Guinea Pond Trail is a 4.8 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Center Sandwich, New Hampshire that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from April until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
Fun moderate hike. Need insect repellent. Need waterproof shoes. Need long pants. About 45 mins in on Guinea Pond Trail (because of go around) another 60 mins. up to Mt Israel on Mead Trail at most.
The trail is very well-marked, The first section is quite easy, and the water level was low enough that we did not need to take the alternate route around the marshy area. We took a side trip to Guinea Pond, which added about 3/4 of a mile to the overall length. The Mead Trail up to Mt. Israel might be halfway between easy and moderate. There are no views until the summit, and those are to the north, and not of the lakes to the south. Overall a nice hike, with enough elevation gain to make it more than just a walk in the woods.
Combined this hike with the Black Mountain Pond Trail on All Trails for a total of 8 miles. The road off RT49 to the trail head turns to a wide one lane dirt road with some challenging parts for about 5 miles before the trail gate. Take your time, be ready to pull off for oncoming traffic and avoid low clearance cars and you’ll be OK. Benefit of driving slow on this road is I was able to see 2 moose on the way home just before sun set. This trail is best when the hiker part separates from the snow mobile trail. That’s also where it meets the Black Mountain Pond Trail. Went on a Sunday in September and just ran into 2 sets hikers total for both trails. Great views of the hills around the area and some indication of leaves beginning to turn color. With the drought, there wasn’t much water other than the larger bogs.
Hiked this back from Flat Mountain Pond. Very easy trail except for the area to the northeast of Guinea Pond has been flooded by beavers. Forced us to go off trail for about a mile when we picked it up again. Otherwise a pretty flat boring stroll through the woods.
Did this trail last Saturday and Sunday. easy hike until you get to where the beavers flooded the entire trail. My wife and I pressed on through snake infested water up to our knees. this portion of the trail was rough, felt like we were on Naked and Afraid. Also not marked very good. lightly trafficked. We got by this and decided to head up to Black mountain Pond and spend the night. Black Mountain Pond was beautiful with Sandwich Dome mountain as it's back drop. weather was great. trail leading to it was quiet and peaceful with a running stream and small falls for most of the journey. Bugs were not an issue. Tons of moose tracks and droppings. Great weekend hike
A friend and I were excited to explore the old logging rail trail that used to make it's way up into the mountains. Unfortunately however, we found a rather large beaver dam pond at the Northwest corner of the track and ended up turning around, I didn't want to get too much water into the bearings on our bikes. I suspect that the pond could be traversed if you are a bit more daring than I am, it was only 10-15 feet across. It was otherwise a fun adventure with lots of varying weather from sun to torrential downpour and back to sun, gotta love the White Mountains. Sandwich Notch Road was passable with my Mazda 3, but it was a stressful drive as we dodged the potholes and crawled over the rocks.