Center Meeting House

This morning, Sept. 5, 2010, Gloria and I walked up to the Eagle's Nest and enjoyed the Greenway's gift to the Center Meeting House.  In  case you missed the article a few months ago in the December 2009 Newbury Update, I'll reprint it here for you and hope that Gerry Gold will give me permission, without me even asking.  I must confess that I myself missed it because we were away in Texas at that time last year.  I just spotted it online this morning as I searched for a map of how to get up there.  Thanks for the support, Gerry and SRK Greenway!

The Eagle's Nest is a very beautiful spot and we felt that it was a reasonably difficult walk that with a rest, some coffee and some photography took us the better part of two hours.  Thanks to SRK Greenway for blazing the trail.  Without the markers, we would never have found it.  From up there you definitely do need a telephoto lens to be able to get much of a picture of the meetinghouse.  It is a project to find a view through the trees.  I would say that 99% of the vista is blocked by trees and you really need to find a good spot to be able to shoot through them.  But it was well worth the walk and the shots I got are good!

Here is the article from the Newbury Update, December 2009:

SRK Greenway "gift" to Newbury’s Center Meeting House

Because of its picturesque view of Newbury harbor and the tower of

the Center Meeting House, the short hike to Eagle’s Nest on the

lower northeast slope of Mount Sunapee was a popular 19th-century

exercise.

With the Meeting House tower rebuilt and ready to be raised again

to its distinguished position as Newbury’s classic landmark,

volunteers from the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway Coalition

recently cleared and re-blazed the Eagle’s Nest Trail as a gift to

commemorate the rebuilding of the bell tower.

Classic photos taken at Eagle’s Nest show the Center Meeting

House, Cilley's Tavern (now Outspokin’) and a small village, a

railroad, a raft of logs in the harbor, a fancy farm and fields, and the

dirt roads that are now routes 103 and 103A .

Eagle’s Nest Trail is a spur trail off the Newbury Trail, one of the

main hiking trails on Mount Sunapee. From Lake View Avenue

across from the Newbury Caboose Museum, the climb up the orangeblazed

Newbury Trail to the Eagle’s Nest Trail is steep but less than

one-quarter mile. A small rock cairn and red (blue?) blazes to the right

(north) mark Eagle’s Nest Trail which winds mostly on the level for

another quarter mile to a ledge-and-moss opening in the hemlock forest.

Hike, take care on the ledge and slippery leaves, and enjoy the

view. And, if you are lucky enough to see him, say hello (at a

respectful distance) to a shy porcupine that feeds on the hemlocks.

--Gerry Gold, SRKG

Thanks, Gerry!  The above picture is just one of many that I was able to get this morning.  Happy Hiking!

Also, please check out an updated news article on page 3 entitled Newbury in 1939.  Doug