It took two visits, but I believe I have fully explored the area’s newest trail system, the Horse Hill Nature Preserve in Merrimack.

I like it a lot, and we all owe thanks to the voters and taxpayers of Merrimack for making it possible.

My only quibble is with the name, but more on that later.

The main access for HHNP is off Amherst Road, between Naticook and Peaslee, and there’s ample parking there. There’s also a parking lot at the Watanic Bowmen’s camp, off Peaslee Road. Judging by the map, it could be a bit hard to find; I’ve only come to it by trail.  There’s also a trailhead off Naticook, but bicycles are discouraged on that trail, the Quarry Trail. I’m not sure why, but that’s how it’s posted.

The volunteers who developed the area also created a Web site, which includes maps. So far, the trailhead kiosk has been well stocked with copies, too. I took a trail map along during my explorations, and found it accurate and helpful. The trails are well marked, and the numeric locators on signposts and map help to clear up any confusion.

Though the main Loop Trail is only about 4.5 miles, there are enough cross trails and sections worth repeating in both directions that I had no trouble keeping myself amused for nearly three hours of riding during my last visit.

There are two small hills, Blodget (423 feet) and Horse (388 feet), and very few tricky technical sections (the toughest, a washed out section of the descriptively named Rocky Trail, is easily bypassed with an adjacent smoother section), but there a few climbs that will get your heart pounding, whether huffing up or bombing down.

The trails are a mix of old cart or logging roads, ATV tracks and newer, single-track. The newer trails are especially fun, as they tend to be more narrow and winding, but watch out for sapling stumps! They’re hidden amongst leaves this time of year, and can turn a tire or bite ankles.

Local ATV and dirt bike riders have long used a power line corridor crossing the area, and that trail continues beyond the conservation land to the east, across Naticook Road and beyond. ATVs and dirt bikes are now prohibited in the Horse Hill area, though tire tracks suggest that some riders either didn’t get the memo, or, more likely, choose to ignore it. In general, the property seems to be well posted, with signs at every boundary or potential point of entry.

My favorite trails are the ones going up and down Blodgett Hill.  The “Blodgett Hill Summit” trail winds through the woods near the Amherst Road entrance, then climbs alongside a stone wall… just steeply enough that it took me a second try to climb it. There are some unmarked trails along that back side of the hill, though none go very far, and it’s all private property.

At the other end of the Summit Trail, two stony, bony wider paths drop from the top and then merge just before intersecting with the main loop trail. Both make for a fun and modestly challenging climb or descent.

The newly cut Ledges Trail is easy to miss, but worth finding. It turns off an older, established trail below the summit of Blodgett Hill, and it’s marked by a cairn along the Loop Trail. It’s a winding, narrow single track with lots of switchbacks, and one short, fairly steep section. It was designed by members of the New England Mountain Bike Association, HHNP committee member Debra Huffman told me.

I missed the turn from the top the first time I tried to ride the Ledges Trail, and followed an older trail; it came out in very nearly the same place, but at that end, it was marked “discontinued,” as are many of the older, existing trails in the area. That older trail passes beyond the bounds of HHNP, over private land, Huffman said.

Trails have been marked “discontinued” either because they go off onto private property (backyards, in some cases), Huffman said, or because they crossed sensitive habitat, such as vernal pools and nesting grounds crucial to turtles and other living things. Huffman says the trail builders took care to consider such creatures, and keep human traffic out of those areas, for which I commend them.

That brings me to my one quibble. The Horse Hill Nature Preserve is not truly conservation land.

Though they bought the land to stop it from being turned into a housing development, townspeople and elected officials have insisted on keeping their options open. The town is still toying with the terrible idea of allowing ATV use, and the development of an “athletic complex” on 24 acres near the Amherst Road entrance, for instance. For that matter, there are no legal barriers to keep generations from paving the whole park, save for the swamp.

Even as is, HHNP is essentially a playground for hikers, skiers, bikers, hunters and horse riders. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I enjoy that sort of thing myself. If we really want to preserve and protect flora and fauna, however, we have to be willing to leave them largely alone. The more lightly we tread out in the wild, the longer all that draws us there will last.