Norbrook Farm Brewery Trails

No Creek Nor Brook Will Hold Me Back
Norbrook Farm Brewery Trails, Colebrook & Norfolk
September 2024

Let’s get this out of the way first: I don’t write about mountain bike trails or disc golf courses. This sprawling property features both of those things, intertwined with hiking trails From everything I’ve heard, both of those activities here are excellent. And if the trails I hiked reflect at all on the disc golf or the mountain biking, I’m apt to believe everything I’ve heard. This place is pretty darn great.

A lot of money was put into the brewery as well as the the trail system. The mountain bike paths were built and designed by Pinnacle Trail Design and Construction. The hiking trails were possibly some farm roads in the past, but they are wide, graded where possible, mowed almost entirely, signed, and blazed. I got a kick out of how many arrows pointing the the brewery were deep into the woods.

I imagine some people facing a long hill climb up to the brewery area are not exactly in the best of spirits.

My goal was to hike as much of the 9 or so miles as possible, while being sure to take in the sites of interest. The trail network has been mapped by a couple who make orienteering maps, and the brewery allows you to download different versions – such as one without the spiderweb of mountain bike trails. They are so smart to do that, and I very much appreciate it.

I hit out for the observation tower first. All hiking here requires a walk away from the brewery along the white crushed stone farm road through a maintenance area. It’s just the way it is. But once through there, you have choices. I found myself looping around “Route 66” following a disc golfer who was grunting and sweating and tossing plastic discs through the woods. He and I crossed paths again at the north edge of a massive field as a young man in a mower drove past.

This place maintains is trails and disc golf fairways incredibly well. It’s all rather amazing, since everything here is free to use anytime the sun is up. The retirees who opened Norbrook Farm obviously have a few bucks lying around. Hats off to them for more or less sharing their wealth with the rest of us.

While there are plenty of signs in the woods helping hikers, bikers, and discers alike, a map will certainly come in handy. There are so many trails and so many loop around on themselves, it can get a little confusing.

I climbed up to the observation tower and waited a few minutes for a couple to descend. The steps are rather steep, but the view east is worth it. You can read more about the tower here.

After the tower, I scanned the map and noticed that there’s a “camper’ denoted in the far southeastern portion of the property. “Let’s go there,” I said to myself. My reason was simply, “it’s on the map, it must be interesting… and it requires me to walk all the way to that edge of the property.” Off I went, mostly continuing down “Route 66.” The trail maintainers have position old farm equipment and things at major trail intersections. I suppose that’s interesting to a few people per year.

Barred Owl Tree

The mountain bike singletracks cross the walking paths fairly often, and there are always signs warning walkers of them. I only saw a couple guys walking their bikes up the steeper hills here though. (The trails looked really cool and well made and some were downright scary, as I’ll show in a couple minutes.)

I walked all the way to the bottom of the hill and made my way to “camper.” Here it is:

Camper

I have no idea what I was expecting. But there it is. You can choose to hoof it here or not.

From there I walked north along South Shore Drive. Phelps pond off to my right is more of an overgrown marsh. As such “South Shore” is a bit of a misnamed trail as it is not in the southern portion of the property and there’s no shore to speak of. As I walked, several very steep mountain bike trails came down to South Shore Drive. Man, some of them were a bit nuts to this old man. I was wavering on which trail to take back up the hill.

After passing a few, it was down to Steve’s Way or one without a name that parallels a stream with “Falls.” I chose “Falls.” This trail is very, very steep and just goes straight up. Notably, I saw no waterfall. I saw the potential for a waterfall, but no water was falling. I think Steve’s Way is the better choice. It is also very steep, but my name is Steve and I like the way I do things.

By this point I had grown someone numb to the endless number of biking trails that intersected with my chosen paths. But here, near the top of Steve’s Way, there’s a mountain bike feature that gave me pause.

A sketchy ramp to a rock top to a 4 foot drop to a sharp bermed curve to a skinny bridge. I think I could handle all of that, but the jump was between trees which, if you are only slightly misaligned, will wreck you pretty severely I think.

Jump…

between trees to a boulder to a sizeable drop…

to a sharp curve to a bridge.

I should note that the brewery has a sport UTV on call for injured bikers (or anyone I suppose) to text or call. So that’s nice. Also nice is the fact that there are easier trails here, so you don’t need to be an Xtreme psychopath hopped up on Red Bull to ride the trails here.

The final mile or so of my hike was fairly flat. I walked out to the range. I have no idea what kind of range it was, but I don’t think it’s active anymore. From there, I wound around the western half of the property and even crossed into Norfolk at some point before returning to the maintenance lot and the road back to the brewery.

The range

The always helpful signage

I could make the case that Norbrook is my favorite brewery in the state. I’m sure if I was into disc golf and mountain biking on top of hiking, I’d definitely be making that case. The beer is fine (although admittedly I’ve not had an IPA from them since they first opened. I see they distribute to much of the state and they’ve not only kept the lights on, but they’ve kept up with the trail maintenance for all three activities. It’s hugely impressive.

It doesn’t hurt that this is a beautiful part of the state as well. It is remote and generally unspoiled – although you can see the contentious Colebrook windmills from the brewery. There is really not much out this way other than this place, but it’s worth making the effort… no matter what you plan to do here – responsibly.