Does this trail really exist? (for Mt Monadnock experts)

[Technetium]

I came across this map on alltrails today, when I noticed it features some short trails in what I had thought was the trail-less northern bowl area. The official map provided by the park shows no trails here. Here is a screen-capture from the map I had looked at on alltrails:

What I am most interested in is that 0.8 trail that comes off of Old Troy Road. I have long speculated that there are nameless waterfalls somewhere around a gorge that the entire northern bowl feeds into. A 0.8 trail that doesn't connect to anything else is strongly suggesting that there is something at the end worth seeing, and this would be right where I had suspected such a waterfall to be.

So I'm wondering if anyone can confirm that these short trails off of Old Troy Road really exist, or if it's more likely that someone just bushwacked these and then uploaded them to the site as trails.

 

[sdways01]

I have a few old maps from back when there were many more short trails (mostly around the halfway house area) and I don't recall seeing this on any of those maps. I've never read anything about a trail over there either. The only waterfall on the mountain I have been to is on the southern side, but that doesn't mean there aren't more of course. I haven't heard of any others either.

 

[nartreb]

UNH has a collection of historic maps. The 1898 map has that stream thoroughly mapped and calls it "mountain brook", but shows no trails other than the "Farmer's trail" (Dublin trail). By 1936 that loop to the east of the stream has appeared, though it's not exactly the same shape:
http://docs.unh.edu/NH/mond36ne.jpg

But I don't ever see the putative waterfall path.

historic map index:
http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/Monadnock.htm

 

[iAmKrzys]

So I'm wondering if anyone can confirm that these short trails off of Old Troy Road really exist, or if it's more likely that someone just bushwacked these and then uploaded them to the site as trails.

The underyling trail data in the map you posted comes from OpenStreetMap.org: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/267261576 The trail was marked on 3/19/14 by user Parcanman who seems to be actively contributing to OSM, so if you open an OSM account you can send this person a message and get first-hand info. Based on recorded changeset log the background map used was USGS Topo, but when I looked at it in the map editor it was a bit hard for me to tell streams from trails apart (I think streams were shown as continuous black lines while trails were possibly marked with black dashed lines - see attached screenshot.)

 

[evilhanz]

The trail with a few branches was shown on maps of Monadnock in the 1920s and 1930s as an extension of an abandoned road off the Old Troy Rd where the Emery farmhouse was located. Mountain Brook was one of the suggested approaches to Monadnock from the north and it was described as trailless up to about 1900. The brook flows through a small gorge with several cascades and a waterfall. The lower section is part of the Weldwood property and it's posted against trespassing. The original path may have been constructed by the Dublin Walking & Riding Club whose clubhouse and stable were just up the road, or possibly by the summer camp that existed at Weldwood for a short time. It's unnamed as far as I know and probably not much more than a herd path today, but I haven't been there myself. VFTTer Andrew has, though. You could send him a PM for more info.

Here it is from a 1925 map: