By Marty Basch

A place called Mud Pond doesn't exactly sound all that enticing, but it is. The manmade pond sits among  a couple of low-lying rounded peaks in 2,693-foot Keazer  Mountain and 2,666-foot Van Dyck Mountain in Dixville Notch. The trout were jumping. The loons were watching.

A few mountain bikers were taking it all in during a roughly seven-mile moderate circuit that included a wonderful spin along a raised monorail stretch of trail where cyclists can ride side-by-side.

Grand dame

Vacationers have long made the trip to The Balsams, New Hampshire's northernmost grand hotel, for pampering, golf and tennis. Many outdoorsmen have traded plaid shirts and jeans for khaki pants and blue sports jackets to dine on gourmet fare with a platoon of utensils surrounding the dinner plate.

Hikers get birds-eye vistas from legendary Table Rock and the Sanguinary Ridge trails while paddlers and anglers can take it easy on Lake Gloriette in front of the impressive resort.

But mountain biking is up and coming at the hotel with a network of about 40 miles of rustic carriage roads and primitive singletrack also used by cross-country skiers and snowshoers. Here's the inside thing: you don't have to be a guest to ride. Pay five bucks a person at the Mountain Bike and Nature Center, grab a map, and hit the trails.

Get a map

Jonathon Dodge is the bike director at the Balsams. A thin and agile rider, he can easily navigate the trails on a cyclocross bike. He's quick to point out the trail network is more like what mountain biking started out like several years ago before singletrack became velvety smooth and maintained by trail groups.

"The carriage roads are former logging roads with hard packed dirt and gravel," he says. "The singletrack is real singletrack."

Mountain bikers ride on snowmobile routes, grassy two-track and even some recently cut advanced, technical singletrack like switchbacks on the Alpine Trail and through stands of trees on Lake Two Towns Trail.

Spot cool creatures

Assistant recreation director Karen Everett has spotted lots of wildlife from the trail network.

I"ve seen moose, bear, fox, raccoon, coyote, peregrine falcons, blue herons,  loons and river otters," she says.

There isn't much flat on the network, and the Mud Pond Loop is on the harder side of easy with some moderately steep pitches along the way. The system is well-signed with interpretive plaques too. The spin leaves the hotel rather benignly (take a detour to fill water bottles with spring water) on a mile and a half of pavement by a golf course, under a canopy of trees, by Lake Two Towns near the Dixville/Colebrook town line and by clusters of pretty blue forget-me-nots before finding dirt on the Mud Pond Trail. The lion's share of the trails are about 16-feet wide allowing for side-by-side riding through scents of balsam fir and up to Mud Pond with its vistas and popular winter warming hut with metal roof to ward off pesky porcupines.  It's about a 500 foot gain in elevation to the pond from the start of the trek.

Some of the most rewarding riding was done around the lake and on the Canal Trail, a pathway dug between 1910 and 1912. A nordic ski favorite, the trail doesn't disappoint on a mountain bike either. The trail narrows a bit and is raised with a thin stream of water on a side. It's a true delight.

Bike by hikers

Mountain bikers will also see the familiar yellow-blaze of the 160-plus mile Cohos Trail along the way as a portion of the network is also for hikers. The trip also went along Lake Abenaki with a viewing platform and cliff and mountain scenery before quickly dropping back to the hotel.

For the afternoon, a four-mile spin was more difficult on some grassy snowmobile routes (Balsams Trail and Ravens Run) that ambled beyond Lake Gloriette with some open alpine vistas and winding grassy tracts and steeps before crossing Route 26 for the dormant base area of the Wilderness Ski Area and then taking the dirt ski area access road back to pavement.

The network is a bit like an unpolished gem. The potential is there. All it takes is some time, manpower and money to make it shine.