rocksnrolls
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On her first day of section hiking the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway, cantdog was nice enough to allow me to join her and Dugan on this beautiful winter day. 
Meeting at the southern intersection of Rts 9 and 123, we quickly convoyed over to the easily found Rt 9 TH. We left two cars there and took the third down to the Old Troy Rd TH to start our day. Instead of heading up the Dublin Tr to Monadnock, we headed northbound. I believe cantdog had done the Dublin before, and Dugan and I will get back to it later. I'm thinking I'll wait until I've done the rest of the M-M and the rest of the Monadnock trails so I can finish all three goals at one time
Starting with a roadwalk west on Old Troy Rd gave us a taste for what the day would be like - lots of roadwalking intersperced with walks in the woods. There's a few small hills along these two sections, but not alot of elevation gain was to be had. There was just a little more than a dusting of snow in the woodsy areas, and some icy spots to look out for, but we pretty much barebooted it all day. The single exception was heading down into Eliza Adams Gorge where I opted to put on my yaktrax for a little more security. It was very icy where the trail does a little switchback approaching the bridge near the dam.
Unknown to me, cantdog and Dugan had headed over to check out the dam while I was concentrating on dealing with the ice and we ended up getting seperated for a short time. As I approached Brown Rd, thinking they were just a little ahead of me, I realized the tracks in the snow I was following weren't those of my companions, so I turned back around and soon found them looking for me.
We saw some ice fishermen out on Chesham Pond and Silver Lake. With the winds coming off the ice, I can't imagine I would have wanted to be sitting out there myself (I'm not into fishing at all, but ice fishing is really an alien concept to me). The frozen spillway off of Childs Bog was impressive. It was nice having so many bodies of water to check out in one small section.
We stopped for a snack on the hill just beyond Nelson Rd and Dugan shared with us her home-made goodies of the day - what did you call it Dugan? Upside down apple gingerbread? Yummy - and I don't usually like gingerbread! But the added apples and spices made it extra tasty.
Soon after our break we ended up on our last and longest roadwalk of the day. What a drag - I don't enjoy roadwalks. I want to be in the woods! At least there wasn't alot of traffic to worry about. We passed through "Nelson Village" where I had hoped there would be a country store or someplace to grab a hot drink or something, but to no avail. Just a church and some houses. We headed up the gravel/dirt Log Cabin Rd for the last couple miles and I was kind of dragging. cantdog and Dugan are both much stronger hikers than I and we hadn't made nearly as many short rest stops as I am used to. My knee was a little sore and I had a small headache, but I slogged on up the hill best I could. Knowing the cars were close, I didn't worry too much about falling behind and just took my time. There was a big blowdown blocking the road a short distance before the last pond (we had encountered quite a few blowdowns during our woods walks today), easy for us pedestrians, but the truck that headed up there recently had to do a three-point turn and head back down.
Heading down off the last hill I got to see Dugan do a little buttplant on the icy trail, and a short distance later we saw evidence that cantdog had had a small fall herself. Luckily no injuries resulted and I was relieved to make it through without any spills of my own. I'm still a little sore from my fall onto my back on the Tully Tr a couple weeks ago so have been extra careful lately.
The ladies headed off to collect cantdog's car and I started heading home, making a short, unplanned stop at EMS on Rt 123, where I was happy to finally be able to pick up a copy of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail Guide. Why can't I ever find this in the Boston-area stores?
All-in-all, we had a fairly easy day of it, with awesome weather. We saw one other person walking, but they didn't seem to be hiking, probably a local out for some exercise. We saw some deer and moose tracks (and a pile of moose droppings) but not much else in the way of wildlife. I think the next section will be even more enjoyable, there's very little roadwalking on it, and I'm really looking forward to the part through Andorra Forest where we'll be climbing a couple 2ks - Pitcher Mtn and Jackson Hill. The map claims there are some vistas!
Meeting at the southern intersection of Rts 9 and 123, we quickly convoyed over to the easily found Rt 9 TH. We left two cars there and took the third down to the Old Troy Rd TH to start our day. Instead of heading up the Dublin Tr to Monadnock, we headed northbound. I believe cantdog had done the Dublin before, and Dugan and I will get back to it later. I'm thinking I'll wait until I've done the rest of the M-M and the rest of the Monadnock trails so I can finish all three goals at one time
Starting with a roadwalk west on Old Troy Rd gave us a taste for what the day would be like - lots of roadwalking
intersperced with walks in the woods. There's a few small hills along these two sections, but not alot of elevation gain was to be had. There was just a little more than a dusting of snow in the woodsy areas, and some icy spots to look out for, but we pretty much barebooted it all day. The single exception was heading down into Eliza Adams Gorge where I opted to put on my yaktrax for a little more security. It was very icy where the trail does a little switchback approaching the bridge near the dam.Unknown to me, cantdog and Dugan had headed over to check out the dam while I was concentrating on dealing with the ice and we ended up getting seperated for a short time. As I approached Brown Rd, thinking they were just a little ahead of me, I realized the tracks in the snow I was following weren't those of my companions, so I turned back around and soon found them looking for me.
We saw some ice fishermen out on Chesham Pond and Silver Lake. With the winds coming off the ice, I can't imagine I would have wanted to be sitting out there myself (I'm not into fishing at all, but ice fishing is really an alien concept to me). The frozen spillway off of Childs Bog was impressive. It was nice having so many bodies of water to check out in one small section.
We stopped for a snack on the hill just beyond Nelson Rd and Dugan shared with us her home-made goodies of the day - what did you call it Dugan? Upside down apple gingerbread? Yummy - and I don't usually like gingerbread! But the added apples and spices made it extra tasty.
Soon after our break we ended up on our last and longest roadwalk of the day. What a drag - I don't enjoy roadwalks. I want to be in the woods! At least there wasn't alot of traffic to worry about. We passed through "Nelson Village" where I had hoped there would be a country store or someplace to grab a hot drink or something, but to no avail. Just a church and some houses. We headed up the gravel/dirt Log Cabin Rd for the last couple miles and I was kind of dragging. cantdog and Dugan are both much stronger hikers than I and we hadn't made nearly as many short rest stops as I am used to. My knee was a little sore and I had a small headache, but I slogged on up the hill best I could. Knowing the cars were close, I didn't worry too much about falling behind and just took my time. There was a big blowdown blocking the road a short distance before the last pond (we had encountered quite a few blowdowns during our woods walks today), easy for us pedestrians, but the truck that headed up there recently had to do a three-point turn and head back down.
Heading down off the last hill I got to see Dugan do a little buttplant on the icy trail, and a short distance later we saw evidence that cantdog had had a small fall herself. Luckily no injuries resulted and I was relieved to make it through without any spills of my own. I'm still a little sore from my fall onto my back on the Tully Tr a couple weeks ago so have been extra careful lately.
The ladies headed off to collect cantdog's car and I started heading home, making a short, unplanned stop at EMS on Rt 123, where I was happy to finally be able to pick up a copy of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail Guide. Why can't I ever find this in the Boston-area stores?
All-in-all, we had a fairly easy day of it, with awesome weather. We saw one other person walking, but they didn't seem to be hiking, probably a local out for some exercise. We saw some deer and moose tracks (and a pile of moose droppings) but not much else in the way of wildlife. I think the next section will be even more enjoyable, there's very little roadwalking on it, and I'm really looking forward to the part through Andorra Forest where we'll be climbing a couple 2ks - Pitcher Mtn and Jackson Hill. The map claims there are some vistas!
