Update on Northern Rail Trail’s future leap into Concord

The Northern Rail Trail has a “first-mile, last-mile” problem. But it’s also a “good problem to have”.

In other words, what is overall an excellent resource for the Granite State has a minor problem. An Achilles’ heel, if you will. The packed-gravel trail winds its way 58 miles across the central part of New Hampshire from the Connecticut River to the state capital…except that it doesn’t quite reach either. Yet.

On the northwest end, the last 4 miles to get from the current terminus in downtown Lebanon to West Lebanon will be in the form of the complete Mascoma River Greenway. The greenway is partially complete, with a volunteer-led 2.3-mile segment opening in 2018. That leaves smaller (but challenging) gaps to fill in downtown Lebanon and close to the river in West Lebanon.

On the southeast end, the trail terminates along a cornfield in Boscawen, just north of Concord. To reach the state capital, it needs to duck under US 4 and then over the Contoocook River at its confluence with the Merrimack River. The idea is to connect to emerging Merrimack River Greenway Trail through Concord, with all these segments combining under the larger umbrella of the Granite State Rail Trail.

In a recent video from Yankee Chronicle, Jack Shields, a board member of one of the two NRT friends groups, the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail in Merrimack County (FNRT-MC), explains how his group is helping nudge the trail south. They are raising funds to purchase more of the rail right-of-way from Pan Am Railways (whose pending acquisition by CSX is currently being challenged). Most of the rest of the corridor that now has the existing trail was acquired by the state from Pan Am in the late ’90s, but Pan Am held onto the part from the cornfield south for the purpose of train car storage. Pan Am has since abandoned that section (though it’s still active with short scenic rail trips), and the vision is for the FNRT-MC to buy it, remove the rails, and turn it over to public ownership. The trail would then be extended and a new park would be built, proposed to be called Unity Park. The park would have interpretive info to address the problematic history related to the statue of colonial settler Hannah Duston and better tell the story of the Abenaki people. And let’s hope further extensions into the heart of Concord are not too far in the future!

Full video below: