The Reserve is a combination of 303 acres north of the Five Kezar Pond road and 10 acres south of the road (313 total). The 10 acres were bought in 1980 by 12 families on Back Pond and deeded to the Greater Lovell Land Trust (GLLT) in 1998. The 303 acres were acquired by the Greater Lovell Land Trust in 2006, 2010 and 2018 through the generosity of members and friends of the Five Kezar Ponds Watershed Association.

There are two trailheads and four trails on the property.

• “Ron’s Loop” is a 1 mile loop through the western portion of the property.

• The “Mountain Trail” is a 0.83 mile, steadily rising trail to the summit with a view south through the Kezar River valley and west to the Presidentials and White Mountains—an extraordinary vista!

• The “Orange Trail” is a 0.9 mile connector linking the Mountain Trail to Ron’s Loop.

• “Tom’s Path” is a 0.2 miles spur trail off the Mountain Trail, with several vantage points overlooking Middle Pond.

Directions

From Lovell, drive north on Route 5. Turn right on Old Waterford Road, which becomes Five Kezars Road. After 7 miles turn left on Kezars Ridge Drive. (From Melby’s Market in North Waterford, turn onto Five Kezars Rd. directly opposite the store. At almost 2 miles turn right onto Kezars Ridge Drive, the last camp road before the pavement ends.) At 0.6 miles keep right onto 5 Kezar Ponds Road. Look for a GLLT sign on the right. This is the Mountain Trail. There is a second access 0.5 miles farther west on 5 Kezar Ponds Road for Ron’s Loop.

The Property

The Reserve's slopes and plateaus are host to an upland northern hardwood forest. Additional Features include two streams that feed into Back Pond, hemlock groves, and boulders from the last ice age. The Mountain Trail is a 0.83 mile, steadily rising trail to the summit. Once there, you can look south through the Kezar River valley, west to the Presidential and White Mountains and north to Evans Notch and Evergreen Valley. An extraordinary view! The Orange trail connects to Ron’s Loop, and walking the road back to the Mountain Trail trailhead makes for a nice loop.

Features

Ice Age Boulders — The boulders you see on the property are the result of the last ice age, during which time a massive continental ice sheet covered New England, reaching its southernmost extent around 21,000 years ago. As the ice sheet advanced from the north-northwest to the south-southeast, it forcefully eroded enormous quantities of soil and rock. These forces of erosion scoured and deepened the basin in which the Five Kezar ponds are located. In response to a shift to a warmer climate, the ice sheets rapidly melted and receded northward, leaving significant deposits of jumbled soil and rock material in their wake. Torrential flows of glacial meltwater were responsible for depositing the extensive sands and gravels found in the Five Kezar ponds area. Gigantic boulders seen along many areas of the Back Pond Reserve are distinctive in terms of their size and concentration, suggesting that, together, they define a moraine, a term geologists use to describe materials deposited at the margins of the ice sheet.

Species observed to date