hikerfast
Active member
Well about 3:45 pm saturday I started up this Lincoln Trail, which starts on kearsarge valley road and not at the school any more. The trail says 'Link Trail' now. It was dirt roads at first for quite a ways. This trail looks like it is not used much. It bangs a left and goes over black mountain, which is a subsidiary peak. A nice meadow right after that, but all along the trail, it was almost obliterated by ferns, brushed one tick off, but wondered about deer ticks. This trail needs a machete. It goes into the woods and goes sideways quite a bit. It's funny to have hiked over an hour and I could see a ridge, then the peak of Kearsarge in the distance, so it's a long approach. The trail says 4.6 miles each way. About a mile or so sideways, and then it veered right up thru the woods. The trees and bushes are grown almost onto the trail, and its hard to see where you are stepping. After a bit more steepness, after an hour and 45, I was at the top of the auto road parking lot. After some rest(I'm still out of shape from that ankle injury, wonder how long I can milk that) I took the trail a half mile to the summit. Beautiful day. It was about 6:15 when I headed down, I wondered if I should go down to the state park, due to wondering if I would get lost at all on the trip back, as the trail was so poorly maintained. I wasn't sure which way to go on the road if did descend another way, so I just headed back down the Lincoln Trail. After a bit, I saw my first porcupine ever on the trail. The little guy would NOT get off the trail, and it was on a steep sloping section where I couldn't get around him. I thought about walking past him(or her) or jumping over it, but I figure the little guy looked slow but probably was real good at slapping you with that tail. I took a stick and gently prodded him off the trail and squeaked past him. That was interesting, I'm used to animals leaving when they see a human. A ways after that I came out at one of the many clearings..and hmm...where the heck does the trail go back into the woods?? I took a few minutes exploring the possibilities and finally saw an arrow that was blocked by tree growth. After that I followed the trail in and out of meadows and woods and down to the road section, where it was more decently marked, with one last sign pointing the short way back to the car at that point. Down a little after 8. This trail is definitely a long approach and fairly interesting, and makes this normally half hour to 45 minute hike up a lot longer. 9.2 miles with 2200 elevation gain. I would have gotten the same gain going up the regular way twice, but it's fun to explore new territory. I would like going up there again, but what with all those fern meadows you go thru where you are just brushing right thru them, I figure it should be avoided in summer. The only way to get back in shape is to get out there. Over and out.
