rocksnrolls
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2005
- Messages
- 371
- Reaction score
- 47
Seeing as 60% of our group had cancelled out on our trip to Greylock at the last minute, Dugan and I opted to head up to Monadnock for the day. We've been working on doing the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway with cantdog and had done northbound from the Dublin Trail TH to the town of Washington. So we figured this was a good chance to get the Dublin Trail done. Monadnock is a no-dog zone, so Dugan 2-Legs hasn't hiked it much before and since Dugan 4-Legs is still layed up with his injury, it seemed to me to be a good day to wander all over the mountain and do some redlining I've been wanting to do.
So after a hearty breakfast of granola cereal with loads of fruit chunks, we convoyed out to the muddy Dublin TH parking area. I piled my gear into her car and Dugan drove us off to Gilson Pond to start our hike. Heading up the Birchtoft Tr was a nice way to begin the day. It heads up through a nicely wooded area, is well-blazed, and is a gradual-to-moderate climb. We encountered a few other hikers along the way, chatting with one family about Presi Traverses.
Crossing over the Cascade Link we headed up onto the Red Spot Tr. This is another well-blazed trail, but much steeper than the Birchtoft. With alot of rock piles to climb up along the trail, we were glad the ground was quite dry. We stopped at one viewpoint after passing the Old Ski Tr to have a snack and enjoy the views of the Wapack (I'm hoping to do the Wapack Tr this year) off to the east. The weather was pretty awesome so far. A little chilly and cloudy, but the clouds were up high enough that we could still see a long distance, even spotting the Boston skyline.
Approaching the junction with the Pumpelly, we were more exposed to the wind so put on our shell layers. We tagged the cairn at the intersection and headed back down to tackle the Smith Connecting Link. That's another beautiful trail, with lots of exposure and low vegetation poking up through the boulders. We took a short break after reaching Bald Rock to enjoy the amazing views.
It was too cold and windy up there to stay long so we headed down onto the Cliff Walk. This is one of my favorite trails on Monadnock. It's protected from the wind and is steep and rocky. Plus there's many interesting features to explore on or near it. First we checked out the old graphite mine which Dugan scrambled all over looking for interesting mineral outcroppings. Then we explored the Wolf's Den, though neither of us wanted to try to crawl all the way through it. Reaching the Noble Tr, we started exploring the small 'sunflecked paths' left over from the days of the Halfway House. The Noble was the only one that was blazed, but all were fun. The Noble, Do Drop and Thoreau Trails were quite steep in places, but not much that you really had to scramble over. There were a few spots where we were like 'umm, which way is the trail?' but in general the tread was fairly easy to spot and we always ended up coming out by the proper trail sign. We took a short break at Emerson's Seat and a shorter one at Thoreau's Seat, enjoying the diminishing views there (the treetops are growing up into it).
After reaching the west end of Thoreau Tr, we checked the time and seeing we still had many hours of daylight left, continued south onto the Hello Rock Tr. A short distance down this trail we got a good view of the big house that sits at the end of the Old Toll Rd. Man, I'd love to live there! The trail then entered the darkest, densest woods we had seen all day. Quite an abrupt change really, but it didn't take long until we came out to the Cliff Walk again. We scrambled up onto Hello Rock and enjoyed some more views for a while.
Up the Cliff Walk to Pt Surprise, we headed back into the woods and down the Pt Surprise Tr. Before we knew it we were at the Halfway House Site. Seems to me the Pt Surprise Tr has a pretty gentle slope and the two more southern of the small trails are alot less rocky, more like woods trails.
After a short walk up the White Arrow we headed onto the Monte Rosa Tr. I was psyched to finally be heading to this sub-summit of Monadnock. When we hit the top intersection of the Fairy Spring Tr we got a little lost and ended up bushwacking a bit up a boulder pile that almost looked like a trail
. After heading back to the junction we spotted where the MR Tr headed off to the left almost immediately after the junction. The Monte Rosa is fairly steep at times and we had shed layers on the way up, but upon reaching the summit we were blasted by cold winds again. Realizing we would be hiking over exposed rocky areas for the rest of the climb we put our layers back on. I could tell Dugan was tired as she struggled getting one of her jackets on over her head! So we had another snack and I snapped some photos as we got ready for the final assault. By the way, what's the true elevation of Monte Rosa? The weather vane had two different elevations listed
Heading up the Smith Summit Tr we were soon buffetted by the strong winds. Thankfully by then most of the clouds were gone so we had plenty of sunshine to help counteract the cold wind. I love the upper parts of Monadnock, all the bare rock, scrambly areas, tons of views. I can see why it's such a popular mountain . We sat in the small sheltered area near the summit for a while and rested. We had been joking with each other all day and I managed to elicit a spit-take from Dugan after one particularly raunchy one-liner . As we sat there giggling a ranger was wandering around checking on people - I guess it was nearing the time when they shoo people off the summit - but for some reason he never approached us - I wonder why?
OK, now after all this, it was time to finally work on our main goal for the day, the Dublin Tr. Again, lots of exposed rock, scrambly areas, and tons of views. I had never enjoyed the northwest views from this peak so much. We played a few rounds of 'What's That Way Over There' (Dugan was much better than I since I don't know Vermont landmarks too well yet) and continued laughing and joking our way down the mountain. As we headed into the wooded section of the Dublin, the ground was wetter than we had encountered anywhere else that day, and being tired after a long day I had a few near-spills, but only one slightly painful one, so it wasn't too bad. We reached the end of the trail and I signed us into the registry and listed the many trails we had taken to get to that point. Except for maybe some days in the Blue Hills I've never been on so many different trails in one day !
Thanks to Dugan for such a fun day!
So after a hearty breakfast of granola cereal with loads of fruit chunks, we convoyed out to the muddy Dublin TH parking area. I piled my gear into her car and Dugan drove us off to Gilson Pond to start our hike. Heading up the Birchtoft Tr was a nice way to begin the day. It heads up through a nicely wooded area, is well-blazed, and is a gradual-to-moderate climb. We encountered a few other hikers along the way, chatting with one family about Presi Traverses.
Crossing over the Cascade Link we headed up onto the Red Spot Tr. This is another well-blazed trail, but much steeper than the Birchtoft. With alot of rock piles to climb up along the trail, we were glad the ground was quite dry. We stopped at one viewpoint after passing the Old Ski Tr to have a snack and enjoy the views of the Wapack (I'm hoping to do the Wapack Tr this year) off to the east. The weather was pretty awesome so far. A little chilly and cloudy, but the clouds were up high enough that we could still see a long distance, even spotting the Boston skyline.
Approaching the junction with the Pumpelly, we were more exposed to the wind so put on our shell layers. We tagged the cairn at the intersection and headed back down to tackle the Smith Connecting Link. That's another beautiful trail, with lots of exposure and low vegetation poking up through the boulders. We took a short break after reaching Bald Rock to enjoy the amazing views.
It was too cold and windy up there to stay long so we headed down onto the Cliff Walk. This is one of my favorite trails on Monadnock. It's protected from the wind and is steep and rocky. Plus there's many interesting features to explore on or near it. First we checked out the old graphite mine which Dugan scrambled all over looking for interesting mineral outcroppings. Then we explored the Wolf's Den, though neither of us wanted to try to crawl all the way through it. Reaching the Noble Tr, we started exploring the small 'sunflecked paths' left over from the days of the Halfway House. The Noble was the only one that was blazed, but all were fun. The Noble, Do Drop and Thoreau Trails were quite steep in places, but not much that you really had to scramble over. There were a few spots where we were like 'umm, which way is the trail?' but in general the tread was fairly easy to spot and we always ended up coming out by the proper trail sign. We took a short break at Emerson's Seat and a shorter one at Thoreau's Seat, enjoying the diminishing views there (the treetops are growing up into it).
After reaching the west end of Thoreau Tr, we checked the time and seeing we still had many hours of daylight left, continued south onto the Hello Rock Tr. A short distance down this trail we got a good view of the big house that sits at the end of the Old Toll Rd. Man, I'd love to live there! The trail then entered the darkest, densest woods we had seen all day. Quite an abrupt change really, but it didn't take long until we came out to the Cliff Walk again. We scrambled up onto Hello Rock and enjoyed some more views for a while.
Up the Cliff Walk to Pt Surprise, we headed back into the woods and down the Pt Surprise Tr. Before we knew it we were at the Halfway House Site. Seems to me the Pt Surprise Tr has a pretty gentle slope and the two more southern of the small trails are alot less rocky, more like woods trails.
After a short walk up the White Arrow we headed onto the Monte Rosa Tr. I was psyched to finally be heading to this sub-summit of Monadnock. When we hit the top intersection of the Fairy Spring Tr we got a little lost and ended up bushwacking a bit up a boulder pile that almost looked like a trail
. After heading back to the junction we spotted where the MR Tr headed off to the left almost immediately after the junction. The Monte Rosa is fairly steep at times and we had shed layers on the way up, but upon reaching the summit we were blasted by cold winds again. Realizing we would be hiking over exposed rocky areas for the rest of the climb we put our layers back on. I could tell Dugan was tired as she struggled getting one of her jackets on over her head! So we had another snack and I snapped some photos as we got ready for the final assault. By the way, what's the true elevation of Monte Rosa? The weather vane had two different elevations listed Heading up the Smith Summit Tr we were soon buffetted by the strong winds. Thankfully by then most of the clouds were gone so we had plenty of sunshine to help counteract the cold wind. I love the upper parts of Monadnock, all the bare rock, scrambly areas, tons of views. I can see why it's such a popular mountain
. We sat in the small sheltered area near the summit for a while and rested. We had been joking with each other all day and I managed to elicit a spit-take from Dugan after one particularly raunchy one-liner . As we sat there giggling a ranger was wandering around checking on people - I guess it was nearing the time when they shoo people off the summit - but for some reason he never approached us - I wonder why?OK, now after all this, it was time to finally work on our main goal for the day, the Dublin Tr. Again, lots of exposed rock, scrambly areas, and tons of views. I had never enjoyed the northwest views from this peak so much. We played a few rounds of 'What's That Way Over There' (Dugan was much better than I since I don't know Vermont landmarks too well yet) and continued laughing and joking our way down the mountain. As we headed into the wooded section of the Dublin, the ground was wetter than we had encountered anywhere else that day, and being tired after a long day I had a few near-spills, but only one slightly painful one, so it wasn't too bad. We reached the end of the trail and I signed us into the registry and listed the many trails we had taken to get to that point. Except for maybe some days in the Blue Hills I've never been on so many different trails in one day
!Thanks to Dugan for such a fun day!
![Yellowstone National Park [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kGuJ72qjL._SL500_.jpg)
![Grand Teton Day Hikes and National Park Map [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DB0jvRnbL._SL500_.jpg)
