Two North Country towns are expanding their outdoor recreation opportunities with newly constructed trails that emphasize sustainability, community access, and connectivity. The new trails, in Gorham and Franconia, reflect years of planning and partnership development between trail organizations, land managers, and the public.

The Center provided significant funding to both projects through a grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission.

“Building sustainable trails – even relatively short sections of trail – takes time and careful planning,” said Joe Fox, the Center’s outdoor recreation manager. “Both of these projects went through a public comment period and federal environmental review process to ensure they met a balance between providing opportunities for outdoor recreation and respecting the natural communities where they are located.

In Gorham, NH, the Coos Cycling Club and Gorham Land Company are partnering to add approximately 1.5 miles of new trail that climbs from Gorham up toward the White Mountain National Forest and essentially looks like a lollipop. One section of new trail will be open for bi-directional travel, while one section of trail will be optimized for downhill travel. The bi-directional side of the trail is now open and the downhill section will be completed next spring.

“The new trail, ‘Alpine Spring’, brings the Coös Trails network to well over 30 miles of mountain biking and mixed-use singletrack and flow,” said Jon Gilson, executive director of Coös Cycling Club. “It also gets us one step closer to our long-term goal of connecting the Trails to users in the White Mountain National Forest. It’s a remarkable asset for the Town of Gorham and the surrounding residents, including the next generation of kids who will take human-powered movement into the future.”

Meanwhile, three partners in Franconia, NH – Franconia Area NEMBA, the Town of Franconia, and the Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust – are collaborating on a 0.9 mile, machine-built, bi-directional, adaptive-friendly trail in the Lawrence Town Forest. Franconia NEMBA (a chapter of the New England Mountain Biking Association) has a goal of creating an adaptive-friendly loop accessible from the Town of Franconia. This new trail, combined with work done several years ago on “Pebble Beach 2.0,” will help bring the group much closer to accomplishing that goal.

“We all know that being active and spending time outdoors and connecting with nature is important for both physical and emotional health, and those benefits apply to everyone,” said Tim Clough, president of Franconia Area NEMBA. “Our trail system has largely consisted of technical, rocky, rooty, and narrow trails. While that has gained us a very loyal following of riders looking for that experience, we recognize that our trails can be challenging for many people to ride, and frankly, most are impossible for adaptive riders due to narrow tread paths.”

Tim explained that Franconia Area NEMBA recognized the need for more trail diversity – having more options for beginner and intermediate riders – as well as the need for adaptive-friendly trails to help meet its goals of being a true community asset.