Five of us met in Derry, NH with the threat of showers for a 20-mile up and back mountain bike ride to Sandown, NH. A few sprinkles, sandy sections of trail, large puddles to get muddy and great company!

Located between Derry, NH and Epping NH, the Rockingham Recreational Trail is a former railroad bed converted for ATV and mountain biking use. This flat trail with sandy sections is utterly beautiful as it passes remote ponds and wetlands; unfortunately it is overrun with ATV’s and we saw nobody else mountain biking the entire day.

We were supposed to meet about 11 a.m. however we had difficulty finding the trailhead so we were a bit late.

Jon and I had never met the folks who showed up before so we were psyched to get a chance to make new gay friends!

We had one biker who recently bought a mountain bike and except for the few sandy sections that were tough going, this was a perfect trip for him.

Certain sections of the trail passed these beautiful ponds where we enjoyed the lake swans floating by. It was an easy ride for everyone and black flies were just starting to make an appearance.

In Sandown we found the railroad depot museum open and were given a tour by the 83-year old custodian and her sister. It was kinda cool to see and hear about not only the history of this old railroad line but of the town itself. After the tour we found a pizza shop nearby for lunch.

There were a lot of ATV’s, but they were respectful and slowed down when they saw us. When we first started out we were careful about riding through the large puddles but by the end of the day we found ourselves blasting through.

The 20-mile ride took much longer than we thought; about six hours. However, we did stop frequently, got to enjoy an extensive tour of the railroad depot museum and had a leisurely lunch.

Next time, we would do the 20-mile up and back section from Sandown, NH to Epping, NH. We WILL be going back!!

It’s a great trail and a real gem. Never knew it was so nice.