Burton Peak via Berry Pasture Trail (Lincoln Davis Memorial Forest)

Burton Peak via Berry Pasture Trail (Lincoln Davis Memorial Forest)

Hike Type: Out-and-Back

Distance: 1.97 miles

Elevation: 807 feet

Time: 49 minutes
Hiking Challenges: Friends of the Wapack

The Hike

My next hike was nearby, but by no means easy to get to for the untrained eye, apparently. My GPS brought me down Condy Road initially, which had a few "Dead End" signs posted about, so I turned around and kept going. I was happy to see a wonderful view of Monadnock as I came down Peterborough Gap, though! I drove right past the other entrance to the road (called Mountain Road at this end), had to turn around again, and eventually found it. It is an unsigned dirt road that looks like someone's driveway, and is apparently gated in winter months. I drove along a narrow, dirt road for a short while and eventually found the trailhead, which was sizeable for a trail that felt like no one has visited in centuries.

I was back to hiking to 10:30am (I drove over in my hiking clothes and shoes, which was dreadful, but necessary). It was now 50 degrees out and the sun was shining! This area is in a demonstration forest, and had been logged in the previous decades. The trail skirted the logged area on an old road and passed a small pond with something that was made out of metal before gaining elevation at a more moderate grade. The trail veers off the old road grade in this stretch as the old road gets more eroded, but the trail soon rejoins.

The Berry Pasture Trail turns left and crosses some newer logging roads with tree views to Mt. Monadnock - it was actually much nicer than I expected! The tree views improved higher up as the footbed narrowed to just a footpath in an area that looks to have been recently maintained. A bit further up in this section, I turned around to see the best view of Monadnock so far! It was framed by young trees with the narrow footpath in the foreground - really beautiful!

Soon, the Berry Pasture Trail enters a mixed forest and becomes more rugged and steep before crossing a stone wall and entering a conservation easement area (with a sign). At this point in the day, a few loud flies had woken up, but not enough to be a nuissance. There were a few butterflies, too!

I turned left onto the Wapack Trail at the terminus of the Berry Pasture Trail and followed it to Burton Peak, which provides an excellent view to Mt. Monadnock. I could see Haystack Mountain and Gap Mountain on the left and Bromley Mountain on the right, with what snow it had left. I toyed with the ideas of hitting Monadnock or at least Gap mountain after my next hike on Kidder, but acknowledged that realistically I should conserve energy to hike Monadnock tomorrow.

After a quick sip of water, I was on my return trip. The Wapack Trail follows a stone wall along the ridge line (I still want to do the whole trail in a day sometime). At the trail terminus, two trail signs disagree how long it is on the Berry Pasture Trail to the parking lot, but either way I had a quick and easy descent. The view of Monadnock from before was even more spectacular when hiking in the correct direction, and I was just delighted at how nice the hike was once back at the car.

Next up I had another easy drive to the Wapack Link trailhead for the final trail on my list, Kidder Mountain Trail!

Step-by-Step

- Park at Berry Pasture Trail trailhead.

- Start hike on Berry Pasture Trail.

- At terminus, turn left onto Wapack Trail.

- At summit, turn around and retrace steps to car.

Photo Album