Elevation: 1,649 ft (overall) 2,867 ft (total)
Time: 3:08 (Summit) 5:24 (Total)
Trails: Pumpelly Trail
With afternoon plans and taking the longest trail up Mt. Monadnock, I needed to get an earlier than normal start this morning. So just before 7am this morning I headed out up the Pumpelly Trail. The first 1.5-ish miles is mostly a gentle walk through the woods with not much for elevation changes. I headed through here at a quick pace, but the leaves covering the trail made it so I had to still be careful while hiking faster. After the gentle walk in the woods though, the trail reaches the longest steep climb of the day. Once you start climbing, you have the biggest climb of the day.
Stone stairs at the start of the climbing
At the start of this climb is some nice stone stairs that have been added in the last few years since I have been through here. This climb has gotten pretty eroded and the stairs are welcomed. There are still some sections though that are pretty beat up. You can still make it up the climb without needing to go off trail though, so please try to do so to keep the erosion from getting worse.
Reaching the lower level of the clouds
After the long climb, the trail starts to have some exposed sections out of the trees that would normally provide some nice viewpoints. Today though, as I reached those viewpoints I was also just reaching the lower level of the clouds. I had some limited views at the first one, but then ventured off into the clouds until on the descent.
The trail has a lot of nice viewpoints along it, but it also has lots of small ups and downs along it. Many of these small PUDs (pointless ups and downs) can be rocky and require some scrambling up and down them. It makes for some fun segments of trail if you are in the mood for it.
Rocky Scramble
In the clouds
A trail through the clouds
As I got closer to the summit, the lack of trees made the wind more constant and I could start to tell just how windy it was getting. There are quite a few cairns along this trail where you hike out on the exposed rocks, but with visibility around 100-150 feet today as I got higher, it was certainly helpful to have experience with this trail above treeline. In some spots the trail doesn't quite stay straight and just before the summit there are less cairns because normally you would have a nice view of the top just ahead. This morning it was 42 degrees on the summit while I was there, but the wind averaging 27 mph (gusts to 31 mph) the wind chill made it feel like just 29 degrees. Many others at the summit were not staying long or weren't enjoying the conditions.
Limited views at the summit today
After some time at the summit, I headed back down the same way I came up. This was when I started to see other hikers on the Pumpelly Trail since I was the first one at the trail head this morning. As I got further down, the clouds were starting to get higher and I was down below the bottom of the clouds sooner than expected. As I got closer to the last viewpoints the sun also started to come through the clouds near the mountain. I wasn't directly in the sun and the summit was still just in the clouds. By the time I reached the bottom though the clouds were finally above the summit.
Clouds clearing some on the descent
Sun coming through on the descent
The summit still just in the clouds
Fun scramble on the way down
Easy walking at the end of the hike
Google Earth representation of the hike
For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug
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