Adventure with Alex

Last Thursday Alex and I had a couple hours to hike and I decided to head south through Madison to Purity Springs Resort. I’d driven by this resort a few times and had heard they had some nice hiking trails so I was excited to finally check some of them out. Particularly, I wanted to check out Bald Ledge, a cool looking bluff I had seen from further south on Route 153.

Around 9:30 we stopped into the “Millbrook” front office where the receptionist provided us with a couple maps of the grounds. Seeing I was carrying Alex the suggestion was made for some of the shorter flatter hikes but we planned to tick off the longer climb in the area, Bald Ledge, about 3 miles roundtrip with about 800ft of climbing.

A hand drawn map of the trails

A nice watercolor of the grounds

We took the Tower Trail, which was a gentle climb for the most part, and very well marked. Outside of a family friendly resort such as this one might find the amount of trail markings on such an obvious path a bit intrusive, with plastic arrow markers nailed to trees almost every 40 feet, but it didn’t impede on the geologic beauty of the area as we reached an interesting tower with restricted views to the southeast.

Plenty of signage on the lower trails

About 45 minutes into the hike we reached the Bill Sexton Shelter, which was perfect timing as Alex had been asking “eat?” for the last 10 minutes. We unloaded and took a nice 15 minute break to explore the rustic cabin, complete with wood stove and outdoor fire-ring, snack a little, and change a rare trail dirty diaper (2nd dirty diaper in about 175 trail miles).

Bill Sexton Shelter

A view towards Bald Ledge from the Bill Sexton Shelter

We continued on towards Bald Ledge at a quicker clip now that the angle had lessoned and views south towards Ossipee Lake started to appear. Open slabs with plenty of blueberry bushes (not in season) allowed a great pace.

Open slabs near Bald Ledge

Mandatory self portraits

Soon after this shot as I neared the end of the Bald Ledge trail I heard small snores from behind my head as Alex succumbed to the fresh air and rhythm of being carried… I caught his water bottle as he released it but unfortunately lost his ball cap at some point without noticing… I need to look for an attachment to keep a fallen cap with us.

The view from the end of the trail was decent, and I could see the section of Rt 153 I had slowed down on to eyeball these ledges a few months ago. I retraced my steps back to the shelter, and back to a small side trail, the “Panther” trail according to the map, in order to get a small loop in on our return. Alex slept for about 40 minutes, and as we got close to the tower he awoke quite happy. We shared a couple versus of “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” before reaching the resort.

Our Route

Almost 2 hours exactly round-trip, and just over 3 miles, with the 800 feet of climbing. We stopped back into the office to thank them for the maps and get some PR info. I’d like to revisit soon to explore the rest of their trail network and perhaps write a more substantial review of their resort. A quick stop over at their fitness center and pool was informative as Nancy gave me and Alex a short tour of  “The Mill” and a brief history of this 100+ year family resort which is currently run by a 5th generation owner! I’ll link back to that review here when it posts, but if you’re interested why not just follow the blog so you don’t miss it? My wife and want to check out their “Traditions” restaurant, and their outdoor summer lobster bakes, and I’ll definitely post that info up when it’s available.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a family friendly resort for an active family with small kids, this place looks awesome. Please check them out at http://www.purityspring.com/.