We decided to take a small detour to the Mill Sluice trail which lead us to a beautiful pond with a bench so we took a few moments to enjoy this day. We continued on the trail until we all the Mill Spur Trial. This actually led us to an old mill foundation. It was pretty cool.
A few more pictures and we kept moving util we hit the road again. From here it was a short distance back to the parking lot. Once we got to the lot we noticed there was a mail box with a log book in it. We all signed the log on our way out.
This was a really nice hike. Not to long not to tough. Lots of interesting history all around. Beautiful moss and mushrooms too. Neville Peak would be a fantastic sunset hike during the summer. I could also see going for a snowshoe out here too if I could make it to the parking area. My guess is this is lot is not plowed.
