Most county highpointers reach it by using the State Line Trail (which follows the former route of the Midstate Trail) to reach the Wapack Trail a bit north of the ATV trail. I went down that way, but went up by the longer, and more scenic, Wapack Trail, and continued beyond the highpoint to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire state line.
The Wapack Trail goes over some open ledges on its way to the summit of Mount Watatic, where I found the USGS marker near the remains of a fire tower. It then descends to the col between it and Nutting Hill, then climbs to its summit.
Mike Schwartz, describing the usual route which approaches Nutting Hill from the north, writes "About 100 feet before the first bare rocks, an unmarked trail cuts left (NNE) and downhill ...". Actually it is about a dozen paces from the last rocks to a very clear ATV road which leads first to a muddy depression and then to a knob which the county line crosses on the map. There is a stone wall which all those who have written reports agree is the county boundary, and while it is pretty flat there is a big tree which probably is the actual highpoint.
I then continued along the Wapack Trail to a stone wall marking the state boundary between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I followed the blue blazed State Line Trail westward along the wall, passing three interesting markers:
- The octagonal granite Borden Survey Monument of 1834. This was erected by Simeon Borden as a control station for the first accurate trigonometrical survey of Massachusetts.
- The granite Ashburnham and Ashby town line marker, dated 1884.
- The granite Midstate Trail terminus marker, dated 1985. The Midstate Trail is a 92 mile hiking trail which extends from Rhode Island crossing the gentle hills of central Massachusetts and eventually connecting to the Wapack Trail in New Hampshire.
At the Midstate Trail terminus marker I turned left and followed the old path of the Midstate Trail (this section is now called the State Line Trail) back to the trailhead. It is much shorter than the Wapack Trail, but about half of it follows a very eroded old woods road.
It is about 2 miles by the Wapack Trail to the ATV road, and a
further 0.4 miles to the state line. The return trip by the State
Line Trail was 1.2 miles for a total of 3.6 miles, which took around
two hours at an easy pace.