Stevens Rail Trail and Davisville Project
October 2023 Update: Click here for news of a project to extend the trail from the Hopkinton library to Kearsarge Ave.
The Stevens Rail Trail is open for your enjoyment! Download this map.
This project started in 2018 and opened in October of 2019. Special thanks to:
- The Town of Hopkinton for permission to work on the Stevens Rail Trail section.
- The owners of Knoxland Equipment for permission to cross their property.
- The owners of Nicom Coatings for permission to cross their property.
- NH Forests and Lands for permission to use the edge of the Davisville State Forest.
Funding for this project comes from a combination of individual donations and a Recreational Trails Program grant from the NH Bureau of Trails. Special thanks also to Multi-Weld Services for the trail gates which include sections of rail from this line as the bollards.
The Davisville sections of this project have been an active snowmobile trail for years. But that half mile portion was not suitable for pedestrian and cycling in the summer months. A few photos from 2017 follow.
June 20, 2017 Image of snowmobile trail by Old Warner Rd
June 20, 2017 measuring trail in Davisville.
June 20, 2017 junction of snowmobile trail with Stevens Rail Trail
This project created a smooth trail with a stone dust surface so users of the Stevens Rail Trail have a way to reach Route 103 and destinations like Knoxland Equipment, Cyr Lumber, the Schoolhouse Cafe, Madgetch, the Davisville Flea Market, RR Charlebois and more.
After raising funds and leveraging the funds with a grant from the NH Bureau of Trails work began in early December 2018 with the Davisville section of the trail being staked out and brush cut. Silt fencing was installed where required. Our contractor, Hopkinton Forestry and Land Clearing, boxed out the trail through to the end of the Stevens Rail Trail, organic material was removed and bank run gravel brought in to establish a base. Culverts were installed as specified on the plans. Then the weather shut down work for the winter.
April 2019 image of base material on trail in Davisville.
Where the new trail meets the Stevens Rail Trail there was a significant wet area. Photos from April, May, and June of 2019 show the progress.
Stevens Rail Trail April 3, 2019.
Stevens Rail Trail on May 25, 2019
Stevens Rail Trail showing muck pulled from ditches on June 6, 2019.
Stevens Rail Trail with new base material. June 30, 2019.
Work resumed in June after a wet spring. Ditches along the Stevens Rail Trail in two locations received some long overdue maintenance so the trail surface could dry out. New base material was brought in to crown the center of the trail so it will remain dry.
More material was required in the Davisville section than we had planned for. As a result we had to raise additional funds so we have enough to put a stone dust surface down on the entire 2 miles from Spring St to Old Warner Rd.
Finished Surface!
We are still accepting donations.
We are working to extend this section of trail on both ends. We are partnering with the Town of Hopkinton on a Recreational Trails Program grant application. October 2022 UPDATE! – The Town of Hopkinton was successful in their application for RTP funding to build this section of trail. This should be a 2023 project extending the trail from the Hopkinton Library to Kearsarge Ave.
And we are in the planning stage for extending the trail up the edge of the Davisville State Forest to Route 103.
March 13, 2019 photo of skier getting in a quick run before the snow’s all gone on the new section of trail in Davisville.
Another skier checking out the Davisville section of the Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail