Distance: 1-2 Miles
Difficulty: difficult to Navigate
Sometimes not all trails are good and worth visiting again, which saddens me. In the words of my husband, "not all trails are good and you have found some pretty great ones." This past weekend I had that experience. I have driven by Florence Roberts Forest across from Uncle Sam's House on Rt 123 in Mason, NH many times. I have been curious about these trails, but never stopped to explore them. I have tried to google information on them, but have never found any information about them. After a group hike this weekend I felt guilty for not taking my dog for a walk so I thought it would be a perfect time to check out the trail.
The kiosk at the entrance has limited information. At one time there were maps, but there were none the day I visited. There are two trails at the small parking lot, I chose to take the one off to the right. At first the trail was very easy to follow with trail markers on the trees. There were also numbers, not in order, my guess for some form of information on the trail. At the top of a small hill was a bench. I continued along the path along a ridge line. There was not much of a view from the top. As the trail headed back down the ridge there was a beautiful rock wall.
At the bottom of the ridge is where the trail started to get confusing. There appeared to be a series of blow downs and the trail was marked with flagging. On one side of the trail was a steep rock formation and on the other side some water. With the blow downs and limited trail markings it was very difficult to navigate the trail and walk, not making for an enjoyable hike. After about a quarter of a mile I was able to bush wack my way back out to the trail I had started on. When I got back to my car I walked a few hundred feet along the second trail, but also found that difficult to navigate with very limited trail markers.
Unfortunately, I would not recommend this trail to others as it not well marked or maintained. If you did not know the area or have difficulty navigating in the woods this trail would not be good for you.
