Welcome to New Hampshire’s original 30-Hour 100 Mile Race! Ghost Train started in 2009 and is going strong today as a fundraiser for the Brookline and Milford Conservation Commissions. ALL profits go directly back to the trails to preserve them and make them more accessible to the community.
The course follows the Granite Town Rail Trail, a former railroad corridor carved through the woods in the late 1800s. In its working years, this line carried massive granite blocks from Milford quarries and ice harvested from Lake Potanipo in Brookline, bound for towns and cities throughout Massachusetts. Those rails were pulled up and sold for scrap during World War II, but the trail never truly forgot them. Weathered railroad ties still surface from the soil like skeletal remains, marking the path where trains once thundered through fog and frost. Some say the corridor still hums with the memory of steel wheels and steam, especially after darkness descends.
Each October, as the Ghost Train leaves the station, the forest is at its most alive, and its most unsettling. Peak foliage cloaks the trail in fire and gold, daylight fades quickly, and long shadows stretch between the trees. Runners pass through history with every step, moving along a route shaped by industry, labor, and time… and perhaps watched over by whatever still lingers in the woods.
Course Description
What could be better than running New England trails at the height of peak foliage season, when the leaves glow like embers, the air turns cold, and the woods seem to close in around you? Explore the course page on our website for a full course description, a Garmin map for those who want to view the path, and videos captured during Ghost Train weekend, when shadows stretch long across the trail and every footstep feels like it’s being quietly watched.
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