Today is Fall Fair day at the Educational Farm at Joppa Hill. The fair runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 174 Joppa Hill Road, with live music, animals, tractor rides, artisans and food trucks. If you walk the farm road at the fair, you're walking the last stretch of the old surface. The town expected work crews to start on the trail the following week.
That timing was planned. Bedford has been rescheduling this project around the farm since spring. Each delay came from the farm's calendar, not the contractor's. When the work is done, the loop trail will be one graded, graveled road built for a stroller, a garden wagon and a tractor pulling an animal trailer, and it will continue into Amherst toward Pulpit Rock.
A Trail That Has to Work Around a School Day
Most town trail projects can close a path for a week and call it routine. Joppa Hill is harder because the farm uses it every day.
The town's April 2026 request for proposals spells out the constraints. The farm runs a preschool from September through June, Monday through Friday. The children and teachers spend their whole school day outdoors, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and drop-off and pick-up happen at one of the two access points the contractor would use. The preschool can be kept off the trails during construction, but the drop-off area has to stay clear. A summer day camp starts the week of June 22. The town also asked that farm staff keep access to care for the animals, and it said animals could be moved to other pastures with at least two days' notice. On top of that, the fundraising events "are highly attended and require public access to parking areas, program areas, and trails," and the RFP says trail work can't get in their way.
That left only a few open windows, and the schedule kept moving:
| Date | What the town record shows |
|---|---|
| April 3, 2026 | RFP issued. The town said it preferred segments 1 and 2 be done when neither preschool nor camp was in session. |
| April 28, 2026 | Conservation Commission approved up to $30,675 for Country View Landscaping, the low bidder of five. Town staff said that if June didn't work, the job might wait until August. |
| May 26, 2026 | Staff reported tree cutting was done and trail work was set for August. |
| Sept. 9, 2026 | Town Council heard the work "should have started" and could take up to 10 days. |
| Sept. 22, 2026 | Work pushed one more week to stay clear of the fall festival, with a start expected around Oct. 12. |
The April 3 RFP set a hard deadline: "All work must be completed prior to December 31, 2026." The mid-October start fits that deadline and leaves the fair alone. As of this writing, the most recent public record is the Sept. 22 forecast. We haven't seen a town notice confirming the start date, so treat the week of Oct. 12 as the plan, not a sure thing.
What Closes, and for How Long
The RFP says the town will close the trails while reconstruction is underway. In the Sept. 9 Town Council update, the closure was described as rolling: sections would reopen as work moved along, and the whole job could take up to 10 days. If it starts the week of Oct. 12 as planned, closures could run from mid-October into the second half of the month.
The work covers three segments in Bedford, roughly 1,585 feet in total:
- Segment 1: 510 feet, continuing over the town line into Amherst
- Segment 2: 575 feet
- Segment 3: 500 feet
That's a small share of the network. The Piscataquog Land Conservancy lists more than three miles of trails on the Joppa Hill parcel. The segments being rebuilt are on the farm road and loop trail, though, where the tread varies from 8 to 12 feet wide between shrubs, trees and stone walls.
What the New Surface Is Built to Carry
The RFP says the goal is "a trail surface suitable for strollers and wagons" that can also hold up under "tractors, animal trailers, and pickup trucks." Those two needs pull in different directions. A path smooth enough for a stroller usually isn't tough enough for a loaded trailer, and a farm road built for trucks usually ruts into ridges a toddler can't get a wheel over.
Here's the town's specified approach:
- Grade the trail and add 4 to 12 inches of crushed gravel in mixed sizes to level the surface and help it drain.
- Add drainage features where needed, which may include rock, log or belted water bars, ditches, check dams, berms or drain dips.
- Finish with 4 to 6 inches of compacted gravel or nit-pack.
Tree removal isn't expected beyond branches trimmed for access. That matters because the land is under a conservation easement held by the Piscataquog Land Conservancy, and the town asked bidders to respect its purpose of preserving habitat and scenic views. The RFP describes the whole job as work to "regrade, rebuild, and control runoff," so drainage gets as much attention as the surface.
The Amherst Side Is Part of the Same Path
Segment 1 doesn't end at the town line. The RFP says the Amherst Conservation Commission had already picked its own contractor for the trail work on its side, and that Bedford's segment "must complement improvements planned for Amherst." When the Bedford commission voted in April, town staff said they believed Amherst had chosen the same bidder, "so there would be some consistency in their work on both properties." We couldn't find Amherst's award amount or construction status in the public record.
That shared design is why this is more than a farm upgrade. The red-blazed Joppa Hill Farm Loop leaves the farm and passes fields, forest and a beaver pond. The network connects to the white-blazed Pulpit Rock Trail through Amherst conservation land, and the Pulpit Brook Trail on the Pulpit Rock side leads back to Joppa Hill.
Pulpit Rock Is Next
On the other end of that corridor, Bedford is planning a viewing platform at the base of Pulpit Rock. The town's RFP places it off a spur trail from the Kennard Trail, about 100 feet from the spur, which itself is about 380 feet from the kiosk. The RFP lists an approximate budget of $30,000, close to the Joppa Hill trail authorization, and a completion deadline of Dec. 18, 2026.
The Conservation Commission chose Tulip Trails as its preferred bidder on May 26, and the minutes describe the project as 80% grant-funded. Tulip Trails visited the site on Aug. 21. As of the Sept. 9 Town Council meeting, it was expected to share a design for review and approval "in the coming weeks." We haven't found a public record of an approved design or a final cost yet. For now, the $30,000 budget and the Dec. 18 deadline are targets. Pulpit Rock has its own trailheads with separate parking, at Kennard and at Gage's Mill.
What Stays Open at the Farm
Closing a trail doesn't close the farm. The farm's visitor page says public access is dawn to dusk year-round, with a suggested $5 donation per family. Leashed dogs are welcome, and the farm asks visitors to carry out trash, not feed the animals, wash their hands after the animal area, and keep children from chasing the free-roaming animals. Parking is in the small lot beside the barnyard, across the road, and down the road at the athletic fields. Those spots work for both the farm and the trailhead.
The farm stand is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It sells locally made goods, including the farm's own duck and chicken eggs and bouquets of flowers grown on the farm. The farm relies on more than 100 volunteers, and its volunteer page lists animal-care and egg-collection shifts, farm-stand shifts on evenings and weekends, and garden work through October. Volunteers of any age can apply, and anyone under 18 needs an adult with them. Once the fair is over, the farm's events page doesn't list any confirmed public events for the rest of the fall.
Into Winter on the New Gravel
The rebuilt loop should be ready for the farm's quieter months. In February, the farm invited winter visitors and suggested warm clothes and traction for boots. The conservancy's posted rules for Joppa Hill include cross-country skiing as an allowed use, along with leashed dogs and staying on designated trails. The town requires the Bedford trail work to be finished before Dec. 31, and the Pulpit Rock platform has a Dec. 18 target. If both stay on schedule, this winter will be the first season on the rebuilt farm loop.
If you'd like to know how projects like the Joppa Hill rebuild or the Pulpit Rock platform affect the homes near them, Lawrence Home Group is happy to talk it through. Contact Us anytime, even if it's just a question about which trailhead to use this month.
