Where: Mt. Monadnock, NH
When: 11/23/2022
With: Solo
While the ground was still bare, I took the opportunity for another test drive of my new trail runners. Today's destination was Mt. Monadnock, and the Marlboro Trail. It climbs from the west, and last year about this time I hiked the other western route, the Dublin Trail. Like the Dublin, access to the Marlboro Trail was via a rough dirt road (Shaker Road), which had a sign posted saying the road was not maintained for winter travel. As I made my way carefully along its bumps and ruts I was thinking it wasn't especially maintained for travel in ANY season, but my ground-hugging Accord made it to the parking area relatively unscathed.
I arrived right at 9AM, sharing the lot with two other vehicles. After a quick pack-up, I hit the trail. Frankly, I packed a bit heavy. I'd hoped I could bring my small day pack, but I wasn't sure of the conditions, so I opted for a bigger bag and filled it with my emergency bag, microspikes, my mountain parka, a headlamp, and 1.5 liters of water. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.
The final bit of gear was a hat I found on the slide on North Tripyramid. I'd brought it home, cleaned it up, and have it in my car's truck. Sort of a straw cowboy hat, but solid. It fit nicely over my "badass" skullcap.
I paused briefly at the trailhead kiosks for a photo to timestamp the start of the hike, then began my walk. As always, the trail was easy at first, winding through a beautiful young forest at the base of the mountain. There was even a stretch of "paved" trail, with flat rocks placed to create a walkway & steps. Patches of a light dusting of snow appeared from time to time, but mostly the trail & woods were dry.
The easy walking ended abruptly at a jumble of rocks that climbed up the slope. For the most part, the climbing continued without any break from that point on. The exceptions were ledges that offered views to the south and west, and of the summit itself.
I got off-trail for a bit as I neared one ledge, but a cairn on the ledge got me back on track. It was the junction with the Marian Trail, which I planned to take for my return. Cairns became more common above that point, as the trees grew shorter and more sparse. Views began to appear to the north as the trail approached the bare summit area. I met another hiker coming down, who asked if I'd seen his orange hat. I told him I had, near the start of the climbing at the bottom. He thanked me, and said it "wasn't too bad" on top. Still, I took a few moments in a sheltered spot to zipper up and add a layer before I hit the exposed summit rocks.
A few more stops brought me to Jim's Junction, which I'd passed on last year's hike. That time, a coating of snow made it difficult to find the route of the trail from the junction to the summit. This time the Marlboro Trail's white markers was visible on the rocks, though sometimes I had trouble spotting the next one to follow. Eventually I did find my way however and soon I was scrambling up the summit rocks.
I shared the peak with three young folks, two women and a man. The guy was at the summit marker, and he moved aside to let me step on it to claim the top. He asked me if I knew "what kind of animal that was", pointing down to a gully where his friends were sheltering from the howling wind (it's ALWAYS windy on Monadnock!). I didn't see any animal at first, but then I spotted it...a red squirrel, who'd apparently figured out that hikers at the summit were a reliable source of food.
I only stayed on top a few minutes, taking pictures and trying to appreciate the view in the cold and wind. It was somewhat hazy, so there were no views of Boston or any far off peaks on the horizon (Mt. Washington, peaks in VT & NY, even Wachusett). When I'd had enough, I found a protected spot of my own and pulled out my map. I planned to take a different route back, and needed to find the beginning of the trail I needed. There's a jumble of trails up there, all heading down, and only rock for placement of markers. To their credit, the NH Parks folks have done a great job with those markings. The beginnings of each trail are clearly marked, and each trail has a distinctive marker (dot, rectangle, etc.) to keep hikers on track. Given the volume of visitors to Monadnock, every little bit helps.
I left my sheltered spot and headed toward where I thought my trail would be, and soon found it. It was the Smith Summit Trail, a new trail for me, or so I thought. As I made my way down its path, sections seemed familiar. I thought I may have come that way on my hike with Andy in 1998, though the route map from the trip shows we weren't on that trail. Perhaps I was wrong when I marked up that map, or maybe all of the rocks up there look the same!
I picked my way carefully down the huge rocks, keeping track of the trail markers as I went. At one spot I encountered a couple with a tiny dog (Jack Russell, I think) on their way up. The dog was wearing a sweater and had to be lifted up some of the rocks. After leaving them, I had my one fall of the hike, when I stepped on a patch of ice and went down. My fault...I'd been careful to step around other patches of ice I'd encountered. After that, the trail dropped into the trees, providing some protection from the wind at last. At a pretty spot in the woods, I stopped to shed and stow a few layers.
A bit further along I came to a junction with the Amphitheatre Trail, where a sign said that trail also led to "the Black Precipice". I was intrigued, but neither my map nor my mapping app showed it so I had no idea how far away it was [It turns out it was just a short way from the junction...oh well]. I decided to continue on toward my next waypoint - Monte Rosa, a small rocky prominence at the junction with the next trail for my descent.
The arrival at Monte Rosa was from below, and involved a short scramble to get to its bare top. When I popped out up there I was surprised to see a large weathervane mounted at the summit. It had the name of the peak, its elevation, and the names of the folks who'd installed (and restored it).
I checked out the weathervane and the views, then backtracked to the Smith Summit Trail and searched for signs of the Great Pasture Trail, my next path. There were no signs (that I could see), and no marks on the rocks, but I spotted a small cairn, and then another. A faint path connected them, and continued to more cairns. A check of my trail app confirmed I was on the right route, soon verified by an old, weathered sign attached to a scraggly tree.
That trail continued along the slope before descending into woods and down into a beautiful mossy glade, ending at a junction of the Marian and Mossy Brook trails. My path was the Marian Trail. When I'd looked at it on maps before the hike I wasn't thrilled to see that it appeared to have a significant climb back to its junction with the Marlboro Trail. It did have a short climb at first, but then leveled off and wound through a pretty woods with occasional views to the west.
I thought perhaps the climbing wasn't as bad as I'd feared, then the climbing began. It was as bad as the map indicated. Okay, maybe it just seemed bad because I'd been hiking for several hours and was looking forward to moving down vs. up. At one point I came to an open ledge that I thought might be the Marlboro Trail junction, but getting up to it involved some tough climbing up rocks along the side. Once up, I found the the junction wasn't there after all. Just more trail.
Fortunately, the trail led fairly quickly to the junction, and from there it was just a matter of retracing my steps back down the Marlboro Trail to my car. I paused at one outlook to shed another layer and admire the view, but mostly I just made my way down the rugged, rocky trail. Finally the base of the climbing portion of the path appeared. The trail grew progressively nicer as it approached the trailhead, finally becoming a smooth, level cart path just before the kiosks.
The drive back out the access road wasn't as bad as I'd feared, and before I knew it I was on pavement and making my way toward home.
The numbers:
- 5.13 miles, about 1900' of climbing
- 2:48 walking time, 3:29 total time
- My 9th time on Monadnock's summit
