According to the Cohos Trekker which I just got yesterday, both the Cohos Trail from the Cherry Mtn Slide parking lot to Pondicherry and the Cherry Pond Trail in the refuge are temporarily closed for maintenance purposes. But big plans are afoot:
"PONDICHERRY WILDLIFE REFUGE
Big plans are afoot regarding trails, access and parking in the 5,274-acre Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge straddling the towns of Jefferson and Whitefield, NH. Over the course of the next two years, several new trails will be built, the Cohos Trail will be upgraded substantially, an observation platform and a wildlife blind will be fabricated, and two new parking lots will be constructed to complement the two already in place.
The Cohos Trail will be rerouted in the vicinity of low wetlands a quarter mile north of Cherry Pond. It will get a formal pedestrian bridge over a slow stream, as well. According to published information, the trail will be
reconstructed to eliminate erosion problems, better define the trail, and add directional markers and interpretive signs.
At the Whipple Road/CT junction, a six-car parking lot will be installed, a
sign kiosk erected and a barrier gate placed to prevent four-wheeled vehicles from going deep into the refuge.
Very exciting is the proposal to build an observation platform at a point where visitors will have an unobstructed view of 200-acre Cherry Pond and the Presidential Range. The Cohos Trail swings around this location, so the
platform will be easily accessible.
Also of great interest is the proposed Mud Pond Bog Trail, a fully handicapped accessible path what will thread its way from the recently built Route 116 parking lot south and loop around Mud Pond and its extensive bog lands, wetland features that have never been easily accessible. Hikers will be able to continue south from the loop and intersect with the Little Cherry Pond Trail (near that pond), and then trek southeast to meet the Cohos Trail at a railroad pedestrian crossing near Cherry Pond. This development would bring whole new features into the Cohos Trail pantheon."