“The proposed ‘West Bowl’ expansion will fatally compromise the Summit Trail,” says Steve Russell, Newbury. “The trail as it now exists will be gone.”
“The trail, which provides the general public with all-season access to the park, will be cut through with ski runs at four different locations.”
Okemo/Mount Sunapee Resort is seeking a major expansion at Mount Sunapee State Park that will extend ski infrastructure across the western flank of Mount Sunapee onto hundreds of acres owned by the resort operator.
Proposed new ski terrain and a new lift will not only bisect the hiking trail, it will cut into the rare ancient forest in the park.
The western edge of the park is not yet impacted by ski trails, ski lifts, and snow-making. Steve and others want to keep it that way.
It is not necessary to expand skiing in an area where an equally important public use of the park already exists. The use of the park for skiing is already well established. The public also has a right to experience the mountain in a natural undisturbed state.
Add your voice to protect the Summit Hiking Trail
The Summit Trail, developed in the early 1990s, was designed “to provide hikers with a woodlands trail away from ski operations,” according to the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway Coalition (SRKG). “Development of the trail was related to the early history of the SRK Greenway Coalition, incorporated in 1993.”
The Summit Trail is part of the Greenway, a 75-mile loop of trails that connect four State Parks, thee State Forests, and New Hampshire Fish and Game protected lands, and town, and private properties. The SRKG also links with the 50-mile Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway and Pillsbury State Park.
- Contact Friends of Mount Sunapee for more information and to network with others working to protect the Summit Trial.
- If you have photos and more information about Summit Trail, you’d like to share, please send them to FOMS via info@friendsofmountsunapee.org.