A Winter Hike on the Ashuelot Rail Trail

On a sunny day in early January, with temperatures in the low 40s, my long-time friend Curtis Carroll and I chose to hike an approximately five-mile section of the Ashuelot Rail Trail. We started at the Recycle Way bridge in Ashuelot and hiked to the trail's terminus at the Dole Junction parking lot off Route 63 in Hinsdale, where I had parked my car earlier in the day. Before starting out, we affixed micro spikes to our hiking boots. Rain and warm weather had melted much of the snow cover, but the trail was slushy in spots and patches of ice were prevalent. After moving past rusted Green Mountain Railroad boxcars parked on a railroad siding, we came to the remains of the Paper Service Ltd. factory building. There were rubble piles of red-clay bricks, rusted mill belt wheels, crumbling walls and a brick tower with broken window panes. The mill was heavily damaged when the Ashuelot River burst through a small hydroelectric dam during Tropical Storm Tammy on Oct. 9, 2005. In April of 2019, fire destroyed the abandoned buildings. Beyond these ruins, the trail moved through a corridor of hemlock trees as it followed the gradual slope dropping down to Hinsdale. A real nature treat was the wide variety of animal footprints in the snow — deer, porcupine, turkey and fox. "Foxes typically move in a straight line," said Curtis. Twenty minutes into the hike, the trail narrowed as we passed through a railroad cut with high rock walls on either side. Minutes later, we saw a dam and an old factory. The building was dilapidated, but we could still see stacks of cardboard tubes on a loading dock. This stretch of the Ashuelot River — from Winchester to Hinsdale — powered a significant industrial boom in the 1800s. It hosted grist, saw, paper and textile (cotton, wool) mills. The larger mills provided tenements and boarding houses for employees, and these structures can still be seen on the banks of the river in Ashuelot today. We closed our eyes and imagined the sounds of yesteryear: the rumbling of the turbines, the rhythmic thumping of the paper-making process, the hissing of steam and the clatter of the looms weaving fabric. The trail continued under a power line into a sunny, open stretch where the walking was easy. "You almost can't see the slope here. It's very subtle," said Curtis. We followed the high ridge above Hinsdale, the steep embankment falling away sharply to the slate-green river below, which was dotted with snow-covered boulders that looked like giant marshmallow puffs. Houses began appearing on the riverbank, and we saw the clock tower of the Hinsdale Town Hall against a backdrop of hills in Pisgah State Park. Soon we came to Depot Road and the former Hinsdale train station, which is now a private residence. The original station burned down and was rebuilt in 1935. Just past the train station, we passed through a metal gate and continued the trail through open woods, changing the atmosphere of the walk. We were now moving away from the river, and there were views of farmland and fields to either side of the trail, along with wooded hillsides. Along this stretch, there was a magnificent variety of trees: black birch, cherry, black locust and bone-white sycamores. About an hour and a half into the hike, we crossed Tower Hill Road. After stopping to listen to the repetitive tooting of an Amtrak train signaling its departure from Brattleboro across the Connecticut River, we continued on a more snowy part of trail. I pointed out some more animal footprints. "I'll bet those are porcupine tracks. Look how close they are to one another. The animal isn't moving very fast," said Curtis. We noticed a small graveyard on the other side of Route 63. After checking out the old burial yard, we continued the trail which was now snow-free and matted with leaves. Ten more minutes of walking brought us to some unexpected surprises: a statue of Bigfoot and a house on the opposite side of the highway covered with license plates. After we finished checking out these curiosities, a brief walk brought us to my Honda Civic in the large dirt parking lot at Dole Junction, once a small switching station and the site of a telegraph office. To get to the Ashuelot Rail Trail from Keene, drive 12 miles south on Route 10 to Winchester. Continue through town to the four-way intersection of Routes 10/78 and 119. Turn right onto Route 119 West and continue for 3.1 miles. Turn left onto Recycle Way and cross the one-lane bridge to a parking area near a line of rectangular, concrete pillars topped with ball finials. The trail starts on the other side of a wire cable connecting the pillars.