Hedgehog Mountain Forest: A Gem in Western NH

Greetings from one of the lookouts along the Hedgehog Ridge Trail

I'm always happy to be surprised by a hike in a good way, and Hedgehog Mountain Forest achieved that for me this past weekend. With the NASCAR race going on up in Loudon, I knew I-93 would be a nightmare to navigate on Sunday, so I went searching online for somewhere to hike that I hadn't been to yet in western New Hampshire. In my looking around, I came upon the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests' website, which led me to searching around their reservation map and stumbling upon the Hedgehog Mountain Forest. Not to be confused with the much more famous Hedgehog Mountain off the Kancamagus Highway in the Whites, this small forest is located in Deering, NH about 50 min. - 1 hr. outside of Manchester. Once I saw that the trail up to the top led to a ridge with a couple viewpoints I was sold, and off my pup and I went.

The parking area (coordinates: 43°05'10.3"N 71°53'18.1"W) is located off a sometimes rough dirt road that is still passable for most cars up to it. There was space for about 5-6 cars, but we found it empty upon our Sunday afternoon arrival. From there, the path into the forest was well marked to get us onto the main trail. The entire trail up to and including the ridge was well-blazed and identified the whole way, except for a clear sign pointing us to the Hedgehog summit. We actually ended up missing it and just going straight onto the Hedgehog Ridge Trail when we reached the top.

Curvy creek bridge

The start of the hike was an easy, mostly dry amble in the forest past some stone walls and over a small creek with a wonderfully shaped bridge for us to tread across. From there the trail really picked up in rockiness and steepness, getting to a pretty good pitch at points. With it only being 0.8 miles to the ridge top, the roughly 400 feet of elevation gain was crammed into a short, sometimes rough ascent.

Peek-a-boo mountain views at the start of the ridge

As we started on the Hedgehog Ridge Trail (well marked with a large sign), we came upon what I thought were the first viewpoints shown on the map, but learned later just happened to be views at the start. If we had continued straight another hundred feet or so instead of turning left onto the ridge, we would have seen the viewpoints of the Hedgehog summit. Oh well, there's always another chance to hike it!

The ridge was not a smooth flat traverse. Instead it seemed to undulate up and over three "ridges" to get to our second and final view of the hike, dipping into shaded cols between steep rises back onto each successive ridge. However, after this slightly rough up and down, we were treated to a great view from the second lookout about 2.0 miles from the start of the hike. A small mountain chain and huge puffy clouds stretched out before to create a wonderful vista.

2nd Lookout Panorama

As I said at the start, I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty on this hike. The second lookout was also covered in blueberry bushes! Since it a such a lesser known area, you're sure to find some solitude here. My pup and I only saw 2 other people during our entire trek, and we didn't come upon them until we were almost back to our car. The SPNHF has a great trail map online that you can view here to plan your excursion. It's a nice trail with just enough of a challenge and great views mixed together to make for a solid hiking destination.