Dorset Peak (3,770 ft) 11-27-15

Distance: 7.48 mi.
Elevation: 2,273 ft (overall) 2,568 ft (total)
Time: 2:19 (Dorset Peak) 2:35 (South Peak) 3:52 (Total)
Trails: Woods Roads, Snowmobile Trails, Herd Path

Dorset Peak has no official hiking trail to the summit, but luckily does have old woods roads and snowmobile trails that can lead you over the summit. I started off by trying to drive up Tower Road past the last house and driveway. Being in my Corolla, I didn't venture too far up before I found a place I could park on the side out of the way of any hunters or other people with a more proper vehicle. I should have just parked at a nice spot on the side just after the last house. While I didn't want to take my car any further up, the walking on the road was very easy. A slight incline with solid footing. Eventually you do reach a section of road that has washed out in the past. Some of the trail reports I found mentioned a herd path going around this, but it has been fixed up enough that equipment or a jeep could probably drive up it again. Being dry, I just walked up this section of road. There is one small brook to cross on this road, but it was easy to hop over using a couple rocks. This brook was just before the old hunting cabin many other hikers mention in their reports. At the crossing I thought I could see some debris that would be around the cabin, but it turned out to be the cabin. It appears that the cabin has fallen over to one side.

Washed out section of road

The hunting cabin has now fallen over

After the remains of the cabin, the climb really starts. It's still on an old woods road, but it gets steeper. There are a number of nice water bars in the road, but I found out that some of them were almost knee deep with fallen leaves on the back side. This made for some unsure footing as you couldn't really tell how far down you needed to step. The road continued in this manor until shortly before the height of land. It levels out a bit before the intersection and starts to get narrower. It's still very easy to follow though.

The climb to the height of land

Turn right at the "T" intersection here (marked by cairn)

At the "T" intersection at the height of land, there are two cairns to help you know you need to turn to the right. This route heads uphill from the intersection (the other direction heads downhill) at a more gentle incline. After about 1/4 mile, there is an ATV/snowmobile trail that heads uphill to the right. There is also a small cairn marking this turn. I headed up this trail, even though some trip reports indicate you can also go straight here.

Head right up to the ridge here

This trail starts off steep, but gets you closer to the ridge quickly. As it levels out some, you pass the herd path to the south peak and the old tower. This is also clearly marked with a cairn. Wanting to hit the main summit first, I skipped the herd path. Soon I was at the well know door knob junction. To the right is the tower, straight was a trail I didn't explore, and left is the route leading to the summit and then the north peak. The door knobs are on a tree here at the intersection on the left.

The doorknobs

I headed to the main summit following a bit narrower trail now. The grade was gentle though as there isn't anything steep left to climb. The trail did have some mud on it, but it was mostly frozen over and firm. You could easily go around it too. Along the ridge is another intersection with a couple signs and a cairn. You'll want to head straight through this. In 2/10 of a mile (according to a sign here), you'll be at the summit. The canister is on a tree right in the trail, and the old cabin remains are right next to the trail. This makes it easier to know you have reached the right spot.

Dorset Summit

Miles the Mountain Monkey on the old cabin remains

After some time at the summit, I headed back to the door knob junction. I went straight through it up to the south peak. It was a short and easy hike to tower from the junction. There isn't much to see here other than the remains of the tower. It isn't very tall, but easily would have seen over the trees. The ATV trail seems to loop around the tower and turn back here, not continuing any further. As you enter the open area though, there is a herd path leading downhill to your right.

South Peak

After a quick break at the tower, I headed down the herd path. It was easy to follow and it is easy to get around the two blow downs along it. About the time I was wondering if it wasn't any quicker to actually take this path down, I popped out onto the ATV trail at the cairn. The herd path was a short steep decent that did end up saving a bit of time.

The bottom of the herd path

From the herd path down, it was easy hiking. I was actually surprised when I got back to the "T" intersection and found a couple hikers there. I didn't expect to see anyone at all today. I was even more surprised when the rest of their group showed up. We all chatted briefly as I reassured them of how to get to the summit since I had just come from there. All the way back to the car though, I didn't see anyone else.

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE

Mt. Monadnock (3,165 ft) 11-8-15

Distance: 6.18 mi.
Elevation: 1,719 ft (overall) 2,497 ft (total)
Time: 1:25 (Monte Rosa) 2:06 (Summit) 2:55 (Bald Rock) 4:04 (total)
Trails: Halfway House Trail, Cart Path, Old Toll Road, White Arrow, Fairy Spring Trail, Smith Bypass Trail, Smith Summit Trail, Amphitheatre Trail, Smith Connecting Link, Hedgehog Trail, Sidefoot Trail, Point Surprise Trail, Cliff Walk Trail, Parker Trail, Old Toll Road

I headed up the Halfway House Trail today as I would much rather walk in the woods than up a boring dirt road. I've done this trail many times, but I still enjoy it. It goes through a few different stages as you climb with the terrain and trees changing multiple times. When I came up to one of my favorite spots on the trail I was surprised and bummed out. My favorite tree on the mountain had blown over earlier this year. The tree had 4 holes in the trunk that allowed you to look straight through from multiple directions. Despite this, the tree was large and still standing for many years. Unfortunately though, it's time had finally come earlier this year. You can tell it was starting to get pretty rotten on the inside now that it was down and broken apart.

The broken tree

After some pictures of the damage, I continued up the trail to the intersection with the Cart Path. The Halfway House Trail is currently closed above this spot due to some bad erosion that has occurred over the years. It's planned to be fixed, but the amount of work currently going on coupled with the amount needed to fix this trail mean it will still be some time before it is opened again. I took a right and walked the short distance to the Old Toll Road and then up to the Halfway House Site.

At the start of the Fairy Spring Trail, I was glad to see the park rerouted it back to it's normal layout. In 2013 the start of the trail was changed to coincide with the start of the Monte Rosa Trail so that a new foot bridge there could be used. The trails are very close together and it didn't make sense to build two bridges over the same brook so close to each other. This change wasn't as well liked as some and many still used the old start of the trail. Now, there are stepping stone in the brook which make it easy to cross with dry feet.

Fairy Spring Trail

At the top of the Fairy Spring Trail I took the Smith Bypass Trail for something different and then came back to Monte Rosa that way. I then headed to the summit on the Smith Summit Trail, one of my favorite trails on the mountain. At the summit, things were a bit crowded, but that is expected on this mountain most of the year. Many of the other hikers were trying to find spots out of the wind. It was 37 degrees, but the 16 mph average wind speed (21 mph gusts) made for a wind chill of 25 degrees. Most of the other hikers didn't seem prepared for this and were under dressed. I spent some time taking photos, but pretty quickly was on the move again to get away from the crowds.

View from Monte Rosa

Billings Fold

Boston was easy to spot today

At the summit

I descended the Smith Summit Trail again until I reached the Amphitheatre Trail. I head out this way and over the top of the Black Precipice as I headed back up the mountain some. The trail then goes back downhill before crossing the White Arrow Trail. I like the Amphitheatre Trail in large part because of home many sections go over open rock, but still have trees nearby. It also goes past a couple of spots I really enjoy. Once to the Smith Connecting Link, I turned right and headed down to Bald Rock.

Near the Black Precipice

Summit view from Bald Rock

I had planned to hike down the Hedgehog Trail from here. Knowing where it was, I didn't really notice that the paint on the rocks here was missing. I headed down the trail like normal. Nearing the lower half of the trail, I was surprised to see a couple large blow downs across the trail. As I got to the bottom, there was some debris piled at the start of the trail. This is what you normally see when the park wants to keep hikers from going somewhere. I turned around and didn't see the old trail sign in the tree any more. I knew the park was thinking about closing this trail due to how severely it was eroded at the bottom of it. It turns out, they did that just this summer. At the moment, it doesn't look like they will re-open it in the future.

I made my way down to the Halfway House Site quickly and then turned off the main path to take the Point Surprise Trail back up the mountain some. This trail is short and comes out to the Cliffwalk Trail at the viewpoint known as Point Surprise (imagine that). I then started making my way down the Cliff Walk Trail. This trail is always a nice trail and I wanted to check out the rebuilt ladder down near the bottom of it. Some great work was put into rebuilding the ladder as the old one was falling apart. The new one looks like it will last for quite some time. At the bottom of the trail, I headed right onto the Parker Trail for the short distance back to the Old Toll Road. About the only time I use the road is when I use the Parker Trail as well.

The new ladder

My route today wouldn't make much sense to most hikers, but it got me to a few places I wanted to visit today. In the past, I have hiked every trail on the Monadnock map in the upward direction, always starting at the lower end of the trail even for ones that cut across the mountain. I've decided to do this again so I can remap them with my new GPS. This is a great way to get to other parts of the mountain and to come up with some creative routes. With just today's hike, I accomplished going up 6 individual trails. A good start to another round of doing this.

Google Earth representation of the hike

Bread Loaf Mtn. (3,835 ft) & Mt. Wilson (3,745 ft) 10-24-15

Distance: 10.4 mi.
Elevation: 1,915 ft (overall) 3,053 ft (total)
Time: 1:27 (Skyline Lodge) 2:26 (Bread Loaf Mtn.) 3:10 (Mt. Wilson) 5:29 (Total)
Trails: Skylight Pond Trail, Long Trail, Bread Loaf summit spur

Signs at the end of Forest Road 59 make it pretty easy to tell you are going in the right direction to get to this trail head. The road is unpaved, but was in good shape this day. the lot at the trail head has room for around 10 cars, but there is plenty of room on the road for over flow. There was however a warning sign in the lot saying they have been experiencing vehicle break ins and that you shouldn't leave anything of value visible in your car/truck.

The trail starts off very easy with just a gentle incline. It didn't take too long and I was at the first small brook crossing. There was no bridge, but I was able to use rocks to keep my feet dry. There was also a small log I could have used, but the below freezing temps overnight left a layer of ice on that which wasn't on the rocks. A little later is the biggest brook crossing of the day. This one has a nice bridge going over it though.

The only bridge on the route

As the trail starts to climb more steadily up the side of the mountain, it begins a long series of switchbacks. The hillside didn't seem steep enough to require this many low angle inclines, but they did make for easy hiking. The trail never really seemed to get steep except maybe for the occasional small obstacle. There was also only one other brook crossing on the route up, and this was easily stepped over and doesn't look like it ever gets that big.

As I climbed up towards the Long Trail, I kept thinking I was about to be in the sun. This wasn't the case though as it seemed that the location of the sun and contour of the mountain constantly kept the sun just barely blocked. For quite a while the sun was shinning on the trees just above me, but I wasn't quite in it. At the intersection with the Long Trail I headed directly across and made my way down to Skyline Lodge. Here I saw my first signs of ice on the trail, but it was all easily avoided. The lodge is nice and in a great spot. I expected it to be a bit more open between it and the pond, but that wasn't a big detractor. The pond had a thin layer of ice on it, and the thermometer on the lodge said it was still only 32 degrees. It had just gotten that warm when I started my hike, and it seems I was climbing at the same speed as the warm air was this morning.

Skyline Lodge

Skylight Pond

Back at the Long Trail, I headed north. The trail has a few ups and downs in this section, but it was pretty easy going. Eventually you come to the one steep section between the lodge and Bread Loaf Mountain. The trail maintainers have done a real nice job here with stone work and I can only guess how many hours it took them. After the climb up to the ridge, the trail gradually go down just a bit before coming back up. You'll come to a sharp right hand turn in the Long Trail where there is an old sign while headed north letting you know it turns right. Straight ahead though is a spur trail over the summit with blue blazes. There is no sign on this trail, but with the blazes it does seem like an official trail. The trail goes the short distance to the summit, then turns left around it and brings you to a small lookout at the top of a short ledge. There are nice but limited views to the west here. After taking some pictures, I headed back to the summit which is marked with a small cairn next to the high spot.

View west from Bread Loaf Mtn

Heading north on the Long Trail again, it's a steady decent down Bread Loaf Mountain until the Emily Proctor Shelter and Trail. The shelter is simple, but nice and the Long Trail continues past it on the right hand side. If not for the sign and arrow, you wouldn't really know. You'll pass the path for the bathroom on your left and the tent area on your right. From here it was a pretty steady climb up to the summit of Mt. Wilson. This summit also has a small stone cairn on the (right) side of the trail. There wasn't much here to look at though, other than trees. After a break, snack, and pictures, I got out my portable weather meter and checked the conditions. The wind was only blowing 5 mph down here in the trees and the temperature was still only hovering around 32 degrees. For warmer temperatures than that predicted, it sure wasn't warming up fast.

Emily Proctor Shelter

Mt. Wilson summit

I had read some trip reports that said there were some views from Mt. Wilson at some ledges near the ridge. I looked as I hiked back, but only found a couple limited views, even with venturing off trail some. Maybe they were further up the trail or just exaggerated a bit. I made good time down to the shelter where a group of hikers were taking a break. I quickly said "hi" and continued on my way. The damp rocks on the climb back up Bread Loaf Mountain weren't as slick as when coming down it seemed, and before I knew it I was back at the sharp turn in the trail.

From here it was smooth sailing. The hike back to the Skylight Pond Trail passed quick and it was finally starting to warm up some even as it was getting a bit more cloudy. I had already forgotten how many PUDs there were before the intersection and the last bit seemed to take a bit longer than I expected.

The switchbacks on the Skylight Pond Trail made for an easy descent as well. I saw a few others hiking up as I worked my way down. The sun was finally out a bit on this trail, and that made it that much nicer. Dropping down into the hardwoods, a layer of leaves also started to develop on the trail. I was cruising along nicely near the end of the trail when I came around a corner onto a straight section only to see a black bear standing in the trail up ahead of me about 75 feet. I stopped to watch and see what it did. Pretty quickly it made a bit of a bound off of the trail and crashed through some vegetation off into the woods. Initially I thought the bear was easily over 300 lbs, but the more I thought about it later, the more adjusted my estimate to around 300-350 lbs, probably on the lower end of that range.

I suspected based on size this bear was male, but I still waited to see if any young ones were trailing behind. After a short wait and not seeing anything else, I started walking slowly down the trail again looking for it in the trees in case it didn't go very far. I didn't see it again, but you'd be surprised how many dark objects off in the trees get your attention after seeing a bear on the trail. Soon I was at the bridge and then back to my car. All in all this was a pretty nice hike with a good bear sighting thrown in. I was surprised at the pace I was able to keep during this hike, but the terrain was good for it.

Descending the Skylight Pond Trail

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE