TOUR 6: From BERLIN to GROVETON, 25.7 m., State 110.

Via Stark.

The Grand Trunk R.R. parallels this route.

Accommodations limited to overnight cabins.

Road paved throughout. Plowed in winter.

THIS route, branching west from State 16, affords an opportunity for a closer view of some of the northern mountains, especially the Percy Peaks, and some rarely visited bodies of water. Much of the way it follows the Upper Ammonoosuc River.

BERLIN, 0 m. (see BERLIN).

With tree-topped Mt. Forist (alt. 2050) looming in the south the highway rolls along for 7 miles at an average elevation of 1200 feet.

At 8.2 m. is a junction with a dirt road.

       Left on this road is York Pond (alt. 1500), operated by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. It is an attractive little lake in the process (1937) of beautification by the Civilian Conservation Corps and will have public picnic grounds. At this establishment the egg collections of brook trout amounted to over 9,700,000 in 1934.

       From York Pond is a path to the York Pond State Game Refuge, containing deer, partridge, rabbit, foxes, bob cats, bears, and other animals, in wire-fenced enclosures. (No hunting.)

The highway follows the twists and turns of the swift-flowing Upper Ammonoosuc, which rises high up in the Randolph Mountains, and skirts the northern edge of an isolated section of the White Mountain National Forest Reservation.

At 18 m. is a junction with a road.

       Left on this road are the South Ponds, 1 m., a series of tarns at an elevation of 1100 feet, with a few private summer cabins. The road is suitable for motor cars only part of the way. Brook trout and smelt abound here.

       A trail from the cottages leads 2 m. to the Devil’s Hop-Yard, one of the finest rock gorges in the State but rarely visited. The gorge is filled with great boulders lining both sides of the chasm, through which a small stream weaves its way, much of the time hidden from sight. The ‘Yard’ is in the form of an amphitheater, with a granite monolith 250 feet high topped by pines as sentinels. The walls of this section are like cut blocks of granite laid according to plan. The summits, 120 feet high, are topped with evergreen trees. The trees hereabout are covered with hanging gray moss, giving a fancied resemblance to a hop-yard with its poles covered with heavily laden vines, which accounts for the name.

At 19.1 m. is the junction with a road.

       Right on this road is PERCY, 0.25 m., a settlement of half a dozen houses, clustered around a combined store and post office.

       Right from Percy, 0.5 m. on a rough, hilly, winding road to Lake Christine (alt. 1202), a body of water encircled by deep woods and set in a mountain basin. The surrounding territory is largely owned by a group of Washingtonians and New Yorkers, who have built luxurious summer houses at the western end. At the eastern edge of the lake are facilities for public bathing and a clearing where cars can be parked. The lake is stocked with brook trout. Poised above the waters are the twin Percy Peaks, the North (alt. 3336) and the South (alt. 3149). North Peak is usually selected by those who wish to climb these summits. The path follows closely the logging road that leads (R) from the road to the lake, by the telephone line, and approaches the summit by way of the saddle between the peaks. The South Peak can be ascended, but by a somewhat blind trail, and a guide (from Percy) is advised for the expedition. From the summit an extensive view includes the conspicuous Pilot Range, south, and still farther south the Presidential Range, with Mt. Washington in the center and Clay, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison in that order on the left, and parts of the lower ranges such as the Randolph Mountains.

Under the wooded slopes of Mill Mountain (alt. 2485) the road winds into STARK (alt. 968, town pop. 329), 20.7 m., a tiny hamlet on the banks of the Upper Ammonoosuc, notable for its fine setting, its old Covered Bridge, and the conspicuous cliff (R) known as the Devil’s Slide. The name has been explained as follows:

       The Indians, as is well known, peopled all these mountain regions with invisible spirits who controlled the winds and storms, and in their quarrels hurled gleaming thunder bolts at each other, the effects of which were seen in the splintered trees and shivered rocks; and they had a tradition that in a remote age a huge mountain barred the valley where now the railroad passes, and that on a time when the heavens were convulsed, the earth reeling, and the atmosphere blazing with the terrible warfare of these invisible powers, one-half of the mountain sank down into the bowels of the earth, leaving the precipitous sides of the other bare and shattered as they are to the present day.

The face of this sheer 700-foot precipice is a lure to the intrepid climber, but the usual route to the top is from the rear of the hill.

Stark was originally granted in 1774 under the name of Percy, the family name of the Earl of Northumberland. At its incorporation in 1795, the name was spelled Piercy, but by an act passed in 1832 the name was changed to Stark, in honor of General John Stark of Revolutionary fame.

At 22.7 m. the Percy Peaks appear to best advantage (R). The symmetry of the South Peak from this position justifies the phrase of President Dwight of Yale that this was ‘the most exact and beautiful cone’ he had ever beheld.

Still following the Ammonoosuc and its valley, the highway leads to the eastern edge of Groveton, where huge cones of pulp-wood are evidences of the industries characteristic of this section.

At the southern entrance to the village is a well-preserved Covered Bridge, and at this point is another excellent view of the Percy Peaks.

GROVETON, 25.7 m. (see Tour 3, sec. d), is at the junction with US 3 (see Tour 3, sec. d).