Help planning a Southern NH long loop

[Anti-Zen]

Inspired by the story in this month's Bike Magazine about the 90 mile ride around Mt. Mansfield in VT, I was thinking of trying to plan out a long ride in Southern NH. Not a two day 90 miler, but maybe a one day 62.

If anyone has any experience with the state's snowmobile trail system or know other means by which to connect 4 or 5 great areas of singletrack, I'd love to hear it. I know FOMBA is very close to the snow trail system at Massabesic, but wouldn't know where to go from there. I do most of my riding in Nashua.

Characteristics of a good ride might be:


A loop, not a point to point
As much singletrack as possible
Avoiding hike-a-bike or other impassable areas
Very short stretches of road or rail trail are okay
Passing a place to get lunch
Not a ton of climbing, and not too easy

Perhaps something like this has already been planned and completed? I'd hate to reinvent the wheel. Any ideas you have would be appreciated.

I'm shooting for a June date.

Thanks.

[PutAwayWet]

AOF and I did the FOMBA to Bear Brook and back thing a couple years ago. If you hit all the singletrack at FOMBA, then ride the snowmobile trails to BB, then all the stuff at BB, then ride back to FOMBA, you can probably get close to 75 miles. We ended up doing 46 ish without riding any of the FOMBA trails and only riding a couple trails at BB. I think the snowmobile corridor you want to follow from FOMBA to BB is #15. It comes into BB on the back side of Hall Mountain. Dan would know better, he was tour guide on that one.

[errollthin]

That sound crazy!!! I might want in.

[Husqvarna]

You can do a loop from Lake Massabesic, Tower Hill Pond, Dubays Pond, Bear Brook, on the NH 15 snowmobile trail then on to Pawtuckaway SP. There would be a some pavement getting from the Deerfield side of BB to the west side of Pawtuckaway, and then from the east side of Pawtuckay into Raymond, NH where you would return to Massabesic on the Rockingham Rec Trail..

To get to pawtuckaway from BB. You would want to come out of BB to south road in Deerfeild. From there you would be heading to Reservation road in Deerfeild. Through the park then onto Mountain Road in Nottingham to Harriman Hill in Raymond and pick up the Rock trail in Raymond village and head west.

I could provide more detail for a route if and when you need it.....

[ride in maine]

I would be interested on that ride depending on the date as well
thanks Calvin

[nirtiger]

I am interested too

[PutAwayWet]

I'd also be down for doing it again. Might be a fun trek with a good size group. Maybe do a couple drops of food/water resupply along the route beforehand, make a day of it. Could be good training for a 12 or 24 hour race...

[digger]

Looked at motionbased and there are some tracks that help to visualize the route on corridor 15. My impression is that you need some dry conditions to make this work.

[DAVID J]

Wrong state,but Groton MA has trail enough for 45-60 mile loop with minimal road sections and plenty of places for food drops.

[Anti-Zen]

Thanks for all the ideas and interest. Please keep them coming. I'm going to borrow a snowmobile map from a friend of mine at work and start planning out a loop similar to what Husqvarna suggests. Fomba/Pawtuckaway/BB. I think I will need some assistance in planning Pawtuckaway and BB trails, as I have never ridden there.

Motion Based looks like a good resource, and people have mapped FOMBA to BB rides already.

When we iron it out more we can print up cue sheets, have some rally points, do some supply drops, and make an event of it.

I agree it will be good training for an endurance event. I'm signed up for the Hampshire 100 this year. Although I've done a bunch of road centuries, I don't think I've ever ridden my MTB for more than 6 hours and I'd like to see how I hold up.

[Husqvarna]

I think I will need some assistance in planning Pawtuckaway and BB trails, as I have never ridden there.

You should plan to ride both BB and PSP seperately before you consider this loop, just to get famailiar with each area.

[errollthin]

Wrong state,but Groton MA has trail enough for 45-60 mile loop with minimal road sections and plenty of places for food drops.
I want to talk to u also. We at MV nemba love groton, would love to put together a extended loop.

[stich]

I am up for this, let me know what I can do to help plan.
Familiar with all the trail networks.

Stich

Northwood, NH

[redridercr250r]

Any idea how long the fomba trails are all together? I know each trail says the exact length but I have never added them up

[allezkmiec]

I had 17 miles total when I rode them last summer, counting the sections of fire road to get in between them. If you looped around more circuitously than I usually do, you could stretch it over 20, I believe. Add in the Tower Hill loop and you'd be closer to 30, counting the distance to get there and back.

That's about as much as I care to ride in a day!

[RyanBurnham]

I would also be interested in an epic ride like this. The snowmobile trails run from Ft. Rock too. They all link up at some point.

[errollthin]

I would also be interested in an epic ride like this. The snowmobile trails run from Ft. Rock too. They all link up at some point.

Oh crap this thing just keeps getting bigger. Please schedule before or after july just not july. Everything bicycle or summer related seems to be in july.

[RyanBurnham]

Oh crap this thing just keeps getting bigger. Please schedule before or after july just not july. Everything bicycle or summer related seems to be in july.

And preferably not on a date with an EFTA NECS race!!

[stich]

I never saw any more posts regarding this.
Anyone do it? If so did anyone grab and make a .gpx file to upload?

Regards,

Stich

[neclimber]

I had 17 miles total when I rode them last summer, counting the sections of fire road to get in between them. If you looped around more circuitously than I usually do, you could stretch it over 20, I believe. Add in the Tower Hill loop and you'd be closer to 30, counting the distance to get there and back.

That's about as much as I care to ride in a day!

I've done many 30-50+ mile rides in the greater Massabesic/FOMBA/Bear Brook area. You can start with the loop around Massabesic Lake. Hit bits of ledge riding that the Turkey Burner misses, swing into FOMBA trails, cover all of that. Don't forget the nearby 4 mile classified singletrack loop. Then cover a portion of the Wahoo course heading north on Trail 15 (a snowmobile route) to Bear Brook. Parts of Trail 15 can be a mess this time of year, especially as you get near BB. Trail 15 is decent riding when dry and has nice flow. It beats slogging out miles on the rail trail, and you rarely see other users on it. I haven't figured out a good way to make a loop out of BB and FOMBA without using roads, so I come back on Trail 15. Ride as much or little of BB as you want. Near BB is Fort Mountain. If you like to climb, it gains 1000ft, the last half very steeply on service road to communication tower. The rest is Jeep/ATV trail and is a hoot to bomb back down. Returning from BB on Trail 15, I cover the other half of the Wahoo course around Tower Hill Pond and hit the last bit of singletrack that connects Tower Hill Rd with rail trail back to car at Massabesic. No stores on route, unless campground store at BB is open.