Distance: 5 Miles Roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy
On a recent camping trip to Mountain Lake Campground I wanted to get a hike in, but was not feeling a 4,000 footer. I have had the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge saved in my to do list for a while and since it was only about 20 minutes away from the campground it was the perfect time to check it out.
The trailhead is located on Airport Road in Jefferson, NH. There is a good size parking lot. The start of the trail is like an old railroad bed.
Make sure you look off to your left as you are starting up the trail to check out the view.
About a mile and half up the trail you see a sign for Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge.
Here is a split in the trail. To the right the trail continues like a rail trail and we saw a couple people biking. We went left which brought us out onto some railroad tracks.
As you walk down the railroad tracks there is a side trail off to the right called The Shore Path that brings you along the shore of Cherry Pond with beautiful views of the White Mountains.
The trails loops back around to the train tracks. Where you walk further down the tracks.
There is another trail loop off to your right that gives you more views of the pond. When it comes back out to the tracks you can go directly across and walk the Little Cherry Pond Trail Loop. The trail has some nice boardwalks.
This loop brings you out to Little Cherry Pond, the views are not as pretty, but they are still nice to look at.
After visiting the pond you loop back around to the railroad tracks where you walk back to the parking lot. The whole hike was about five miles and the trail was flat with no elevation gain. We really enjoyed this trail and would highly recommend checking it out if you are the area. It is always nice when you can sit and enjoy the view.
