Road Trips and Hike Reports

I originally tried to go to a more wild location in New Hampshire near a river.  The insects at the parking area were so bad that I couldn't imagine doing a hike there even with the bug spray on.  So we abandoned that hike and headed into Sherbrooke early.  I had planned for us to see the Devil Wears Prada 2 in Sherbrooke anyway so I just made sure to find some sort of little hike we could do there also. The park we went to is immediately next to Sherbrooke university and almost in urban Sherbrooke yet it has a ski lift and a very extensive trail network.  Most trails allowed bikes OR hikers but not both.  I'm generally not a fan of hyper-segregated uses for natural spaces but given the high use this park might see at some times and the large number of trails to choose from, maybe the way they are doing it makes sense for this park in particular.  The trail we walked was a forest road basically and it went up and down a fair bit but was basically along the ...

This hike was great.  It started at a big turn around at the end of a dirt road.  There was one van there when we arrived but it was gone when we got back and we didn't see a single person on the trail.  Anytime there is more than 100 feet of elevation gain per mile we consider it a relatively stiff hike.  While the warm weather weather and the climbing did combine to make for a good exercise hike, the trail was very well graded and most of the time the climbs were gradual and mild There wasn't too much of note on the loop but there was a very large pond with a rocky island in the middle and one section had some giant rocks in a rock garden type setting.  The weather was also good with a fairly consistent breeze to keep the sweat and humidity under control.