Ticklenaked Pond

I am loving this project! Another beautiful rural Vermont run today, traversing scenic places I never would have found if I hadn't been trying to run in some new towns. Today's criteria (a shortish run close to Rt. 302 on my way to the Kancamagus Highway) led me to a place that I'd only encountered previously in one of my favorite novels. Wallace Stegner writes about Ticklenaked Pond in Crossing to Safety, and I didn't think that it really existed. But there it was in the Vermont atlas, in Ryegate, a town on the New Hampshire border north of the village of Wells River. The name apparently comes from the Algonquin word "tickenecket," which translates "place for little beavers."

So I detoured up the very steep Bible Hill Road from Wells River, parked at the Ticklenaked Pond fishing access area (which had a cleanish portapotty) and ran a hilly 6-mile out-and-back route along the Bayley-Hazen Road back towards Wells River and into the town of Newbury, enjoying the stunning mountain views and lovely cool sunny weather. The Bayley-Hazen Road is a Revolutionary-era military road that still cuts its way through Vermont's Northeast Kingdom towards Canada. I look forward to exploring more of this road; I've come across it while driving before but didn't know much about it. In some places it's signed "Bayley-Hazen (or Bailey-Hazen) Road" and in others, differently named roads trace its original route. A good description and maps can be found at http://www.nvda.net/TopNavBars/documents/BayleyHazenIntro.pdf. The section I ran today was part dirt and part paved. Wildlife: lots of Canada geese at the pond, a big tom turkey in a field, a smallish hawk (kestrel?) and two loud but securely chained dogs.

Ticklenaked Pond Beach, Ryegate, Vermont