All Locations > New Hampshire > Dartmouth / Lake Sunapee

Orange Gap/cut Climbing

Climbing Area Map

Areas in Orange Gap/cut

Orang Gap- North Side walls 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Orange Gap- South-side walls 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

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Elevation:	1,020 ft	311 m
GPS:	43.62683, -71.9756 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	453 total · 15/month
Shared By:	Robert Hall on Jul 22, 2022
Admins:	Jay Knower, M Sprague, Jeffrey LeCours, Jonathan S, Robert Hall Page Updates (admin only)

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Description

The Rails-to-trails section of the Northern Rain Trail that cuts through the Orange Gap.

I saw these rock walls ( 25-35 ft high each side, 1/4 to 1/2 mile long ) while I was biking the Northern Rail Trail. Cruising through the gap I had to HALT when I caught sight of a bolt/wire hanger in my side vision. Not one, but at least two climbs had been bolted, and it looked like there was a lot of bouldering potential.

Go during a dry time, as the base has a drainage ditch that can catch and hold water.

A mile or so up Rt 4 on the right is Mirror Lake ( aka "Mud Pond"). Only a couple hundred feet from Rt4. Whether there is public access from Rt 4 or not I don't know, but when biking there is a lovely beach only feet from the rail trail with views towards Mt Cardigan reflected in the water. For rural, undeveloped swimming "ponds" I'd give this place 4 out of 5 stars!

Getting There

Location: On Rt 4 about 3 miles west of Grafton, NH ; or 3 1/2 miles east of Canaan, NH.

From the east take Rt 4 West to Tewksbury Pond. There is parking at a pull-out on the left (pond side) at the very beginning of a short pvt road that leads down to camps on the lake, but about 1.6 miles further west there is a smaller parking for 2-3 cars on the left with the rail trail only feet from the car.

Park at the latter, walk through the boulders and then west (right) along the rail trail.

GPS locator is very approximate. I FIND it strange that the map function does not get down to enough detail to see the actual walls of the old rail cut. The rock side walls are at least 25-35 ft high.

History

Apparently the Northern Railroad went from Concord NH to Lebanon/ White River Junc. The “cut” through Orange Gap took so long ( in the pre- dynamite/nitroglycerin days of black powder only) that the company decided to finish the tracks to Lebanon and move a locomotive by land around the gap. Trains would the go from Concord to the gap, freight would be carried by land around the gap and then put on a second train to Lebanon.

Must have been something to have seen that locomotive being moved overland along the old route of today’s Rt4 !