Wapack Trail

21 miles
14hours
difficult
Back Country Skiing, Hiking, Snowshoeing
Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring
Ashburnham, MA

JenShu

The Wapack Trail is a true New England experience. A rugged 21 mile trail that goes from Ashburnham, MA (just south of the NH border, north of Fitchburg) to Greenfield, NH, crossing many high points along the way, most notably Mt Watatic in MA and Pack Monadnock in NH. This is a rugged hiking trail, especially on the northern end, but there are several more gentle areas, especially in the middle. The trail follows yellow triangles and at the southern end it does overlap for a bit with the Massachusetts' Mid-State Trail (http://www.midstatetrail.org/). The trail takes about 6 hours for trail runners to 14 hours or more for more leisurely paced hikers. Bring plenty of food and water as there are no easy exit points to stop and refuel at stores. Be kind to the trail and property owners who graciously allow the trail to pass through their property. The Friends of the Wapack Trail are the guardians of this treasure and have a lovely, detailed topographic map available for a reasonable cost, http://www.wapack.org/

For the truly adventurous and fit(!), there are also two trail races that take place here each year; one in May (http://wapacktrailrace.com/) and another in September (http://wapack.freeservers.com/)

Directions:

To the Mt. Watatic Parking Lot and Trail Head:

From Ashby Center, go west on Rt 119. After crossing Rt 101, go just about 1.4 miles further on Rt 119 to the lot on your left. Look for sign that says Mid-State Trail on it as the Mid-State Trail overlaps with the Wapack Trail here.

To the Greenfield trailhead:

There is parking along the side of the road here, but no parking lot. You will need to look for the trail markers! Depending on which direction you come from, there are several sets of directions you could use. Go to this link for options, http://www.wapack.org/directions.html