Lyme
But it just might be the most beloved.
About 1 in 7 households in town donated recently to a stewardship fund that guaranteed the conservation of 243½ acres on the Pinnacle, a recreational gem north of Lyme Center featuring 4½ miles of trails and sweeping panoramic views.
The Upper Valley Land Trust was gifted the property by couple Manning Rountree and Kendall Hoyt, who in August purchased two parcels from previous owners for a total of $915,000, according to town records. Rountree, CEO of White Mountains Insurance, and Hoyt, an assistant professor and lecturer at Dartmouth College, offered to donate the land to UVLT for conservation if the organization could raise $120,000 for an endowment toward stewardship and maintenance of public access.
UVLT sent an appeal letter to all Lyme residents the week after Thanksgiving, organization President Jeanie McIntyre said. By Christmas, more than $150,000 had been contributed.
“We had donations from almost 100 households. There are 705 households in Lyme,” McIntyre said during a Thursday hike on the Pinnacle, following a fresh morning snowfall. “That shows you how much people really love and appreciate this place. We even got donations from two little girls from Massachusetts who come apple-picking here when they visit their aunt. They sent $30 cash from their allowances.”
Apple-picking is but one of the activities that have entertained Lyme residents and visitors for generations on the Pinnacle. Once home to a cabin belonging to Camp Pinnacle, a boys camp shuttered in the early 1980s, the area has long been a popular destination for hiking, skiing, horseback riding, dog walking and more. Its appeal includes a wide variety of access points and impressive views.
Open fields on the hill and the summit — where a stone chimney from the cabin remains, along with a granite bench dedicated to late civic leader Alan Hewitt — feature stunning westerly views into Vermont and glimpses of nearby Smarts and Piermont Mountain as well as more-distant New Hampshire peaks. Post Pond and the Connecticut River also can be spotted.
Trimming vegetation to preserve these views, mowing the area’s fields and building a parking area are a few of the initiatives earmarked for the stewardship fund, according to a UVLT news release.
Over the years, McIntyre and other UVLT staff have learned that raising money for stewardship of a property after it has been conserved can present challenges.
“People are apt to say, ‘How much does it really cost to maintain a trail? I’ll pitch in and help clean it up instead,’ ” McIntyre said.
But she noted that the complexities of maintaining a conserved area go beyond a hike with a garbage bag or a machete,
“It’s not just the time it takes to cut the trail back,” she said. “A lot of stewardship is thinking about, ‘What are the impacts of the trail?’ For example, what does it mean if parts of the trail get a lot of sunlight? Does it mean there could be more invasive species there or raspberry bushes to cut back in the future? So it’s about more than coming out a couple times a year to clean up branches to make trail networks sustainable, long-term, for all the different kinds of recreation.”
She said the donations will ease the burden and put the trust in a good place going forward.
“By having money in hand to begin, the goal is to not just be reactive when problems arise, but to proactively take care of the place and make sure we can enjoy it responsibly with all its different dimensions. We hope it can be a model for future projects,” McIntyre said.
UVLT intends to mark the boundaries of the property this winter and begin to expand the parking area off Highbridge Road in the spring, when it will also begin to sign and blaze trails. A pair of paths known as the Pinnacle North and Pinnacle South trails already are marked thanks to previous conservation easements.
The Pinnacle will remain open to all nonmotorized recreation, McIntyre said, and a popular snowmobile trail will remain available.
Scottie Eliassen, a former Dartmouth cross-country skier and current instructor for the Ford Sayre Ski Club’s junior Nordic team, has been enjoying the Pinnacle since moving to Lyme 23 years ago.
“There’s something very curious and wonderful about the place,” she said. “I love watching the seasons progress, the colors shift on the leaves.”
A resident of Dorchester Road, south of the summit, Eliassen can run to the Pinnacle from her home and often enters via Franklin Hill Road. Other times, she drives, often with friends or visitors, to access alternate routes.
“That’s one of the things that’s so great about the Pinnacle is that there are so many different approaches,” Eliassen said.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.