Pack Monadnock And North Pack Monadnock

[DayTrip]

Forced to stay "local" this weekend again so was thinking of doing North section of Wapack Trail and the Pack Monadnock/North Monadnock segment Sunday morning. Given the time of year I was curious on a few things:

1) Wapack Map shows parking in several spots. Only lot I can see on satellite is Miller State Park, which looks like significant trail head. Does this lot, or any of the other satellite lots get plowed? Not sure how much, if any, snow they have at the moment so was curious about access or if any of the smaller satellite lots might be too muddy if unpaved, etc.

2) Is there a particular order of trails that is more desirable from a route perspective (amount of views, unique features,etc)? Can't decide if I should start at Northern terminus and hike South or park at one of the various trailheads near 101 and go North? Are the Raymond or Marion Davis trails more interesting to take versus Wapack or is a simple out and back the best - in either direction?

If anyone has any opinions on this it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Ken MacGray]

The Miller SP lot isn't always reliably plowed, but it's very well used and very popular in winter so you shouldn't have any problems getting in there.

I like Wapack for ascent of Pack and Marion Davis for descent. Wapack starts right out with some steep and rocky scrambling. MD is more gradual with a few steeper sections. The ridge walk between the two peaks is nice and don't miss Cliff Walk, it's the best spot on North Pack. Raymond Trail is also a nice route, but I am unsure if that lot is plowed.

For an excellent loop over just North Pack, I usually do Ted's Trail to Cliff Walk to the summit, back down Cliff Walk to Carolyn's Trail back to Ted's. Lots of open ledge walking in the upper section of this route. The only downside is that the parking area for Ted's / Carolyn's Trail is tiny and not plowed. You could park at the northern Wapack lot (usually plowed) and walk the road to the trailhead, but it's a bit of a hike.

 

[DayTrip]

Excellent. Thanks for the quick post.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I agree mainly with Dingo. My personal favorite way to do them from Miller State Park is up Wapack, Up Cliff, around to North, and down Wapack back to South and down Marion Davis. I wouldn't count on parking at Raymond but you will likely get into either the North Pack lot or Miller State Park lot (or at Temple across the street)...

Tim

 

[RollingRock]

What a coincidence that you bring this up! Five us started from Miller State Park and used the Wapack Trail for the ascent up to Pack Monadnock with snowshoes. From there, we broke the trail all the way to North Pack Monadnock.

The Miller State Park lot was definitely plowed and can hold quite a few cars. Cliff Trail was not broken and given how much hard work it is to break over a foot of snow, we passed. We retraced our steps and hiked down the the well packed Toll Road.

Here is our trip report with pictures.

 

[DayTrip]

Wow there was a lot more snow than I was expecting. Was debating if I should even bother bringing my snowshoes. Unfortunately I woke up fairly sick Sunday and had to scrap the day anyway. Definitely going to hit this section soon. Pictures make it look pretty nice.