The trails criss-crossing Proctor woodlands have names that are legendary to those of us who hike and ski them year after year: Estin, Upper Adder, Oak, Sugar's, Mud Pond, The Cistern...it goes on and on. Wilson's Wonder--cut in the mid '70s by Bob Wilson and a team of ski racers who wanted to ski home from the top of Ragged Mountain--is now generally overgrown. The lower section of it, however, is maintained as part of the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway....a 75-mile necklace of trails linking the peaks of three local mountains. The Greenway is divided into 14 sections, passing through 9 towns: Andover, Danbury, Newbury, New London, Springfield, Sunapee, Sutton, Warner and Wilmot. The part that passes through Proctor goes from the hockey rink and tennis courts over Ragged to New Canada Road in Danbury.

Every other Sunday, the public is invited to join members of the Greenway Corporation--which pulled off the remarkable feat of gaining permission and access for the network about fifteen year ago--for a tour of one of the 14 sections. Today, starting in Danbury, they hiked south over Ragged to Proctor.

Starting at 9:30, sixteen hikers climbed the north face of Ragged to the summit, where they enjoyed lunch out of a local rainstorm in the hut at the top of the ski lift, and continued south. Five hours from Danbury, they emerged--happy and spry--at Proctor.

To learn more about the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway, check out www.srkg.com