dr_wu002
Well-known member
JF and I wanted to get down with a hike on Wednesday.... something close for a change considerin' it was just a vacation day. He'd never done Monadnock before and it's a good peak for goin' up because it's steep and nice and a great workout when you go up multiple times.
We met at 7am or so in the parking lot, paid the ranger dude and headed up....
up: White Dot
down: Marlboro
up: Marlboro
down: Pumpelly / Cascade / White Dot
up: White Cross
down: White Arrow
up: Fairy Trail / Smith Summit
down: White Dot
Beautiful, dry, sunny day. Actually, it got warm enough that I had to stop a few times going up White Cross because I was baking in the sun. On our first summit landing, about 45 minutes of hiking, there were 2 girls, one had moved back from Washington or something.... we chatted with them for a bit. If UFC was with us we'd have had more trouble gettin' outta there but we did....
2nd time up there was a few more people at the top but by no means was it a circus type atmosphere at all... some people up there that looked like they go up Monadnock quite a bit... this was about 10:30am by now. We went down the Pumpelly Trail and the Cascade Link which are two incredible trails both the nice open ridge walk views of the Pumpelly and the beautiful woods of the Cascade Link. I'm not like a wicked woods kinda dude but when they're pretty it really makes the hike even more worth it. One of the things that JF and I both noticed on the hike was how the treeline stuff was pretty freakin' awesome -- obviously Monadnock is known for this -- but also the below treeline woods on every trail is pretty awesome too.
After the 2nd ascent we were both surprisingly running low on liquids -- I had gone through about 2 liters by now! So we went back to the cars, popped a few beers (Snapperhead IPA -- great IPA in a can) and chowed on some home cookin' (well, I did -- spicy habanero mac n' cheese I made the night before) and just chilled -- pretty cool to stop at the car mid-hike. We figured 2 more ascents would be good because JF wanted to get home around when Gillian got home from work (Jess is away so didn't matter to me).
Going up the White Dot trail was sweet but F'n hot, lemme tell you. Then we went down the White Cross trail which I've never been on and that was fun until we got to the old Half Way House area which smelled like a toilet (hello, is Gary there?) and then took that Fairy Trail (figured we could meet some hot chicks on that trail but there were none) and avoided the Monte Rosa Trail (figured there'd be some big, Italian doods there lookin' to 'party') and on to the Monte Rosa summit which was a cool wind thing on it and great views to the Monadnock summit
We were in great shape gettin' back to the Monadnock -- I could easily have gone 1 or 2 more times on such a nice day. Quads were hurting a teensy bit from all that steep crap but otherwise, felt awesome. By the time we got up the 4th time we noticed the clientele had changed. Lots of dudes with jeans, no shirts and just a water bottle. Or a dude with a huge pack and lots of clothes. Or some college age kids lookin' totally clueless -- you don't see as much of this in the Whites! JF and I agreed that in the Whites you get more of the weenies that stroke out that you're doin' a Pemi Loop with a tiny pack or you don't have a big enough first aid kit or whatever. On Monadnock, it's like a free-for-all of stuff. I was almost surprised I didn't see at least one dude carrying an ice axe and full mountaineering suit.
Anyway, pretty soon we cruised to the cars... had a few more beers and lounged around because it was still early and we didn't have a wicked long car ride home. Just chillin' after a great hike on a nearly perfect day.
Monadnock is totally worth it for a variety of reasons, especially if you have a day and don't want to do a ton of driving but want some short, steep trails that are incredibly beautiful to boot. Sorry, I didn't take a single picture all day and I don't even think JF had his camera with him. You don't want to see pictures of us hiking naked anyway.
-Dr. Wu
We met at 7am or so in the parking lot, paid the ranger dude and headed up....
up: White Dot
down: Marlboro
up: Marlboro
down: Pumpelly / Cascade / White Dot
up: White Cross
down: White Arrow
up: Fairy Trail / Smith Summit
down: White Dot
Beautiful, dry, sunny day. Actually, it got warm enough that I had to stop a few times going up White Cross because I was baking in the sun. On our first summit landing, about 45 minutes of hiking, there were 2 girls, one had moved back from Washington or something.... we chatted with them for a bit. If UFC was with us we'd have had more trouble gettin' outta there but we did....
2nd time up there was a few more people at the top but by no means was it a circus type atmosphere at all... some people up there that looked like they go up Monadnock quite a bit... this was about 10:30am by now. We went down the Pumpelly Trail and the Cascade Link which are two incredible trails both the nice open ridge walk views of the Pumpelly and the beautiful woods of the Cascade Link. I'm not like a wicked woods kinda dude but when they're pretty it really makes the hike even more worth it. One of the things that JF and I both noticed on the hike was how the treeline stuff was pretty freakin' awesome -- obviously Monadnock is known for this -- but also the below treeline woods on every trail is pretty awesome too.
After the 2nd ascent we were both surprisingly running low on liquids -- I had gone through about 2 liters by now! So we went back to the cars, popped a few beers (Snapperhead IPA -- great IPA in a can) and chowed on some home cookin' (well, I did -- spicy habanero mac n' cheese I made the night before) and just chilled -- pretty cool to stop at the car mid-hike. We figured 2 more ascents would be good because JF wanted to get home around when Gillian got home from work (Jess is away so didn't matter to me).
Going up the White Dot trail was sweet but F'n hot, lemme tell you. Then we went down the White Cross trail which I've never been on and that was fun until we got to the old Half Way House area which smelled like a toilet (hello, is Gary there?) and then took that Fairy Trail (figured we could meet some hot chicks on that trail but there were none) and avoided the Monte Rosa Trail (figured there'd be some big, Italian doods there lookin' to 'party') and on to the Monte Rosa summit which was a cool wind thing on it and great views to the Monadnock summit
We were in great shape gettin' back to the Monadnock -- I could easily have gone 1 or 2 more times on such a nice day. Quads were hurting a teensy bit from all that steep crap but otherwise, felt awesome. By the time we got up the 4th time we noticed the clientele had changed. Lots of dudes with jeans, no shirts and just a water bottle. Or a dude with a huge pack and lots of clothes. Or some college age kids lookin' totally clueless -- you don't see as much of this in the Whites! JF and I agreed that in the Whites you get more of the weenies that stroke out that you're doin' a Pemi Loop with a tiny pack or you don't have a big enough first aid kit or whatever. On Monadnock, it's like a free-for-all of stuff. I was almost surprised I didn't see at least one dude carrying an ice axe and full mountaineering suit.
Anyway, pretty soon we cruised to the cars... had a few more beers and lounged around because it was still early and we didn't have a wicked long car ride home. Just chillin' after a great hike on a nearly perfect day.
Monadnock is totally worth it for a variety of reasons, especially if you have a day and don't want to do a ton of driving but want some short, steep trails that are incredibly beautiful to boot. Sorry, I didn't take a single picture all day and I don't even think JF had his camera with him. You don't want to see pictures of us hiking naked anyway.
-Dr. Wu
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