Fumbling Around In The Woods: Mt. Monadnock (3,165 ft) 12-25-15

Distance: 5.66 mi.
Elevation: 1,731 ft (overall) 2,117 ft (total)
Time: 2:42 Summit 3:46 Total
Trails: White Cross Trail, Cascade Link, Pumpelly Trail, White Dot Trail

I have the goal of hiking Mt. Monadnock on every day on the calendar. I always knew Christmas was going to be a hard one to check off though. Luckily, this year it worked out for me to check that one off the list. There was a full moon for the night of the 24th, skies were predicted to be at least partly clear for sunrise, and my daughter is probably one year too young to really understand Christmas and want to open gifts first thing in the morning. Couple that with an abnormally warm December making for snow and ice free conditions, and I had to jump at the chance.

Busy with other things Christmas eve, I only managed about 3 hours of sleep before getting up and heading out to hike. Also wanting to hike each trail up the mountain for a sunrise, I needed a bit earlier start as I planned to take the Cascade Link to the Pumpelly Trail this morning.

The trails were wet from recent rain, but complete free of ice or snow. This made for easy travel. The warm temps made it even easier and I was even able to hike in shorts to the summit (on Christmas morning, that's crazy). It was a bit breezy above treeline, so just a windbreaker was needed.

The effects of the full moon were dulled by thin clouds hanging around and the sunrise was blocked by some clouds. This made things a bit less exciting than I had hoped for, but it was still a pretty cool experience. There were about a dozen of us scattered around the summit area at sunrise, and more people were headed up as I descended. The hike went off well and I was able to check one more tricky to hike day off my list.