An Early Springtime Walk to Wildlife Pond (near Twin Mountain, NH)

At the end of March 2016, I did a 3-mile (round-trip) walk to Wildlife Pond which is located off Zealand Road, just a bit east of Twin Mountain, NH.

During the warm weather months, it is a much shorter walk to this pond since Zealand Road is open to vehicular traffic.  This means that you can drive to the Sugarloaf Trail parking lot, and then walk directly across Zealand Road and head eastward for a short distance on a forest road to pick up the signed trail to Wildlife Pond.  The distance from the Sugarloaf trailhead parking lot to Wildlife Pond is only about 0.5 mile, round-trip!

However, during cold weather months when Zealand Road is closed, the traditional route is to park at the winter parking lot on the north side of U.S. 302, then walk westward for 0.2 mile along the south side of U.S. 302 to the entrance of Zealand Road which you then walk for 1.0 mile to reach the forest road (mentioned above) that leads to the signed trail to Wildlife Pond.

For my trek, I chose an alternative route to Wildlife Pond by walking along the Corridor 11 Snowmobile Trail which more or less parallels Zealand Road.  You might want to discard this option during the dead of winter when there is snowmobile traffic.  Nonetheless, it's a very good option during early Springtime and late Autumn when Zealand Road is closed.

Shown below is a composite photo.  The left panel shows a photo taken while walking along Corridor 11 Snowmobile Trail. The right panel shows an aerial photo with my GPS track superimposed.

My trek to the pond occurred on 26-March-2016, and despite a rather warm winter by northern NH standards, there was still a coating of ice on Wildlife Pond, as can be seen in the next photo.  Also seen in this photo is Mt. Hale in the background (at left), and Middle Sugarloaf (at far right).

With a little off-trail maneuvering, there is a nice southward view, as seen in the next photo.  Mt. Tom is on the horizon at left, and East Hale/Mt. Hale is on the horizon at right.  Wildlife Pond itself is the next body of water beyond the water in the immediate foreground.

The next photo shows a scene along a segment of the Wildlife Pond trail where there is a boardwalk.  Middle Sugarloaf is in the background at far left.

The next photo shows nothing in particular.  I simply liked the colors along this portion of Wildlife Pond's shoreline.

And, this last photo merely shows the sign at beginning of the trail to Wildlife Pond.

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