Gap Mountain Reservation and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

37 Fern Hill Road abuts over 1100 acres of protected lands. These lands are named the Gap Mountain Reservation and are owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. From the front door, you can walk to the top of the mountain in about 45 minutes and never have to cross a single road, making this is one of the most private and expansive backyards you could ever imagine!

Here is some additional information about the Gap Mountain Reservation, taken from the Society’s website -

Recreation: Hiking, birding, natural history exploration.

What you didn't know: Lush, high-bush blueberries are incentive for reaching the summit.

What to look for: Deer paths now crisscross thickets near old cellar holes, stone walls and apple orchards, signaling the forest's return to a peak that was once logged clean.

The inside scoop:

Monadnock may by the "most climbed" mountain in the world, but people partial to its smaller southern neighbor are certain that the hoards traveling the high peak are missing something.

"If you want to see Monadnock, don't climb Monadnock – climb Gap," says 81-year-old Ray McGrath, who has climbed Gap Mountain countless times in seven decades.

"Gap has something Monadnock doesn't."

McGrath grew up at the base of Gap Mountain and spent his free time roaming its woods and fields. He explains that Gap is so named for its topography – a gap dips between the mountain's middle and south peaks.

A mile-and-a-half trail from a Forest Society kiosk off Gap Mountain Road in Troy leads up the southwest side of Gap, through a predominantly pine and oak forest laced with the stone walls that once marked boundaries and pasturelands. The trail crosses brooks and passes through a high meadow – and wends past wild apples and through thickets of high-bush blueberries. (Making late July a particularly fruitful time to climb this mountain.) The main trail – flat at first and then heading uphill steadily – leads to Gap's rocky middle peak, with a view of Monadnock to the northeast, of Vermont in the western distance, and to the town of Troy at its base.

The 1,100-plus acre Forest Society reservation was once privately held, and threatened by development (the trail passes by the small ruin of a partially-constructed ski tow that never saw use.) It was protected through efforts of local citizens and landowners in 1974.
 Ray McGrath is perhaps never so content as he is on Gap, he says: 
"It's just a beautiful place to be."

Rex Roberts and the “Lost” House

In his book, Your Engineered House, Rex Roberts described one type of home that he called the “lost” house. It is a place to get away from it all that is not too far away, and it should be much more than a little shack in the woods. 

The house at 37 Fern Hill Road is just such a place. Just under 2 hours from Boston, the house makes a perfect weekend getaway. But it is also fully equipped for full-time year-round living. In the fact, the current owner lived there for over 20 years.

Here are some excerpts from Roberts’ book, explaining what he meant -

"Getting away from it all" ranges, architecturally, all the way from providing for an occasional week-end to taking care of full time living. Because of the variety of demands included in the concept of getting away from it all, the boards, stones, and machines must be competent for all occasions, but adaptable to your mood.

Most people have something of a problem in deciding what they really want the lost house to do. They start out by saying, well, let's toss up a little shack in the woods where we can get away from it all for a couple of weeks in the summer. Having begun this way, they're hooked. They want to get away from it all for a spring week-end, then for a couple of winter week-ends, and then of course there's that trip to look at the fall foliage. Soon their sturdy friends discover the place and want to borrow it for a winter week of skiing. All of a sudden the little shack in the woods is neither large enough nor warm enough.

In the not-very-extreme case, the owners of the little shack in the woods find that with changes in family, occupation, and finance, they want to live there all the time. They regret that the money they've been putting into the place still hasn't made it suitable for full-time survival.

Glorious Fall Day in New England

Yesterday was a stunningly beautiful day here in southern New Hampshire. We decided to take a few photos of the grounds while the leaves were at their peak and there were still a few bunches of Concord grapes on the vines.

Concord Grapes - Vine Grows at Side of House

View at Bottom of the Driveway

View Down Fern Hill Road

Introducing 37 Fern Hill Road, Troy, NH

Welcome to the blog for 37 Fern Hill Road in Troy, NH. If you are interesting in seeing the property, please contact Larry Alvarez with Tieger Realty at 603-532-8765.