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Uses: hiking,
snowshoeing, and skiing.
Part of one trail is shared by snowmobiles.
Please
Read this before visiting this trail...
Map of this trail
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Cobb Hill
Farm and Cohousing
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The
year-round trails at Cobb Hill Farm feature agricultural fields, open
pasture, active sugarbush, and mature forest. A visit provides an
opportunity to observe a working farm reminiscent of those found in
early New England. From the upper pastures there are excellent views
across the Connecticut River Valley. Groomed ski trails, both flatland
and challenging, steeper routes, are part of a network of over 23
kilometers of trails maintained by the Hartland Winter Trails
association.
Cobb Hill
Farm is the site of the Cobb Hill Cohousing community occupying 23
units of tightly-clustered housing on four acres of land in the
southeast corner of the property. The cohousing group has owned the
land since 1997, when it purchased adjoining farms from Will and Jane
Curtis and John and Barbara Hunt. Both properties had been farmed for
over 200 years, but at the time were threatened by the same pattern of
subdivision and development that had already taken place on a portion
of the Hunt’s farm and much of the surrounding agricultural land. Cobb
Hill Cohousing members, with a strong commitment to sustainability and
stewardship, continue to farm the land using organic methods, and have
placed the bulk of their acreage under conservation easement with the
Upper Valley Land Trust.
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| Directions
From Hartland,
follow Route 12 to Hartland Four Corners and turn right onto Mace Hill
Road. In about a quarter of a mile take the first left onto Linden
Road, entering the Cobb Hill Cohousing property, with its barns and
silos directly ahead. Parking is to the right, across from the sheep
barn.
Exploring
Cobb Hill
The story
of Cobb Hill is, inextricably, a story of Donella “Dana” Meadows. Dana
was a pioneering environmental scientist and writer, lead author of the
international bestselling book The Limits to Growth, published in 1972 and of the
twenty-year follow-up study, Beyond the Limits (1992). She was a leading voice in
what has become known as the "sustainability movement," an international effort to
reverse damaging trends in the environment, economy, and social
systems. Her work is widely recognized as a formative influence on
hundreds of other academic studies, government policy initiatives, and
international agreements.
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Ewes and lambs
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Harvest on Cobb Hill Farm
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In the mid-1980’s Dana Meadows was one of a small
group of people who came together to found the Upper Valley Land Trust.
Dana became the first Chair of UVLT’s Board of Trustees, serving on the
board for five years. In 1997, Dana and several others worked
tirelessly to bring Cobb Hill Cohousing into being, and it was she who
worked with UVLT on behalf of the group to conserve Cobb Hill Farm. The
conservation easement was completed in the spring of 2001, one month
after Dana’s sudden and unexpected death. The project brought together
two organizations that Dana helped to create and reflects her
commitment to stewardship of natural resources, local food production,
and community life.
Cobb Hill Cohousing is an intentional community of
people committed to sustainable living. The individual housing units
are designed according to “green building” principles – environmentally
sustainable and energy efficient to the extent feasible. At the
entrance to the Cobb Hill Farm is a farm stand that seasonally sells
cheese, eggs, flowers, vegetables, and maple syrup produced on the
property. Produce is also sold as part of a community supported
agriculture (CSA) program, with over 80 subscribers receiving organic
vegetables and flowers from a 7-acre garden every week from June
through October. The Cobb Hill Farm buildings combine a gambrel-roofed
barn and attached accessory sheds, a style popular in the 1930’s and
40’s and becoming increasingly rare in the Vermont landscape. The barn
and outbuildings house sheep, dairy cattle, horses, and chickens.
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) provided funding for
UVLT’s purchase of development rights on the Cobb Hill Farm’s 245 acres
of fields and woodlands, bringing together in a single project VHCB’s
twin goals of conservation and affordable housing. Cobb Hill Cohousing
made a significant contribution to the project by selling development
rights to the land for about half their market value. The income from
sale of the development rights subsidized three perpetually affordable
cohousing units for lower income families.
At the entrance to Cobb Hill in a farmhouse to the left is the
Sustainability Institute, a non-profit research and education
organization, also started by Dana Meadows, and devoted to promotion of
sustainable economic, environmental, and social systems. The
Sustainability Institute is separate from, but closely linked to Cobb
Hill Cohousing.
In exploring the property in winter, tracked ski trails should be easy
to follow. The trails are groomed by volunteers, so if you see someone
working on the trails while you are out skiing, give a wave and a smile
of thanks. Snowshoers should travel to the side of the prepared ski
track. The rest of the year hikers can walk between two fences on a
grassy walkway in the middle of the agricultural field, cross through a
gap in an electric fence at the far end of the field, and turn left,
following the edge of the field to a corner where the Hartland Winter
Trails association maintains a trail registry with ski trail maps.
Hikers can follow the ski trail beyond a stone wall and leading uphill
across a pasture through the sugarbush. Marking and maintenance of
other hiking trails is planned for the near future. Flatland ski trail
loops leading off to the right towards Sugar Brook are for winter use
only.
Trail winds through maples strung with tubing
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Following the main ski trail from the ski trail registry box, you will
pass through agricultural fields and over pasture land, entering the
woods through a metal gate in a gap in a stone wall. The trail winds
uphill through an extensive sugarbush of mature and healthy maples
rigged out in tightly strung blue and green plastic tubing, feeding in
to thicker black plastic pipes, which themselves drain into holding
tanks. The hillside calls to mind a description by the late Dartmouth
English professor and local rural philosopher Noel Perrin in his 1972
book Amateur Sugar Maker, of a modern sugarbush looking just “like the
intensive-care unit of some outdoor hospital.” Cobb Hill puts out about
1,300 taps, and in an average season produces over 200 gallons of syrup.
Farther on the trail comes back out into the
pasture, with a sign pointing up the hill to the Donella Meadows
memorial stone bench. At the top of the pasture, under a spreading tree
is a stone bench with splendid views looking out over the farm and
hills that Dana loved – a fitting reminder of the ongoing legacy of her
commitment to conservation and stewardship of natural resources.
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Donella Meadows Memorial Bench
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View
from the stone bench |
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An
additional note of interest about the property comes from Jane and Will
Curtis, former owners of one of the two original farms that make up
Cobb Hill Farm. Will Curtis is widely known as a naturalist, author,
and former host of the nationally syndicated National Pubic Radio
program “The Nature of Things.” The Curtises heard for years rumors
that their house had been a station on the Underground Railroad. Indeed, their cellar contained a
mysterious crawlspace that they could not otherwise account for. While
the Underground Railroad story has never been substantiated; it is
known that a freed African American woman lived with the family there
and died in the house. The rest of her story is lost to history and can
only be left to the imagination.
Links:
Cobb Hill
Cohousing: www.cobbhill.org
Hartland
Winter Trails:
www.hartlandwintertrails.org
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Download a high resolution map in PDF format, suitable
for printing
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Trail Use Guidelines
• Carry out
what you carry in.
• Stay on the trail and use only designated trailhead parking areas.
• Stay off trails during spring melt, when soils are soft and easily
eroded.
• Be respectful of other trail users and be courteous to trail
neighbors.
• Control your dog(s). Do not allow dogs to disturb livestock,
wildlife, or sensitive natural areas. Pets are not allowed on some
trails.
• Close farm gates behind you.
• For your safety during hunting seasons, wear blaze orange.
• Follow Leave No Trace guidelines.
Trail Maintenance
Responsibility:It is the UVLT’s
responsibility to monitor
and maintain the trails to ensure that no harmful erosion occurs as a
result of
public access. Residents of the Cobb
Hill community often maintain the trails. Hartland Winter Trails
maintain
trails in the winter and Vermont
Association of Snow Travelers (VAST)
manages
the snowmobile trail.
While these trails are available for community use free
of charge, their maintenance depends on the good stewardship and
financial support of users. Donations for the trail program may be
sent to: Trails, Upper Valley Land Trust, 19 Buck Road, Hanover, NH
03755.
Please contact UVLT Vice President Stewardship Pete Helm (603-643-6626)
to report trail maintenance needs or recommendations.
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