Wapack Trail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wapack Trail is one of the oldest public, interstate hiking trails in the United States. Opened in 1923, it runs north-south for 21 miles, between Mount Watatic in Ashburnham, Massachusetts and North Pack Monadnock mountain in Greenfield, New Hampshire. It is designed for day use by hikers, with no camping facilities.

The trail passes through Ashby, Massachusetts and the New Hampshire towns of New Ipswich, Temple, Sharon and Peterborough. It also goes through Miller State Park and the Wapack National Wildlife Refuge, as well as numerous privately owned parcels of land.

The trail is overseen by a non-profit group called Friends of the Wapack. Aside from upgrading and maintaining the trail, the group is trying to have the entire length preserved from development.

The southern part of the Wapack Trail overlaps with the northern part of the Massachusetts Midstate Trail.

[edit] History

The trail was born in a conversation in the summer of 1922 at the Shattuck Inn in Jaffrey, New Hampshire between Allen Chamberlain, who later became president of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and Jaffrey farmer Albert Annett while overlooking the Wapack range, then known as the Boundary Mountains. The two talked about the possibility of a skyline trail along the ridge of the Boundary Mountains from Mt. Watatic to North Pack Monadnock. Later, Albert brought the idea to fellow farmers Frank Robbins and Marion Buck of Rindge, New Hampshire. The three started cutting the trail near the end of the summer using hand tools. The trail was opened in 1923. Buck named it by joining the Wa from Mt. Watatic and Pack from North Pack Monadnock, and soon the Boundary Mountains became known as the Wapack Range.