Not To(o) Smarts

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

The Hikers

New member
Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Messages
292
Reaction score
60
Location
Barrington, NH
Friday being the pick-of-the-week for good weather, we planned on visiting Smarts Mountain, which we were told had beautiful views. I made up my usual map from Topo, looked at my old road atlas and saw I could reach the trailhead from Cummins Pond Road in Dorchester. So, plans made, we sat out Friday Morning. Heading down 118 we went right by Dorchester this first time. We found it, coming back and turned onto a dirt road for North Dorchester, then a left onto Cummings Pond.
Now Dorchester has to be one of the smallest, almost invisible towns in New Hampshire. And the sign which said "not a through road" was covered by foliage. Soon we were on a road which people in their right mind wouldn't take without a Land Rover. My car, remembering those Logging Roads in Rangely, was saying to me "not again !!" After a mile of torture, we found the road ended with a tree felled across it.
Now Joyce had many things to say to me which, summed up, said "You've done it again!!"
So we headed back out to 25A thinking to go around to Lyme and come to the trailhead the RIGHT way. By now it was 10:00, so spotting the AT traihead on 25A we decided it would be SMARTER to stop here and go up mount Cube so we would get down before the forcasted rain. This we did, so Smarts will be another day.
The trail to Cube is a good one with a lot of variety. On top we could see our original destination.

REAL SMARTS
Cube001.jpg


Hiking over to the North Peak, we had good views of Moosilauke with a crown of snow on its summit.

Cube014.jpg



The fall colors were at about 50%, and some views were beautiful


Cube017.jpg




It was a cold start, at about 38 degrees, at the top a slight breeze called for warmer clothing, but we shed that again on the way down. As we left the trailhead for home it was 56 degrees and started to rain.We were not disappointed with the day's hike as the fall weather and views were refreshing.
 
I made up my usual map from Topo, looked at my old road atlas and saw I could reach the trailhead from Cummins Pond Road in Dorchester.
I've driven that road through in a Rambler, back in the '70s

But I think when I was there in the '80s it was already impassible due to beavers

How do they get away with selling these maps?
 
The view toward The Moose from the north cliffs of Cube is a stunner! Nice pics and TR.

The Lambert Ridge Trail that leaves from the other end of Dorchester Road (in Lyme Center, not too far from the Dartmouth Skiway) has good access to the trailhead. It can get a bit wet and muddy in the middle but it has good views earlier on.

GPS and photos
 
Last edited:
Top