By Marty Basch

There are plenty of bogs in New Hampshire. Portsmouth has the 600-acre Great Bog. In the White Mountains, there is Campton Bog Pond, a fine place to paddle. There is Bog Brook near the Connecticut River in the northern New Hampshire town of Stratford while the Bog Brook Trail in Jackson follows the Bog Brook.

There are cranberry bogs, bog turtles and bog boots.

And there is Wilmot's Bog Mountain, not all that far from the board-loaded Philbrook-Cricenti Bog in New London.

Bag a bog

They are a couple of hikes that won't bog you down.

Go bog-bagging.

Bog Mountain is a small peak, some 1,787 feet in elevation, towering over a, you guessed it, boggy area of  Kimpton Brook.  The Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway (Trail 7)  traverses the mountain but all it takes is a roughly two mile roundtrip hike to just shy of that sub-1800 foot summit to take in some wonderful colors and 2,930 foot high Mount Kearsarge and its fire tower in the southern sky.

There are two approaches to the ledge; one is from the east by the Wilmot Town Library while the other is from the west off dirt Stearns Road about two miles west of NH Route 4A.

The eastern trailhead can be a bit tricky to find, but a little patience will go a long way. The trail sign is located about three-quarters of a mile up bucolic Stearns Road on the right hand side. There is very limited parking along the country lane. There is also a sign for the Kimpton Brook Trail (a short walk on the trail leads to a tranquil beaver pond with a bench and a couple of bird boxes) on the left had side, but that means you've gone too far. If you see a couple of oxen and a sign warning about livestock in the road, you've definitely driven past it.

Holy schist

The white-blazed trail is fairly easy but does have a few steep sections. There were plenty of standing dead trees that had been jack-hammered by woodpeckers and some layers of schist near the summit that sparkled by the leaves that had fallen to the ground on the crisp autumn.

Though the trail was shy of the summit, a large cairn marked the ledges with the commanding views of Kearsarge in the the southeast and 2,726-foot Sunapee to the southwest with the bog below. The trail continues on to various views including those mountains — and Ragged — and leads to the village.

But everyday is not a bluebird day and the day before found us wanting to meander a bit in some light rain.

Since it was raining, why not do a bog walk?  The trails are wet anyway.

New London not only has a treasure chest of lakes and ponds, but there are some pleasant jaunts like along the two miles of the Little Sunapee Forest Association Trails and the Knights Hill Nature Park.

Bog with boards, babe

Though the trail and its loops total about one mile, a walk along the wet wooden boards — they sometimes wobble and see-saw— of the Philbrick-Cricenti Bog is a memorable experience. Located off Newport Road about a third of a mile south of the roundabout, the walk is also a lesson in local lore. It is imperative to stay on the boards, though bog boots might be a good idea just in case, and a sign warns those under the age of 14 should be accompanied by an adult. The New London Conservation Commission's self-guided tour suggests how the bog was created (melted glacier ice forms in a hollow and is covered by Arctic plants) and offers numbered stations where hikers can see small dwarfish trees, ferns, maples and sedge in the tundra-like bog.

There is a station where visitors can pull a pole out of the mud to see how deep it is (officially 20 feet) but do know there is an objectionable smell associated with this endeavor. There is a beauty in its starkness. It is also an incredible escape as concentrating on where one steps masks the sounds of the traffic not that far away.

One wouldn't want to join the remains of the cows, deer and at least one horse reputed to be under the quaking mat of the bog.

So go bag some bogs.

One Tank Away

New London is:

*195 miles from New London, Ct.

*87 miles from Londonderry, Vt.

*98 miles from Lyndonville, Vt.