I parked at a playground on Turnpike Rd. in Townsend, MA. It was about 4 miles...mostly uphill...along Barker Hill Rd. to the Mason Railroad trailhead on Morse Rd. in Mason, NH. I rode the Mason Railroad Trail from Morse Rd. to Adams Hill Rd. in Greenville, somewhere around 8 or 9 miles. Google maps indicates the trail ends here, but the railbed does continue, although it had water and did not look good for biking. TrailLink indicates that the trail continues to a road, stops, then picks up somewhere in the woods for a short distance.

The railroad trail is a constant incline (if heading north), several hundred feet over the distance. The early uphill ride to get to the trail, the gravel/cinder/dirt surface (ballast), and the incline led to an extremely tiring ride for me. As you get near the end at Adams Hill Rd., there's some water on the trail to negotiate, and overall the trail is not as smooth as it was for most of its distance. There are one or two sandy spots. At Adams Hill Rd. I took very quiet back roads on my return, but this area of New Hampshire is somewhat hilly, so there were more hills to climb, until nearing the end when it was all downhill with lots of turns--I think my brakes were smoking!

The trail is very quiet. I saw one other cyclist (heading north to south, probably a good idea) and several hikers near the Adams Hill Rd. side. Two people flew by me on dirt bikes. And, as someone else pointed out, there had been a horse on the trail, and there were pockmarks for a while.

For scenery this trail is largely in the woods, running next to old stone walls a lot of the way. There are two beautiful ponds. It's a very quiet and pleasant woodsy ride, although it'll take some effort.

I find that if one goes north on Rt. 123 out of Townsend Ma., and continues to the turnoff for Greenville NH on the right and continues to the Depot Rd and turn right and go downhill, past the Town Garage on the right, up the hill and where the 1st. house is, will see where the trail crosses the road. Park here on the right, which has more room, well out of the way of the gate. You can choose to go North or South from this parking area. If you go north, you will see on your left the granite pile of rocks left over from it's quarry days. A short side trip into here will yeild the quarry and some of the pieces of granite that didn't make the cut. Great trail for x-country skiing, shared w/snowsleds in good snow conditions.

This trail is very secluded. Very much into the back woods for the entire trail. Trail was smooth except for the bone jarring, teeth chattering, pocks left behind by horseback riders. I was able to bike 8.9 miles from Mason to Greenville. At that point the trail was covered with trees and looks like it has not seen any maintenance. There was a few muddy spots but still very passable. Also there was a large pine tree at about mile 2.5 that fell across the trail but I was able to pick up my bike and found a hole to get to the other side. If you want solitude this is the trail. Oh, and watch out for the moose.
In the other direction as like a previous post there are still rail road tracks in place at about .15 miles towards Townsend.

I was recently on this trail in November 2009. I started out at about 9:00 am. Eventually as you head towards Townsend, MA you run into railroad tracks that still exist to this day, but by bike you must stop at this point and turn around. I hiked this trail the on another day as well and went all the way on the tracks to Massachusetts to the end of the line which was a great adventure. I had fun riding my bike, but found it difficult to navigate on this trail. For me I had more fun hiking on this trail, it was easier to do, and there was a lot of antique railroad artifacts that I found along the way, while I enjoyed the experience!

Best Railroad Film Of All Time

"The Station Agent"-(2003)*

Gael.Linn@Hotmail.Com

P.S. Happy Biking & Happy Riding!

11/20/09

I found this very difficult to get to. After talking to the locals who had no idea of what I was talking about, I finally found it. It was off a sand road and there was no parking. I'm not sure what part of the trail I ended up on. It was a good nature walk but there was so much pineneedles and leaves that it was more challenging on a bike because you didn't know what was underneath. I encountered many rocks and roots that could not be seen. Overall I liked the trail.

"But it's my own fault- not the trail's. The directions are a bit misleading. Turn right (north) at Rts123/124 in West Townsend. There is no ""veering"" - it's a right turn. 1.3 miles up, bear right, staying on Rt123, for another mile. The ""gravel parking lot on the left"" is a turnout large enough to hold three or four cars. The trail itself is rugged, but very passable, for the 13km that I rode. I don't know where TrailLink came up with 6 miles for the trail length. I went 13km (8.1 miles) and didn't see anything to indicate that I'd come to the end of something. There are a few sandy and soft spots, an on-grade bridge and about a 30 foot drop to another bridge. There's one very large sinkhole in the middle of the trail about 11 or 12km north of the start. It was an invigorating ride, perhaps a bit more than I'd bargained for. I'll go back."