Name: Rye Town Forest
Directions: Across from Rye junior high school at the intersection of Washington and Wallace streets in Rye village
Details: Casual walking on flat surface among lightly maintained rocky trail in pine woods. No interpretation, minimal markings. Trail map available, but not on site. Very little signage, no directions posted.
Resources: Town fields and recreation area at both ends of field with bathrooms during events only. Plenty of parking at each end.
Rules: Carry in, carry out. No hunting. Horses allowed.
Dogs: Allowed on leash.
Official Rye town web site.

The usual images of Rye include waves crashing on rocks or beach. The town comprises seven of the 17 miles of coastline in the state of New Hampshire. And four of the nine Isles of Shoals, six miles off the coast of Rye Harbor, are technically part of the town. (That includes Star, Lunging, White and Seavey islands and the state’s only offshore lighthouse.)

Yet Rye has always been both a fishing and a farming town. The 190-acre Rye town forest has been set aside to preserve a surviving piece of the town’s shrinking undeveloped land. This is a very woodsy trail that has ample parking at the downtown entrance directly across from the junior high school. Hikers can park down a long dirt road behind Paron’s Field. The large field is used in a number of annual events that include an antique car show, a bike race, horse show and even a Fourth of July frog jumping contest. You can also access the trail from the back of the town cemetery or off Locke Road.

Rye, like New Castle, includes some of the most expensive real estate in NH, but you can take a walk in the woods for free. The trail head is near a large rock at the back of the field. There are miles of trails and a map is available from the town offices. The ground is rocky and prone to muddy spots, so wear hiking shoes, especially when the leaves are down and can disguise the terrain below. The trail is marked currently only by yellow paint swatches on the trees, that are easy to miss in a forest filled with yellow leaves. But you are never far from civilization and it there is always the sound of cars in the distance and a path to civilization. The trail ends (or starts) at the Rye Recreation area that includes even more parking, a soccer field and administration building.

On our Sunday visit we bumped into a pack of dog walkers and half a dozen horse riders. The trails are posted against hunters and quite rustic with no special features or interpretation. It is, literally, a walk in the forest, just a short hop from an historic town and a number of local beaches.

All photos (c) copyright 2005 SeacoastNH.com