The North mountain, aka the non-tower mountain, has been an old favorite of mine. For many years this small and easy to climb mountain has seen its fair share of foot traffic. More so now with the well marked and newer trails.
Yet there is still a “secret” back way up the mountain that is completely unmarked for hiking, yet a great way to go up. It takes parking at Brown’s Corner and walking the Scribner trail (grew up calling it that, probably not on any map, but it’s an old road with cellar holes along the way) and heading up the mountain that way.
The trail starts just behind the garage located at the corner. You can literally pull onto the trail and park there. Don’t drive up much, there is a gate blocking vehicles now.
Look at the size of those trees! They have been around a long long time. This is just beyond the cellar holes. There are three distinct ones where houses and a barn would have been.
Take the trail and hang a right onto a new one – with no name, that cuts through the stone wall and will take up up the mountain. Near the top there are some large rocks that were glacial deposited.
The locals called them (when standing on top) Papa Rock, Mama Rock, and Baby Rock. The person standing on top was Papa. I did not come up with the names or rules, just what they were always called.
Just a short walk farther you hit the main trail finally and then the summit. The summit has a good view of Manchester, NH
The Mrs was kind enough for the pose and the two hikers that snuck up on us were kind enough to pretend they didn’t see anything. Thanks guys!
I took a cigar with me when Paul and I hiked Mount Major. The top was so crowded I decided I wasn’t going to light it up. I’m polite like that. Here was different and I remembered it, took it out about 1/4 of the way down from the top (forgot about it at the actual top) and enjoyed on the hike down.
All in all a great hike and a nice quiet way to go up this mountain. We didn’t see a soul either direction until we hit the peak and main trails.
Strava Stats:
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