THE FRENCH CONNECTION

BOUNDARY POND, NH -- Not far from this remote finger lake-like pond high in the remote Boundary Mountains of New Hampshire, a Lac Megantic, Quebec-based group called the Sentiers frontaliers have completed a new foot trail. It ends at a rest area just 200 yards below the Canadian custums.
The new trail is part of a system that begins at the big gleaming white astronomical observatory on the summit of Mont Megantic at Notre-Dame-des-Bois, Quebec, and runs down to and along the border and then out to Woburn, Quebec and the fine summit of Mont Gosford, north of the northwestern Maine border.
The Cohos Trail and the Sentier Frontaliers trails are now connected at the border creating a system over 230 miles in length. The Canadians have already built tent platforms at two separate sites north of the border to facilitate the three-day march between the border and Mont Megantic.
Immediately after leaving the U.S. Customs Station the route follows along the New Hampshire/Quebec border. Beyond, the big peak which dominates the skyline several miles from the U.S. Customs Station is Mt. Salmon, at 3,364 feet. It is four feet taller than Pittsburg's famous massif, Mt. Magalloway. Mt. Salmon's summit is about 3.5 miles east of the Customs facility. Another few miles further, the mountains give way to tranquil Boundary Pond, with its osprey and beaver clan. Above Boundary Pond stands Mt. D'Urban, poking up just barely to 3,000 feet before falling away toward tiny Rhubarb Pond, tucked up tight into no-man's-land between the borders of New Hampshire, Maine and Quebec.
Most of the way from the saddle where the Customs Station rests to where the new trail reaches down to the border, the trail underfoot is high elevation ridge. It is possible to view remote terrain that is virtually unknown to most people in the East.
To learn more about the Sentier frontaliers, log on to www.sentiersfrontaliers.qc.ca or Canada Trails . Or contact the Sentiers frontaliers Inc., Club de Randonnee, C.P. 23, Lac Megantic, QC G6B 2S5 or call them at 819-583-5515 or 819-583-5496.

Kim Robert Nilsen

The Cohos Trail Association