Summary

Join us for a fun day of trail maintenance on our adopted trail followed by a BBQ, bonfire and fireworks at Mad River Lodge on National Trails Day!

National Trails Day, sponsored by the American Hiking Society, to promote awareness and cooperation among trail users. Join this historic event and leave the trail better than you found it! In honor of the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System, do trail work on our adopted trail, Mt. Osceola. In a single day, we’ll collectively improve, 2,802 miles of trail – the distance across the US.

Everyone is invited to spend a FREE weekend at Mad River Lodge Friday and/or Saturday night with breakfast each morning. We only have 8 bunks so the first 8 guys that contact us to reserve will get one. Let us know if it’s the entire weekend or just Saturday night. If we run out of room, you can tent outside; please also let us know if you'll be tenting. [Note that we cannot let you into the house until 7PM on Friday.]

We encourage help from members who love the outdoors, enjoy hands-on conservation work, and excited to work alongside with other members. Help us get prepared for the hiking season ahead. This is our opportunity to promote the goodwill of the gay outdoorzy community within the greater hiking community!

Do you love hiking in the White Mountains on a regular basis? Do you want to help protect and care for hiking trails in our community? Turn that love into action!

At the end of the day we will return back to the Mad River Lodge to enjoy the comraderie, chatter and gossip! Showers our available with towels so everyone can clean up. Bring a change of clean clothing. We first start off on our outdoor deck with appetizers and cold drinks. Please bring your own beer/wine…we do not provide beverages. We’ll then cook up Trail Crew BBQ feast worth working for! After the BBQ we’ll light up a bonfire and shoot off some fireworks!

Trail work is a great opportunity to learn maintenance, have a great time, and give back to the mountains that have given us so much enjoyment. No prior experience trail work experience is required. Trail work is suitable for hikers of moderate hiking ability.  

We will focus on clearing waterbars, removing blowdowns and clip back branches encroaching on the trail. The section of trail we will be working on has not been touched since the Halloween storm so we anticipate a little extra TLC will be needed. The Mt. Osceola trail has two 4,000 footers making it one of the most popular hiking trails in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Mt. Osceola is 4370 feet; East Osceola is 4156 feet.

We meet at the Mad River Lodge at 8AM with a brief welcoming and orientation to tools & safety. You will need to be prepared for the day and have sturdy hiking boots, work gloves, plenty of water, lunch, snacks, bug spray and other clothing appropriate for the weather. We’ll provide the fire rakes, saws and loppers. We will be working on the trail rain or shine.

After orientation, we will carpool to the trailhead of the Mt. Osceola Trail off Tripoli Road and hike up to the summit of Mt. Osceola. Mileage roundtrip will be 7 miles with 2, 025 feet elevation gain. That said, because of trail work, we hike up at a slow pace. If trail work becomes too much for you, you can turn around, do trail work on the descent and wait for us back at the trailhead.

The White Mountain National Forest will provide you a free parking pass for one year after 16 hours of work…we take care of the recordkeeping.

As part of National Trails Day, we encourage you to sign up at the National Trails Day website and take the pledge to leave a trail better than you found it. After National Trails Day® they will ask you how many miles of trail you helped improve. You can then reply that you worked on our adopted trail and you will be entered to win the grand prize, which includes swag and premium outdoor gear!

We hope you can join us to help celebrate National Trails Day on Mt. Osceola!

Yours on trails,

Jon and Mike

Directions To Trailhead Parking Lot

If you are spending Friday night with us, we cannot let you in until 7pm since we both work. Otherwise, on Saturday, meet at our house for 8:00 am so we can make introductions, distribute tools, and arrange carpooling to the trailhead. We are meeting at our house: 676 Upper Mad River Road, Thornton, NH.

Take I-93 and use Exit 28. At the end of the ramp take right onto Rte 49 East for 3.5 miles and take a left on Burbank Hill Road.

During this 3.5 miles, you'll pass a traffic light where there is a dam on your right, then pass a White Mountain National Forest campground and then see a former restaurant for sale on your left. About a mile after the restaurant, you'll see Burbank Hill Road on the left (Goose Hollow Campground sign). If you cross the Mad River on the bridge, you just missed the left turn.

Take a left onto steep Burbank Hill Road and you’ll quickly reach the top of the hill where you take your first right onto Upper Mad River Road (Hiking Sign). The road will soon turn into gravel, you'll pass two apartments on your right and then a house. Our property begins right after this house and after about 200 yards you’ll see a mailbox with "676" which is the Mad River Lodge. The lodge is not visible from the road.

We have space for about two vehicles behind our house, do not block our garage doors; otherwise park on the upper lot and walk down the driveway to the house.