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The original 48:
08/14/1982 - Liberty
07/17/1983 - Monroe
07/18/1983 - Washington
08/18/1984 - Hale
09/22/1984 - Clinton
09/23/1984 - Jackson
06/09/1985 - Osceola
07/04/1985 - Garfield
08/04/1985 - Flume
09/08/1985 - Lafayette
09/08/1985 - Lincoln
07/05/1986 - East Osceola
08/09/1986 - Passaconaway
08/10/1986 - Whiteface
08/16/1986 - Isolation
08/23/1986 - Cannon
09/02/1986 - South Twin
09/02/1986 - North Twin
09/03/1986 - Galehead
06/20/1987 - North Tripyramid
06/20/1987 - Middle Tripyramid
07/03/1987 - Zealand
07/04/1987 - West Bond
07/04/1987 - Bond
07/04/1987 - Bondcliff
07/06/1987 - Willey
07/06/1987 - Field
07/06/1987 - Tom
08/23/1987 - Wildcat E
08/24/1987 - Tecumseh
09/05/1987 - Eisenhower
11/08/1987 - Moosilauke
07/16/1988 - Cabot
07/31/1988 - Hancock
07/31/1988 - South Hancock
08/04/1988 - Adams
08/04/1988 - Madison
08/05/1988 - Jefferson
08/27/1988 - Waumbeck
09/10/1988 - North Kinsman
09/10/1988 - South Kinsman
09/17/1988 - Wildcat A
09/17/1988 - Carter Dome
09/17/1988 - Middle Carter
09/17/1988 - South Carter
10/15/1988 - Owl's Head
10/30/1988 - Moriah
12/03/1988 - Carrigain
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Tully Trail Section Hike
The Trustees of the Reservations - Tully Trail (link to map on this page)
One of my goals this year was to do more hiking, and I figured what better way for her and I to get our exercise and bond
at the same time. Since we started, I have learned a lot about my beloved pooch:
She loves to run, but I already knew that.
She can follow the most obscure trail, having never set foot on it before, with great accuracy.
She can go quite a ways before needing water.
She prefers natural water to the bottled water I bring along, even if it's from a stagnant puddle.
She'd rather drink straight from her own Nalgene than her fold-a-bowl.
Squirrels and little birds look like food every time she sees one.
Grass is a good munchie while on the go.
She jumps over obstacles better than agility dogs.
Her mileage limit is about 10 miles without extended (30+ min.) breaks.
She loves to hike as much as me.
We've covered a lot of miles this summer, most of it in solitude. Here's our brief account.
05-14-2005 - Although we technically set out to hike the Loop Trail around Tully Lake, we also completed our first small
section of the Tully Trail from Tully Lake Campground to Tully Dam. This is where I originally thought of doing the whole
18 mile loop.
05/29/2005 - We began at the dam and hiked to Tully Mountain. Much of the trail meanders through the forest with little
views save for a short glimpse or two of the wooded slopes of Tully Mountain. In a few areas the trail can be a little tricky
to follow where it joins, follows, and leaves established cart/logging roads. At one point, we followed an old section of
the trail that was still well blazed. I only realized the error when we came upon "No Tresspassing" and "Beware
of Dog" signs. We followed the southern loop on the acsent, passing by the Mountain Road parking area and climbing up
the somewhat open southern ledges. Just before the summit there is a nice spot to rest on the ledges and admire the views.
We continued on to the actual summit, which can be reached by an unmarked yet easily followed herd path for 50 yards or so.
We continued past the summit and descended the north side of the mountain on a fairly wide and well graded cart road. As
the road begins to level out, look for the trail back to Tully Dam on your left.
06/18/2005 - Today I decided to follow the Tully Trail along Long Pond, up over the ledges, across the top of Spirit Falls
and end at Rt. 68. We left the camground and followed a nice dirt road for a mile or so until we reached a bridged brook
crossing. Here the mountain bike trail goes straight, and the Tully Trail (according to the sign) continued upward alongside
Spirit Falls. Somehow, I missed the turn-off to climb up to The Ledges, but I figured I'd just hit it on the way back. We
made the painfully steep climb alongside the falls to the top where we stopped for a break. We continued on alongside a swamp,
winding our way though the woods. As the trail in this area sees little use, I lost it a few times, but still managed to
make my way to the powerline cut and then to the parking area at Rt. 68. Here I dug out my map and determined we had followed
some "other trail" up the falls and through the swamp. The Tully Trail runs along the ridge, perpendicular to the
falls. As we made our way back, I found the actual Tully Trail and followed it along the ridge to the top of Spirit Falls.
I crossed the falls as the map suggested, but discovered the blazes had all been painted over with brown paint. So we crossed
back over the brook, descended along the falls, and made our way back to the campground. As I found out later by checking
the large map on display at Tully Dam, the section of the trail the passed over The Ledges was rerouted.
09/03/2005 - Today we set out to hike the mountain bike trail around Long pond. The northern end of the loop follows
a portion of the Tully Trail, and with a short diversion along the powerline cut, we would be able to knock off another portion
of our "project" while scouting the trail for future mountain bike rides. We made good time along the trail past
Spirit Falls to the powerline cut. Earlier reports from other hikers said the cut was very overgrown, but I thought we could
make a go of it. At the opposite end of the cut, we turned right (according to the sign) and followed a quickly diminishing
herd path for about 200 feet until it disappeared altogether. As I peered over the 6 foot tall scrub, I noticed it would
be a very lengthy and steep bushwhack to the height of land, where I hoped to find the Tully trail as it took a right into
the woods. Not wanting to spend all day figthing out way through the brush, we abandoned the powerline section of the trail
and continued on in the other direction, across the newly relocated section of trail to Warwick Road. I was told beaver activity
really flooded portions of the old trail, and this was quite apparent when we reched the northern end of the swamp where the
new section meets up with the old. Just before reaching Warwick Road we came across another hiker doing a dayhike of the
trail. He had also tried to bushwhack the powerlines from the top down, but ended up hiking along warwick Road when he lost
the trail not long after entering the powerlines. We parted ways, and we had a pleasant stroll along the mountain bike trail
back to the campground.
9/11/2005 - We arrived at the small parking area on Butterworth Rd. not exactly sure how far we were going to hike today.
We set out with temps in the low 40's and made good time through the first section of trail up to the top of Butterworth Ridge.
The climb and descent were steeper than I planned, but we cruised right along crossing a Fish Brook on a bridge. The climb
up the other side of the brook was very steep and the footing is mostly dirt and leaves. We continued on to he top of the
hill and followed it down the other side to the south end of Bliss Hill Rd. The dog wasn't tired yet, and I was feeling good,
so we continued on over Blissh Hill to Warwick Rd. Here I toyed with the idea of trudging on to the northern end of Bliss
Hill Rd. but I knew that any extra mileage counts double on solo hikes, so we turned around and headed for home. When we
reached Bliss Hill Rd. on the return trip, we followed the road down to Tully-Warwick Rd. and followed that to Butterworth
Rd. This allowed us to walk the section of the trail that follows Butterworth Rd., reducing the length of the road walk we
were set to tackle in the coming weeks.
9/18/2005 - I had been putting off doing the sections of trail from the northern most parking area on Rt. 32 simply for
the fact that I didn't think poor Mika would be able to stomach the insanely rough ride over that section of Rt. 32. Since
the western end of Warwick Rd. is not passable by cars, we would have to at least hike the northwestern section of the trail
from that lot, so I set off and drove a very pedestrain speed of 20 mph to the trailhead. (Luckily it was 7 am on a Sunday!)
We arrived and Mika was no worse for wear, so we set off for Royalston/Jacobs falls. I fgured we would get the elevation
loss/gain out of the way and if we had the energy, we could continue on and hike the section on the west side of Rt. 32.
The climb down to Falls Brook follows a wide cut through the woods dwon to a three-sided shelter perched on a hillside above
the brook. We crossed the brook on the newly constructed bridge and continued along the ledges that line Falls Brook. At
the bottom, we crossed back over the brook on another bridge and followed the trail along a seeminlgy endless ATV trail to
the eastern end of Warwick Road where we turned around and retraced our steps. on the way back, we stopped to check out the
cabin. Due to it's close proximity to the road I expected to see lot of bottles and trash, but it was clean for the most
part. We signed the cabin register and made our way uphill to the truck.
9/24/2005 - Continuing where we left off last week, we set out to hike the trail west of Rt. 32 to the western (undriveable
end) of Warwick Road. The trail between Rt. 32 and Bliss Hil Road is also part of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail. Contrary
to the map, the Tully trail takes a left at Bliss Hill Road and follows the dirt road for almost a half mile and re-enter
the woods on another dirt road. It follows this dirt road, which is quite driveable in some sections, all the way to Warwick
Road. In fact, Warwick Road is in worse shape than the road that the Tully Trail follows. All in all, a very forgetable
section of the Tully Trail, in my opinion. Had I known it would be mostly a walk on dirt roads, I would have worn the running
shoes and jogged it.
10/1/2005 - Today was the day to tackle the powerline section of the trail, or die trying. Well, maybe I wasn't that
desperate to get it done, but we were hoping the dying foliage and wilting of the greenery would give us a fighting chance.
We followed the trail along long pond and up Spirit Falls and across the ledges to the point where it crossed the powerline
cut. Here we took a left and began the climb to the height of land. In 50 yards we crossed a very new and nicely graded
dirt road heading to the top of the ledges. My guess is cell phone tower, but only time will tell. We reached the heigt
of land and looked down the very steep drop. "Piece of cake" I thought as I looked at all of the 2-3 foot tall
scrub around us. We dropped down the hill side, doing our best to follow the trail. All was easy going until the trail veered
back across under the powerlines and enters thicker and taller scrub. At this point, the bushes were about 5 feet high and
closing in on the herd path. At one point I couldn't see my feet or Mika. Her leash was only 6 feet long, but the scrub
was so thick I could only see three feet of lead before it disappeared. Mika continued on at a swift pace, using her nose
to guide the way. Every 50 feet or so she would leap into the air and pop her head above the scrub to get a visual bearing
and then plow into the undergrowth, following the scent of hikers that passed previously. The herd path through the lower
sections was barely discernable, but I had faith in my trail breaker so I followed behind her pushing the foliage aside and
getting soaked from top to bottom with early morning dew. In a few minutes we popped out of the scrub in the same place we
had lost the trail 4 weeks ago. Looking back, there was no way I could have followed the herd path uphill, it was just too
overgrown. We hit the mountain bike path where we took a left and headed back to the truck. Mission accomplished!
10/9/2005 - Well, it had to be done, the road walk that is. 1.5 miles each way, all asphalt, little scenery. This bleak,
wet, misty morning was the perfect time to do it. It rained the day previous, and by rain I mean round up the animals by
twos and build yourself a boat - over 8 inches in 24 hours. Towns to the north of us were dealing iwth devastating dam breaches
and flooding. We were spared the disaster, but the river along Tully-Warwick road was swolen to within a foot or so of the
roadway. I know that rivers continue to rise even after the storm is over, so i crossed my finger that the road would be
passable on our way back. We walked along at a good clip and reached the butterworth Road intersection in no time. There
we turned around and walked back, and luckily the road wasn't flooded on our return.
10/10/2005 - Another cloudy day with rain in the forecast... yep, a good day for a hike. Today we hiked the last section
of the Tully Trail up the western side of Tully Mountain. We started off down the grass covered logging road, took the righthand
turn onto the trail, and began the climb up the steep slope of the mountain. Logging activity has made the trail tricky to
follow i some places, but it can be done if care is used. The climb is short but steep, and as the trail levels off it turns
right and joins the trail that ascends from the north side of the montain. Another steep pitch is climbed to the top of the
moutain, which can be reached by a spur trail (unmarked) on the right. We tagged the summit, and continued downhill to the
ledges to take in the view and have a drink. We then retraced our steps back to the truck.
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