Find the top rated birding trails in Enfield, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Biked from Potter place to Hoyt Road. Nice trail...hope to do it all in spring 2019!
I rode this trail several years ago, when it only extended 3-4 miles east from Wolfeboro. However, this summer I rediscovered the trail, which is now 12 miles long extending all the way to Turntable Park in Sanbornville (completed summer of 2017). What a beautiful trail it is now. I have ridden the trail 7-8 times this summer and am really hooked on it! The natural beauty from causeway lake crossings to very bucolic meadows & wetlands on the western end are some of the best I've ridden in awhile!
As far as trailside features, you have the lakeside Town of Wolfeboro with many restaurants and a great bike shop (Nordic Skier) in town. When leaving Wolfeboro you pass by the restored train depot (restrooms, tourist info) close to town. This first 2 miles tends to be busy with walkers, cyclists, and people sailing remote controlled sailboats by the soccer fields (kind of neat).
The trail continues east crossing Route 28 (kind of busy, but slower traffic with a painted crosswalk so cars tend to stop for pedestrians and cyclists) but still use caution because it is hard for motorists to see around the foliage and buildings close to the road.
After Route 28, the trail continues on to two lake crossings on old railroad causeways, this is where cyclists must start to pay attention for the rest of the trail in regards to the trail width. Due to the narrowness of the RR causeway, and the fact the tracks have not been removed, cyclists must ride on a wonderful hard dirt surface , BUT as good as the surface is, the path is less than 5 feet wide between the two rails. It's great if it's just you on the trail and no-one else is around, but the trail tends to be busy near Wolfeboro. Oncoming cyclists must be very careful passing each other, I have seen many have dismounted to pass, and also you must call out a friendly warning when approaching other users on the trail.
The trail alternates from between the rails to being beside the rails, and a few times the trail will meander away from the rails altogether (especially near Albee Beach (restrooms, beach). This is where CAUTION must be exercised when crossing rails. Signs on the trail suggest dismounting when you must cross the steel rails. Even though there are wooden platforms built up at the crossings, riders must hit the rails as close to a 90 degree angle as they can (I seem to do fine at 45 degrees with 26" x 2.1" tires). The 7-8 times I rode this trail I came across minimum of 4 cyclists that went down, and they had the bruises and cuts to show for it!! (BTW, I counted, and I think 30 crossings of the steel rails is pretty accurate count for the whole trail)
About 3 miles from Wolfeboro, you will cross State Route 109, a bit quieter than Rt 28, but traffic tends to be a little faster.
Also at this crossing there's the restored Fernald Station (parking,porta-potty), which is also home to the "Putt-Putt cars" (Cotton Valley Rail Trail Club). The putt-putt cars on this trail is very unique, they are motorized 2-person railcars that run from Fernald Station 8 miles to the west and State Route 16. I only saw them in action on one of my rides, they always give a big wave and travel at about 10mph. This is why the rails are still in place on this rail trail, and we owe the 80 member club a big thank you for the maintenance of overgrowth they perform.
Beyond Fernald Station, the trail continues west for another 8 miles to very busy SR 16. The trail continues to alternate "between the rails" and "beside the rails" for this section. This is my favorite section, the 8 mile stretch is very quiet and features natural meadows and wetlands, and there are just minor road crossings with one section of 4 miles with no road crossings at all - it is very enjoyable!!
The last mile before reaching busy State Route 16 features some pretty good short up and down whoopee hills. At Route 16, there is a parking area, and the Miss Wakefield Diner is just south of the trail on Route 16 (no need to cross the highway).
If you do decide to cross 16, be aware traffic travels faster than it's 55mph posted limit, and tends to carry a lot of traffic. Crossing the highway gives you one more mile of trail to downtown Sanbornville and it's Turntable Park, featuring an old turntable used to turn locomotives around. There are also restaurants located in Sanbornville. I have crossed the highway a few times, but in all honestly, the last mile on the other side of Route 16 is not that attractive, even though the Town of Sanbornville is kind of nice, it may not be worth crossing the busy road.
(There is parking on Route 16 on the west side of the highway, so a good option is to park on 16 and ride to Wolfeboro!)
Overall, this is a great and beautiful ride, just watch the rail crossings!
Our family rode the trail from Wolfeboro to around mile marker 4, a while past the Cotton Valley Rail Trail Club on Rt. 109, in October 2018. There were a lot of great water views including a couple stretches with water on both sides, and winding parts through very pretty woods from about 1.5 miles just before Albee Beach onwards. The trail surface was very hard and not bumpy and presented no problem for hybrid-style bikes, basically as good as pavement (or even better than some paved trails I have been on that haven't been resurfaced recently). All of the crossings over the rails were clearly marked with signs instructing to walk your bikes and painted arrows indicating to do so at a right angle. After walking over many of them and them seeming very solid I began to slowly ride over them at 45 degree angles and never had a problem, and none of the several kids in my group did either. The parts of the trail in between the rails are narrow enough that you need to take extra care. If you are looking to go fast I wouldn't recommend this trail but if you are looking for a very scenic and leisurely ride I would highly recommend it. On the return ride I noticed that there were no signs for westbound bikers so this might explain some other peoples' complaints (although I still found the crossings vey obvious and good). I hope to return and ride the eastern portion of the trail another time.
It's was a very cool weekend with the boys only see them 2 to 3 times a year ,getting older and family but always look forward to the next adventure, nice view of sawyer pond great big fire pit in front of the lean- to ,about a 2 1\2 hours to get to camp ,one place you should put on your to do list
I was delighted to read about the Cotton Valley Rail Trail from Wakefield to Wolfeboro. I picked up a copy of Rail-Trails, read up on the route and search Trail-link to read the reviews. I was aware of the switch over crossings on the trail and the dangers from what I read. Starting my ride in Wakefield at the Railroad Turntable I enjoyed a short ride to Route 16 and crossed over. I found the trail to be well maintained and walked over the first switch over crossing, I made a mental note that they might not be marked for hazards and continued riding. I was right! With the forest canopy and sun filtering through I came up on one with little notice and continue to cross and my back tire slipped out and I had crashed. Needless to say that ended my ride and caused an injury. I have ridden on many different surfaces and was shocked by what looked like an easy cross over. Please mark all switch over crossings as Hazards to avoid accidents. I am looking forward to riding this trail again after my recovery. If I had finished my ride I would have rated it a 5 Star, as I have heard it is a beautiful trail with a lot of great historical sites.
I started the trail in Hinsdale, and found it reasonably rideable (I use a Specialized hybrid) through Winchester and a few miles beyond. However, the trail started to get rougher including some wet areas. I came to a spot where it followed high tension lines and by the time I got to the monadnock speedway, I was done. I went back to Winchester via Rt 10 and then caught the trail back to my car. Not my favorite trail, but if you have the bike and the inclination, it could be fun for you
We started the trail in Keene. The first 5 miles were nice, but we had to dodge pretty deep chipmunk holes. The trail is very poorly marked and we missed seeing the Sawyer Crossing Covered bridge which could not be seen by the trail. After 7.5 miles we got turned around by heavy mud, water and a downed tree. I would say this trail might be perfect for equestrians and aggressive mountain bikers.
Disappointed to read that there is still a hazard on this trail. This could be so easy to fix by putting cement in between the rails or putting mats on the crossings. I will not go on this trail until this is fixed as I took a bad spill due to the rails.
I biked the 13.50 mile section from Canaan to Lebanon (and back). The surface is mostly packed gravel. The first three miles (from Canaan) is challenging as the gravel is somewhat looser. However, I had no real problem on my Trek Dual Sport bike. The section along Mascoma Lake is beautiful. I startled a couple of deer along the way.
Went the 22.7 miles on Hybrid bikes with my beautiful wife; she's 50 and I'm 55. Great trail but a bit rough for hybrid bikes. Beautiful vistas with ponds, pine trees and mountains in the background.
I drove about half an hour from Rochester to ride this trail on my new hybrid. The trail is compact gravel with beautiful scenery. I read some reviews on here and noticed some people mentioned the hazards crossing the rails, they weren't lying. About 4 miles in I tried to cross the rails almost fully parallel and my wheel slipped out underneath me. I skid into a burm and cut my knee. I chose self-care but could have used 2 or 3 sutures. After another 2 miles my girlfriend picked me up and after a trip to rite-aid for butterfly sutures we enjoyed the rest of the day in Wolfboro.
Along the way another rider gave me a large bandaid and showed me to the nearest road. I didn't get his name but thank you if you're reading this. I will hit the trail in a week or two again when my knee is healed, this time crossing the rails at a 90 degree angle.
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