The Lincoln Woods trailhead — the Pemigewasset River's East Branch and the gateway to the Pemigewasset Wilderness, once a vast logging operation.
Coming up is the busiest trailhead in all the White Mountains — that's Lincoln Woods — and the broad, clear river tumbling over the stones beside it is the East Branch of the Pemigewasset, the 'Pemi' for short. Walk in a few minutes on that flat path and you cross a long wooden suspension bridge over the river, the gateway to the Pemigewasset Wilderness — forty-five thousand acres with not one road in it. But here is the thing your eyes won't tell you: this peaceful forest was, a century ago, one of the most brutally logged landscapes in America. That flat trail you'd walk in on is an old railroad grade. Boone will tell you about the man who ran it. For now, know that everything green you see is a comeback — a forest that was stripped to bare dirt and rock, and grew back. Keep rolling east; the road begins to climb.