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
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