New London Conserved 300 Acres Near Pleasant Lake. The Trail Comes Later.
On June 29, Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust closed on a conservation easement covering the 100-acre Ohler property in New London. With that closing, almost 300 acres of protected land now connect above Pleasant Lake. Red Brook and White Brook both run through it on their way into the lake. Most of the forest is laced with old woods roads.
If you go looking for that 300-acre walk this October, you won't find a trailhead sign, a map, or a marked route. The protected land comes first. The trails that would connect it are still on Ausbon Sargent's "eventual" list. So if you want a fall walk on the Pleasant Lake side of town, your best options are a few marked town trails within a short drive and the lake roads themselves.
Ausbon Sargent's announcement says the Ohler family has owned the land since the mid-1950s. The second generation sold the easement to the trust for $225,000 below appraised value. The project was backed by private donors, the New London Conservation Commission, the Pleasant Lake Protective Association, the Bafflin Foundation, the Fields Pond Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
The trust's Summer 2026 Chatter newsletter explains what the easement does on the ground. It protects the Pleasant Lake watershed, "allows for continued hiking on the existing woods roads," and "will provide for eventual trail connections between Messer Farm and the Two Brook Woods properties." The family still owns the land, and the trust holds the easement. Neither publication includes a trail map, a parking spot, or a starting point. Before you walk the Ohler woods roads, ask Ausbon Sargent how and where to get on them.
The Ohler land is the middle piece. Messer Farm sits on one side: 144 acres of conserved forest and farmland along Little Sunapee Road, with woodland footpaths and the headwaters of White Brook. On Ausbon Sargent's trail directory, Messer Farm and Two Brook Woods have no listed route or distance.
The trail plan isn't new. In 2021, Ausbon Sargent described a 1.5-acre log landing on Morgan Hill Road that would work as trailhead parking for Messer Farm. The trust reported buying the 9.4-acre parcel that includes it that April. Five years later, the New London Conservation Commission discussed the Messer Farm Trail at its January 21, 2026 meeting. Its minutes say zoning amendment changes in 2020 and 2021 led to trails not being established. No public source shows that the Morgan Hill Road landing is open for parking today.
The Ohler easement adds acreage between two properties whose own trail connection has been stuck for years. So it builds on a plan that already had a gap. The conserved block is bigger now, and the hiking route across it still hasn't been built.
Here are the conserved places near Pleasant Lake where you can walk this month with a clear trailhead and a known distance. Under the town's trail guidance, dogs are welcome on many trails if they're kept under control and cleaned up after.
This is the one piece of the new conserved block that's officially open. Ausbon Sargent says the 28-acre property "will be open to the public for low-impact recreation." You can see it from Pleasant Street. It has open fields, stone walls, forest, scenic views, and both brooks. The trust mows the roadside field late in the season every two to three years to keep it as habitat. Past the first bridge, the fields are being left to grow back into young forest. That means you'll see a range of habitat in a short walk, from meadow to brushy regrowth. The trust has said this parcel will one day make it possible to hike or cross-country ski from Morgan Hill Road to Pleasant Street on conserved land. That's the future version of this walk.
Morgan Hill Road is where the planned Messer Farm trailhead would go, and the town already runs marked trails from the end of it. The Kidder Trail starts at the parking area at the end of Morgan Hill Road. The Morgan Hill Trail runs 1.1 miles one way from the end of the road to the Great Brook Trail. The 0.45-mile Morgan Hill Loop links the Kidder and Morgan Hill trails into a 1.0-mile circuit. For now, this is the closest you can get on a marked trail to the conserved woods around Messer Farm.
The Messer Pond Trail runs 0.3 mile from the gate on County Road across town land to the pond. You park along County Road, and there's a picnic table at the water's edge. It's the shortest walk here, and good for a quick sit by the water on a cold afternoon.
If you have more time or want a view, three town trails farther out are worth the drive:
Fall means sharing the woods, and the busier part of the season is about to start. Here are New Hampshire Fish and Game's 2026 deer season dates:
Fish and Game asks hunters, hikers, and everyone else outdoors to wear at least one piece of blaze orange. None of the public pages for the trails above say whether hunting is allowed on that parcel. Under Fish and Game's general guidance, hunters may use unposted private land but need permission on posted land. Read the signs at each trailhead, and wear orange from youth weekend on.
With the conserved woods not yet connected, the obvious walk around Pleasant Lake follows paved roads, and safety on those roads is now a town issue. A Change.org petition for a Pleasant Lake Recreation Loop was created on July 13, 2026. It asks for a professional road-safety review and practical safety measures on Bunker, Wilmot Center, Lakeshore and Pleasant streets. It doesn't call for a specific path or shoulder, and it says signing doesn't endorse any particular measure. When checked in mid-October, it had 60 verified signatures toward a goal of 100. The Pleasant Lake Protective Association says it supports the coalition, but as an independent group it isn't running the effort.
The same concern came up at a Select Board meeting in early September. The first page of the draft minutes gives the date as September 3, and the page headers give it as September 8. According to those draft minutes, Russ Moore, chair of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, pointed to ongoing resident concerns about walking and biking safety on Bunker Road and Lakeshore Drive near the lake. He noted that sidewalks, trails, and bike lanes were a top priority in the 2019 master plan, and he suggested a bicycle and pedestrian master plan in the next planning cycle. The committee's community walk survey drew more than 230 responses before closing at the end of September, and a community forum is planned for this fall. The selectmen chose to wait for the survey results before deciding where the committee's work belongs. The minutes set a plan to share the results with department heads in early October and to release them publicly after that.
So two efforts around the lake are moving at different speeds. The conserved woods still need a trail built through them, while the road loop depends on survey results, a fall forum, and a decision about which town committee takes it on.
The best place to ask is Ausbon Sargent's Annual Meeting on Sunday, October 18, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at Grantham Town Hall, 300 Route 10 South. The trust says all members and friends are welcome, no RSVP is needed, and a social hour follows. That's where you can ask how to reach the Ohler woods roads and when the Messer Farm connection might be built.
Land like Two Brook Woods and the Ohler property shapes what a home near Pleasant Lake feels like to live in, even before a trail goes in. If you're wondering how nearby conserved land and walkability factor into your home's value, Sell With Durell is happy to walk through it with you. Request a free home valuation whenever you're ready.
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