Haseltine Community Preserve
| Date: | 12-31-2024 |
| Location: | Amherst, NH |
| Distance: | 3.19 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 167′ |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 37 min |
| Parking: | 10+ cars |
It is New Years Eve and I was out of work at 11am this morning, so I decided to sneak in one more hike this year. Since I’ve been exploring the New Boston and Amherst trails, I decided to check out the Haseltine Community Preserve.
I know by just looking at the trial map on Gaia that these were mountain bike trails. But sometimes it’s fine to hike these and see if this is something I want to bring my bike back to during warmer months.
I arrived at the parking lot on Austin Road. It was in the 40’s and warm. The sun was out and I was the only one in the lot. This is a good-sized lot and can hold 15+ cars.
I decided to do my route in a counterclockwise loop. I started out on Frodo’s Ring, This would be the main trail with several off shoots along the way. The trail starts out pretty flat and is well marked.
After a short ways, I came to Gimli, a small off shoot trail that I followed until it brought me back to Frodo’s Ring. Lots of mossy longs and large stones along the meandering path.
Frodo’s Ring led me to Gandalf. This was a much longer, winding and turning trail with lots of features. There were bridges, cool rock formations and beautiful terrain. This was a fun trail to explore.
Gandalf led me to The Shire. So of course, I had to go into the Shire for a little bit. I did not make it down to the end of the Shire but will return on another day.
There is a small section of land here that is private property, and they ask that you leash your dogs because of free range chickens.
Not to far in the Shire I came to the Gollum and followed that switchy backy trail loop. There were some interesting bridges and water crossing on this trail. This trail does climb a little but looked bikeable.
I came out on the Shire trail down a little way from where started. I was on a bit of a time constraint to I stared to back track to Frodo’s Ring and continue that.
As I hiked, I passed other trails that I’ll have to explore another time, Strider and Legolas. We continued and the trail started to climb slightly along a few rolling hills.
We came to another trail head, but this one is not the one we parked at. We continued on for a bit and before we know it we are back at our trail head.
This was a very cool network of trails. Lots of natural beauty and some cool bike features. I will be coming back to explore more.
