Mt. Monadnock (3,165 ft) 12-31-15

Distance: 5.22 mi.
Elevation: 1,647 ft (overall) 1,920 ft (total)
Time: 2:24 Summit 3:37 Total
Trails: Old Toll Road, Sidefoot Trail, Noble Trail, Cliff Walk Trail, Smith Connecting Link, White Dot Trail, White Arrow Trail, Old Toll Road

Trying to get one more day of the year checked off my Monadnock hiking list, I did an early morning hike for New Years Eve day. I normally go away for the holiday, so this was another hard to hike day of the year. This year though I was able to hike up just after sunrise and be done in time to head north for the long weekend.

There was finally some snow on the ground, but not enough for snowshoes yet. To save time today, I used the Old Toll Road instead of the Halfway House Trail like I normally do. It wasn't plowed yet, but was on the descent. At the Halfway House Site there were some views out past the clouds, but the summit showed to be in the clouds. I put on my Microspikes and headed for the Noble Trail.

Halfway House Site view

No one had been up the Noble Trial yet since it snowed. It hasn't been many days since the snow, but it's not a popular trail in winter anyways. Conditions were pretty good and I made it up just fine. There had been some traffic on the Cliff Walk Trail and Bald Rock had a thin layer of ice on most things. Smith Connecting Link had tracks until the Amphitheater Trail, but nothing above that. It's pretty easy to follow until the open rocks right at the end though and I have been on it many times before. The remainder of the climb to the summit became increasingly icy, but spikes were good enough traction.

Noble Trail

Cliff Walk Trail

Bald Rock

Ice covered rock near the summit

The summit was in the clouds and the wind was blowing around 20 mph. Since there were no views, I didn't stay long. I did have the summit to myself while I was there though. The White Arrow Trail wasn't bad to descend, since it had a bit less ice than the White Dot Trail. The trail markings were mostly covered in snow and ice though, so it was good to be familiar with the route.

At the summit

Miles the Mountain Monkey on the ice covered rocks

The ice bulge a bit below treeline on the White Arrow Trail hasn't really formed yet. Warm temps kept it pretty small so far. There was running water going down over it though which I am sure will add ice quickly. Heading down more, the ice got better, but spikes were certainly still helpful. One pair of hikers didn't appear to have traction and I thought I heard one of them say they hoped there wasn't more ice higher up. Hopefully they made it safely or turned around when things got bad.

The stone steps on the White Arrow Trail

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE

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.

Full moon going behind the clouds

Color to the south before sunrise

Sun coming up near the Boston skyline

Northern view shortly after sunrise

Miles the Mountain Monkey celebrates Christmas too

Fog to the west

The mountain's shadow

Sunrise time lapse from the summit

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