Double Bow
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- Apr 29, 2005
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Since we had plans to go to a party in the evening but wanted to get in a decent hike beforehand, Jamie (jmegillon149) and I decided that Monadnock via Pumpelly would fit the bill. Neither of us had done this trail before and it had been many years since I had last done it. The book described it as being the longest, most strenuous, most scenic route, so we just had to check it out!
The drive out was good though we had a little bit of trouble finding the trailhead. Once there, we started out on a dry trail that soon intermingled with stretches of ice and rock. At one point, we stopped to put on crampons and these two guys passed, one of which was holding a HUGE plastic bag filled with popcorn (see pics)!
We continued on, passing over some areas of exposed rock ridge which were free of ice and snow. Later, the clip that hold the sizing of my right crampon broke. I had nothing to repair it with so, I continued with bare boots. Aside from a couple of times on the way back when I slipped and fell, it wasn't too bad. A little later, Jamie took his crampons off as well since we were in areas of lots of rock. These frequent rocky sections gave us plenty of views and we were able to identify many peaks to our north and in Vermont.
At the summit, we met a woman who told us about the people who had gotten lost up there the day before. She also told us that she wasn't much of a hiker. We sort of got that impression by her attire (black jeans, crocheted vest) and the fact that she was drinking a can of Bud and was smoking a cigarette. Gotta love it! There were more people up there than I would have thought there'd be at this time of year.
The way back down was also enjoyable but we learned that you really need to be careful when heading down the Pumpelly trail from the summit. It can be hard to find. It took us a little wandering around to hit it right. Down near the bottom, we must have found an old route of the trail because we somehow came out around the corner from where we started. The trailhead he came out on was no more than .2mi from the one we started on but, it was odd.
Overall, it was a beautiful day on a great trail with great views. The crowd on the summit was less than in will be in the coming months and my memories of the mountain were refreshed.
Here are some pics.
The drive out was good though we had a little bit of trouble finding the trailhead. Once there, we started out on a dry trail that soon intermingled with stretches of ice and rock. At one point, we stopped to put on crampons and these two guys passed, one of which was holding a HUGE plastic bag filled with popcorn (see pics)!
We continued on, passing over some areas of exposed rock ridge which were free of ice and snow. Later, the clip that hold the sizing of my right crampon broke. I had nothing to repair it with so, I continued with bare boots. Aside from a couple of times on the way back when I slipped and fell, it wasn't too bad. A little later, Jamie took his crampons off as well since we were in areas of lots of rock. These frequent rocky sections gave us plenty of views and we were able to identify many peaks to our north and in Vermont.
At the summit, we met a woman who told us about the people who had gotten lost up there the day before. She also told us that she wasn't much of a hiker. We sort of got that impression by her attire (black jeans, crocheted vest) and the fact that she was drinking a can of Bud and was smoking a cigarette. Gotta love it! There were more people up there than I would have thought there'd be at this time of year.
The way back down was also enjoyable but we learned that you really need to be careful when heading down the Pumpelly trail from the summit. It can be hard to find. It took us a little wandering around to hit it right. Down near the bottom, we must have found an old route of the trail because we somehow came out around the corner from where we started. The trailhead he came out on was no more than .2mi from the one we started on but, it was odd.
Overall, it was a beautiful day on a great trail with great views. The crowd on the summit was less than in will be in the coming months and my memories of the mountain were refreshed.
Here are some pics.
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