You Are Here: Pitcher Mountain, Hubbard Hill, Jackson Hill via MSG

July 4th! The rains stopped, but it was still very wet. I headed back to the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway to log some more miles. I started at Pitcher Mountain. It's a short, moderate climb from the parking lot to the firetower. Having been here twice before, I didn't go up the tower today, but continued on the Greenway towards Hubbard Hill. I'd read that the stretch between Pitcher and Jackson Hill was some of the more interesting trail on the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway, so I was eager to see what it was all about. The trail was more grown in than I had anticipated and with the rains the past few days, I was instantly soaked. Ironically, hiking actually in the rain all day yesterday, my feet stayed mostly dry. Today they were wet within minutes. Thankfully it wasn't cold, so my wet clothing wasn't a hindrance. This annoyed me a little bit, but I pushed on. Soon I was in the woods on a more traditional trail. Overall, the trail stayed wet for most of the day, there was a lot of standing water and mud, but I was able to avoid most of it. Just had to be careful as the roots and rocks were rather slippery. The trail meanders through the woods for a while, crossing a gravel road and continuing into the woods before actually joining the road and following it for a while. I believe this is a snowmobile corridor in the Winter, but this section is mostly gravel with good footing. I was grateful to have an online map tracker on me as in several places, snowmobile corridors branched off, although the MSG is pretty well blazed with white blazes for the most part. This section of snowmobile trail petered out at a cleared section and the trail continued through a grassy area, which actually kind of reminded me of a beach as there were no trees in the immediate vicinity! The variety of terrain was definitely fun to navigate through. I passed the halfway marker for the MSG, 24 miles to Sunapee and 24 miles to Monadnock! Hubbard Hill was the next summit, which was an open hilltop with some restricted views of the surrounding area. The clouds were low today, so no great vistas. Continuing on, the trail re-entered the woods and descended quite a bit towards Fox Brook. This was the most rugged area of the trail, and the wettest, so I had to take extra care with footing to prevent slipping. I took the short spur to the Fox Brook Campsite, which is a tent platform for thru hikers of the MSG. As I came back down the spur, I encountered the first person of the day. A southbound thru hiker who was in the middle of a 24 mile day. Not the best weekend for a multi-day hike, but we can't pick the weather when planning in advance for an adventure like that unfortunately. We exchanged pleasantries and went off in opposite directions. I had 2 small water crossings after that, in which the water was flowing decently, but the crossing was relatively narrow. Having wet feet already, I just went across really only taking care not to fall. The trail merged again with an old road and moderately started climbing up Jackson Hill. The trail here was wide and the footing was good, just a little steeper. The summit of Jackson Hill was wide open and grassy with some pretty wildflowers. A little more view than Hubbard Hill, but still with low clouds I didn't have a lot to see today. I had a quick snack and headed down the short section to meet up with one of those snowmobile offshoots I had passed earlier. I had decided to take this all the way back to the parking area, rather than backtrack my steps. This would provide a quicker and more straightforward route. These roads do tend to get rather boring after a while, but also allow you to increase the pace. I met a large group heading up Jackson Hill from the other side. Then I re-encountered Mr Thru Hiker as he was coming off Hubbard Hill at the fork where the snowmobile corridor I was coming down merged with the trail for a bit. The remainder of the hike was uneventful and I was back at the car in no time.

Strava Activity