Mt. Monadnock (3,165 ft) 1-1-19

Distance: 6.42 mi.
Elevation: 1,691 ft (overall) 3,163 ft (total)
Time: 1:40 (Monte Rosa) 2:19 (Summit) 2:50 (Bald Rock) 4:06 (Total)
Trails: Halfway House Trail, Cart Path, Mossy Brook Trail, Great Pasture Trail, Smith Summit Trail, White Dot Trail, Smith Connecting Link, Cliff Walk Trail, Hello Rock Trail, Old Toll Road

Since we weren't going north for New Years this year, it seemed like the perfect chance to check January 1st off the calendar for days of the year hiking Mt. Monadnock. Temps for the day would be a bit above freezing down low and a bit below freezing up high and it was supposed to be windy as well. This meant that the recent snow down low was a bit wet and slushy. Higher up the snow stayed frozen, but water from earlier in the season had turned to ice. In some places, there was lots of ice and traction was definitely needed today. Those I saw without it certainly were struggling on the trails.

I started the hike by going up the Halfway House Trail. At its junction with the Cart Path, I happened to see 3 deer that stayed around until after I passed them while heading out the Cart Path to the Mossy Brook Trail. The brook next to the trail was flowing well and had lots of ice built up on the small cascades in it.

Slushy snow on the Halfway House Trail

One of the three deer

An icy cascade near the Mossy Brook Trail

At the next junction I headed up the Great Pasture Trail on my way to Monte Rosa. Down low this trail as a fair amount of water flowing down it and it was also where I started to encounter the ice. As I neared the top, the force of today's wind started to show up. It was breezing on Monte Rosa and gave a bit of an idea what it would be like higher up.

Ice and water on the Great Pasture Trail

View from Monte Rosa with a storm in the distance on the right

From here I took the Smith Summit Trail to the summit. The trail was pretty icy in places and I was glad to be wearing my MicroSpikes. Above treeline this trail can be a bit hard to follow as the markings white painted circles on the rocks rather than cairns. You'll either need to pay attention as you ascend this way, or have some familiarity with the trail ahead of time. Also once above the trees, today's wind could be felt in force. At the summit the temps were just below freezing and the 29 mph average wind (gusts of 38 mph) made it feel like only 10 degrees. It was also blowing hard enough to make walking around a bit more difficult if you weren't ready for the speeds.

Ice on the Smith Summit Trail

View from the summit with clouds to the east

Boston in the distance

Summit view to the northwest

For the descent I started down the White Dot Trail before heading down the Smith Connecting Link to Bald Rock. This route was a bit busy until turning off the main trail, then I saw almost no one. Again there was ice and some slippery snow conditions, but nothing too bad if you had traction. From Bald Rock I headed down the Cliff Walk Trail until I got to the Hello Rock Trail. Through here there was certainly more ice and also some pooled up water that wasn't completely frozen yet either.

Bald Rock

Miles at Bald Rock

I took the Hello Rock Trail back to the Halfway House Site where I then decided I would descend the Toll Road instead of the trail since I was a few minutes later than planned and I needed to meet someone not too long from now. I quickly made my way down the mountain to the parking lot, where it was nice to see the Jaffrey Police were patrolling through keeping tabs on the cars in the lot as well as how many hikers are still up on the mountain as night time starts to come.

Cliff Walk Trail

Hello Rock Trail

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug

Mt. Monroe (5,372 ft) 12-13-18

Distance: 6.94 mi.
Elevation: 2,860 ft (overall) 3,051 ft (total)
Time: 3:08 (Hut) 3:30 (Monroe) 3:44 (Hut) 5:42 (Total)
Trails: Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail, Monroe Loop

With some time off and the forecast of a bluebird day, I decided it was a good day to try and get in a pre-winter hike of Mt. Monroe. Given the forecast, I wanted something above treeline. I also have not hike the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail before, so I could do some redlining. Adding in the already winter like conditions, and I could check out the hut with with a wall of snow already up against the doors.

Knowing that parking at the cog would cost more, I started the day at the USFS parking lot instead. I was redlining today, so saving $5 and getting to hike the whole trail was the better deal. Even though it was supposed to be warm up high, to start the day it was below 0 at the trail head. Inversion had kept the summit of Mt. Washington warmer than the valley the last couple of days, so it was already 10-15 degrees above up high. I started up the trail with my snowshoes on my pack as well as my spikes. The trail was a bit too narrow and bumpy for snowshoes to be good yet. Spikes could have helped, but weren't really needed.

Crossing Franklin Brook

Before too long and without any difficult sections, I was soon at the junction next to the Ammonoosuc River. From here, spikes would have been helpful, but I still held off on using them. I wasn't in too much of a rush and paying attention to where I put my feet meant I could get by without them. It was nice hiking near the river, and I am sure the trail being so close to it is even better in the summer. There were a few nice views from along this section that provided some good looks up into the ravine as well.

A side hill section of trail along the river

Looking up through the ravine

Once to the Gem Pool, I took my first long break of the day. I could tell just from looking that now the trail was going to get steep. After some time resting and having a snack, I put on my snowshoes. The traction was going to be helpful, but I also wanted the televators to help my legs on the climb. I love having heal lifts on snowshoes and how much better it makes a steep climb. The climb up the Gem Pool was certainly steep, but by keeping a steady pace I wasn't doing too bad. For how little hiking I had done leading up to the end of the year, my legs weren't feeling too bad.

Gem Pool

Higher up in elevation at the cascades, it was interesting seeing how much water was still flowing at such a high elevation. With temps so cold lately and how high up you are, you wouldn't initially think that much water would still be flowing. Above the cascade the trail started to get some drifting of snow in it and the current route deviated from the real trail to take a bit easier and less obstructed route. I didn't see where it actually went back into the trees, but did see where it came out. In the end the trail also came up from the wrong side of the hut as well.

Going up steeply

The cascades

Getting closer to treeline, the trail continued to follow the drainage above the cascades before eventually going to the left more and following a route through the trees that provided fewer obstacles. There was some drifting through here that slowed me down a bit in the steeper sections. Being a Thursday, there hadn't been much recent traffic. Soon the hut started coming into sight and the drifting went away. It was replaced by a very firm layer of snow. I kept on my snowshoes, but spikes would have been fine after the hut.

The Lakes of the Clouds Hut and Mt. Washington

Snow sculpted sign

From the hut you could tell that all the other hikers have been making a straight line approach to the summit. With the snow being so hard, you could go pretty much anywhere lately. With smooth conditions, it didn't take long to get up to the summit. Once I got to the summit, I spent nearly 45 minutes just enjoying the views and taking pictures. It was in the high 20s and the wind was only blowing at about 5mph, a great day to be above treeline.

A straight path up Mt. Monroe

Mt. Washington from the summit

View to the west

View to the south

View to the north

Fun with my crystal ball

More fun with the crystal ball

In the back of my head I was hoping to climb Mt. Washington today as well. But while on the summit I decided against it. I got a later start than I wanted to and took a bit more time getting up to the hut than planned. If I tried for Mt. Washington, I wouldn't be back down until after dark, and I didn't really feel like doing that today. So I decided to take my time and just enjoy the hike a bit more. So I hiked back down to the hut and took some more pictures before going back down into the trees. The decent went smoothly and I kept my snowshoes until until the Gem Pool again. After that I sent back to bare booting it until back at the truck. On the way out I decided to hike the trail out the Cog Railway base station, and then walk the road back to the parking lot. This was I could reline that section of trail as well.

A little bit of snow blocking the doors

Snow encased trees on the way down

In the end the hike went well and the weather was great. It couldn't have gotten much better today. And on a humorous note, I happened to see online that someone I went to grade school with happened to be hiking Mt. Isolation today. After a joking comment made on a photo showing Mt. Monroe where I said I could see myself, it just so happened that the person they were hiking with produced a photo of the summit of Mt. Monroe while I was standing at the top. They were playing with their zoom lens while I happened to be standing at the top. You can't make out much for details, but I can tell that it is the appropriate clothing for what I was wearing and didn't match the only other hiker I saw near the summit.

Me on the summit of Mt. Monroe as seen from Mt. Isolation

For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my Mt. Monroe gallery on SmugMug

Google Earth representation of the hike

Mt. Monadnock (3,165 ft) 10-20-18

Distance: 8.63 mi.
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

Mt. Monadnock (3,165 ft) 9-29-18

Distance: 5.85 mi.
Elevation: 1,598 ft (overall) 1,892 ft (total)
Time: 1:23 (Bald Rock) 2:26 (Summit) 3:38 (Total)
Trails: Halfway House Trail, Sidefoot Trail, Hedgehog Trail, Smith Connecting Link, Red Spot Trail, Pumpelly Trail, Smith Summit Trail, Smith Bypass, Fairy Spring Trail, White Arrow Trail, Toll Road

• After a family function in the middle of the day, I wanted to get in a hike of Mt. Monadnock in the afternoon. I chose to start at the Toll Road trail head today so that I could use the old Hedgehog Trail to get up to Bald Rock
• Like normal, I took the Halfway House Trail instead of the Toll Road. I enjoy walking in the woods much more than up a dirt road, and the trail doesn't really have anything that makes it much more difficult in my opinion
• I enjoyed the walk through the nice woods the trail follows and was up to the Old Halfway Site in what seemed like not much time (for the distance at least)
• After a short break at the Old Halfway House Site, I headed up the Sidefoot Trail which is currently missing its sign. I took this trail for a little ways until I hit the old junction of the now abandoned Hedgehog Trail
• There is no longer a sign for the Hedgehog Trail and the start of it is now made to blend in so people that don't know it won't accidentally take it and end up in the wrong spot
• The trail was abandoned a few years ago, partly due to how eroded the bottom section of it had gotten. There isn't much top soil in this area and the trail was a bit of a low spot, so it was going to be difficult to divert water away from it with waterbars or anything similar
• The middle and upper sections of the trail go through some nice areas though with good smooth footing which makes the trail still enjoyable
• From Bald Rock I headed up the Smith Connecting Link. This trail now officially ends at the White Cross Trail, but I planned to follow the rest of the old route all the way over to the Red Spot Trail. I like all of this trail, but near the end it goes over some nice open areas as well
• Next I went up the upper end of the Red Spot Trail and hung a left onto the Pumpelly Trail to get to the summit
• The summit wasn't too busy for a Sunny Saturday, but it was later in the day than most people would hike here
• For my route down I took the Smith Summit Trail since it doesn't seem as steep as the White Arrow and also avoids the crowds
• I bypassed Monte Rosa today as I was already a bit later than planned. I then went down the Fairy Spring Trail
• From the Old Halfway House Site I did take the road back to the truck rather than the trail. It was nearing sunset and again, I was a bit behind my expected schedule

For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug

Halfway House Trail

Halfway House Site view

On the abandoned Hedgehog Trail

The view from Bald Rock

Looking up to the summit

A fuzzy little friend

On an abandoned section of the Smith Connecting Link

Some foliage coming in on the northern side of the mountain

The view south over Bald Rock

Halfway House Site view just before sunset

Google Earth representation of the hike