South Uncanoonuc & Uncanoonuc Lake (Goffstown Conservation Land)

South Uncanoonuc & Uncanoonuc Lake (Goffstown Conservation Land)

Hike Type: Loop w/ Spurs

Distance: 3.00 miles

Elevation: 755 feet

Time: 1 hour, 16 minutes (1 hour, 11 minutes moving)
Hiking Challenges: 52 Hike Challenge 2026; Operation Alaska Benchmark Challenge

The Hike 

Another weekend of driving up to Vermont! My detour today was exploring South Uncanoonuc - a little hill in Goffstown just off the highway. I had a sleepy drive after a pretty rotten Friday afternoon with anxiety and truly insane children, but it was a SCORCHING 75 degrees out and visually beautiful. I made it to the trailhead, tried to take care of a code-yellow but got interruped by another hiker (tragic), finished once the hiker left, and then got to work!

The trailhead at the end of Mountain Base Road had room for 10-12ish cars and was right near Uncanoonuc Lake, which was picturesque on this Friday afternoon! I started the hike on the Incline Trail, assuming that it would be unpleasant to descend later. The Incline Trail entered the woods, crossed a little bridge, and then began to follow power lines basically the whole was up the mountain. I passed a spooky cabin on the right and a woodpecker on the left. I soon learned why it was called the Incline Trail! It felt like an old, steep road all the way up, with only a few rocks and roots to give the calves a break. I described it in my notes as "relentless."

Eventually, the seasonal tree views began to appear and I stopped to stretch out my burning calves, checked my watch, and saw I had only hiked 0.25 miles! Brutal! There were some metal artifacts on both sides of the trail at different times and later the Incline Trail passed an unsigned junction with the Walker Trail. Near the top, I passed some private residences on the left, which was surprising to see. A partially busted sign indicated the Incline Trail and the Summit Trail on either side, and the Summit area just ahead. 

EDIT: after some digging on Facebook, I learned that the Incline Trail followst the path of an old Incline Railway! An article in the "Simplon Funiculars, Cablecars and Inclined Railways" Facebook group read:

"The Uncanoonuc Incline Railway and Development Company initially built a 4km single-track, electric standard gauge tram line from Shirley Junction, at the intersection of South Mast Street and Wallace Road in Goffstown, from where there was a connecting tram route to Manchester (New Hampshire). The new line ran along the present Worthley Hill Road at the foot of the mountain. The line was used from on September 15th, 1905 and was officially opened shortly afterwards. To promote tourism, the company then built a hotel on top of the Uncanoonuc mountain, accessed by a 725m long inclined railway which was cable-hauled in similar fashion to the Llandudno Great Orme Tramway. It was built with overhead electric supply, also like the Great Orme, which I presume was used for signalling as at Llandudno. The travel time for the lower tramway with an average gradient of 4.5 percent was uphill for 15 minutes and downhill six minutes. The inclined elevator/lift tramway took five minutes for a ride and had a maximum slope of 35 percent. In February 1923, the hotel burned down on the mountain top, and a bridge subsequently suffered the same fate in 1930. They were not replaced. The adhesion tram route to the lower station of the inclined railway ran until January 8th, 1938 and the inclined cable trams lasted until 1941, when a forest fire destroyed much of the railway plant.. The only Wikipedia article on the railway seems to be in German, and Google/Bing translators produced the usual gibberish when dealing with technical details. Why there apparently is not a US article is a mystery."

I worked my way up to the summit area, which was encircled by Perimeter Road and a wild amount of different communication towers. A blogpost titled "Towerspotting: Mt. Uncanoonuc from https://blogs.n1zyy.com/ lists the different towers as: (1) WGIR-FM's old tower, now used for backup, (2) A tall Crown-Castle tower (red/white), home to WGIR-FM's primary antenna system, (3) a self-supporter that [he] think[s] is owned by SBA; home to cellular, microwave, and some land-mobile stuff, (4) WMUR-TV's antenna and tower (red/white), (5) a short, abandoned(?) tower, (6) WMUR-TC's old antenna/tower from the analog-to-DTV cutover, (7) WZID-FM's tower, (8) a commercial land-mobile tower, (9) another commercial land-mobile tower, but much taller, (10) WNEU-TV tower, the most powerful on the summit, (11) a wide self-supporter that is likely owned by Goffstown, (12) a very short tower, and (13) an industrial communications tower.

There were towers on both sides of Perimeter Road with a few spurs inward to the true summit area. I took one from the south heading north towards a concrete rectulangular prism and found a Army Corps of Engineers Survey Disc! Yay! I wandered around a bit more, eventually returning to the junction with the Incline/Summit Trails.

I continued onto the Summit Trail, that had only a few old red/plum-colored blazes. A trail runner passed me and I soon came to a nice overlook that was inhabited by four teenage boys that were a little rowdy, so I didn't stick around. I continued into the woods, noticing a few more super old blazes and some more recently painted ones, and then crossed Summit Road before continuing my descent in some nice woods. I noticed a granite obelisk just off the trail, but we seemed to be firmly in Goffstown, so maybe a former property line?

I passed a trail junction for a trail that looked hardly used with orange blazes as I easily descended along the Summit Trail. Later on, I continued past the junction for the Walker Trail and crossed paths with a guy hiking his bike up! I could just make out North Uncanoonuc through the trees, but I wanted to get to Vermont at a reasonable hour tonight, so I continued on. I passed the junction with the Link Trail and noticed a few red-triangle blazes now appeared? This area/trail network is neat, but I wish they'd work on sprucing it up a bit! Mostly to unify blazing and trail junctions.

Afterwards, I hiked past a logged area on the left and could start to hear some spring Peepers down below! I made a plan to hike around Uncanoonuc Lake, knowing that a lot of it would be road walking. I was really just hoping to hit three miles!

I turned left onto the Bickford Trail to make my dream a reality, and then I turned right to steeply descend the orange-blazed Scout Trail. The Scout Trail appeared to cross a dam/dike at the western end of Uncanoonuc Lake, which offered nice views of the lake on the right and wetlands on the left, and then turned left back into the woods to avoid some private property. 

The Scout Trail continued left in the woods, but an unmarked spur led straight/right to the road, which felt weird taking since it was basically someone's back yard, but it was on the map, so I took it! I then had a nice walk along McFarland Road, which was a dirt/gravel road that passed a bunch of small, classic New Hampshire lake homes (as least classic per my experience on Governor's Lake in Raymond, NH). 

McFarland Road ended and I turned right onto Mountain Base Road, which brought me back to my car. There were some nice views of South Uncanoonuc through people's yards, but I was not going to be photographing them. There were a few boats out on the lake fishing, and soon I was back at my car and driving up to Vermont!

Step-by-Step

- Park at Incline Trail trailhead.

- Start hike on Incline Trail.

- At road, turn right and hike Perimeter Road counterclockwise, taking occasional spurs to the summit.

- At same jct., turn right to begin descent on Summit Trail (red/plum).

- At jct., turn left onto Bickford Trail (blue).

- At jct., turn right onto Scout Trail (orange).

- At McFarland Road, turn left onto McFarland Road.

- At terminus, turn right onto Mountain Base Road.

- Return to car.

Goffstown Conservation Land Map

Photo Album