2018 - Hike 33 - October 4 - Austin Brook - Shelburne, NH

Austin Brook Trail
Posted by Chris 10/13/18

Basics:
Length - About 5.4 miles
Elevation gain - 900 feet
Nearest city - Shellburne NH and Gorham NH are near
Difficulty - Moderate

The Day:
We arrived to our Yurt at Milan Hill state park very late on Wednesday night.  The weather forecast was for increasing chances of rain as Thursday went on so we got an early start and minimized our driving by going to Austin Brook which was less than 30 miles from our campsite.

The trail:
The trail starts of a very quiet side road with a very tiny parking lot that isn't marked.  Alltrails GPS pointed was essential for getting to it.  The trail as plotted went up the brook for about half a mile before making a seemingly illogical little diversion off to one side for no more than a quarter mile and then came back to the same trail and continued on.  Luckily I insisted we go look at the diversion because I figured there was something of interest there or they wouldn't have included in in the plot.  What it took us to was a very cool cable car that crossed the brook.  I've seen smaller version of these things in other places but out West they are invariably locked up and only available for rangers or special personnel to use.  We eagerly rode it across the brook and back and it was really fun to experience it.  The rest of the trail gained altitude gradually but constantly.  There were some beautiful fall colors along the way up.  Strangely, there was also a  very noticeable bulldozer moving earth around across the brook at one point and it could be heard for probably 10 minutes on either side of the point where we were nearest it.  It looked like it was clearing a right of way for a power line or pipeline since there was some clearing work that had been done on the side of the brook we were on too.  Personally, I support infrastructure work and imagine the trail will be returned to original condition when the work is done but it was a little obtrusive on the day we went.

Pictures by Brian:



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