You Are Here: North Pack Monadnock

It was a beautiful albeit somewhat windy day. I chose to go back and finish the small sections I needed around North Pack Monadnock, figuring it would be busy on such a lovely day. Turns out, I barely saw anyone! And there was a trail race happening at the same time. I saw a half dozen runners and 3 hikers! That was my first surprise, arriving at the small parking area on Mountain Road and finding no cars. I started up Ted's Trail and at the intersection with Carolyn's Trail, stayed left on Ted's Trail to the waterfall. Having previously done the main sections of Ted and Carolyn's Trails before, I needed a couple of intersecting spurs between the 2 and to finish the Cliff Trail from the summit. At the waterfall, I got turned around a bit and instead of staying on Ted's Trail as I had originally planned, because of a blowdown, I ended up on the first connecting spur, which descended slightly to Carolyn's Trail in about 0.2 miles. Going with the flow, I figured I'd just head up Carolyn's Trail and look for the next connecting spur and make my way back over to Ted's Trail. The AMC Guide mentions 2 spurs, I ended up finding 3. I missed the middle spur on my way up and saw the top spur, but at that point, I wasn't far from the summit and the spur looked like it headed down, so I figured I'd do my lollipop of Cliff Trail and come back to this point and take the spur back down. I reached the summit and headed down the Wapack Trail towards Pack Monadnock to pick up the Cliff Trail. I was a bit worried about the Cliff Trail, thinking it was going to be really "cliffy" and steep. I don't mind steep, I get anxious when that steep involves sheer drops into nothing. Cliff Trail in this direction initially descended rather steeply, which had me mentally prepared to climb back up. The first steep up was over a rooty section, which wasn't bad. The trail then went past a big talus field on the side of the slope. I wondered if the trail went up through the boulders, but it didn't, it skirted around and then steeply scrambled up the side of the talus field. It was definitely steep and up, but not bad at all and the climb was quick. It also wasn't out in the wide open, but amongst the trees. I reached the intersection with Ted's Trail and decided to take the short spur to the best views on the mountain. I was pleased with how I felt, considering I haven't done any elevation gain over 1000ft in exactly 6 months! You can do all the flat miles in the world, but climbing is a different ballgame (at least for me). I finished Cliff Loop back at the intersection with Carolyn's Trail and headed back to the spur I had seen on my way up. It isn't marked, but at a left turn once you re-enter the woods from the rock slabs, there is a yellow arrow marker on the tree and an obvious treadway in the pine needles. I started to follow it and was surprised once in a little bit to see it was blazed! I was back on Ted's Trail in about 0.1 miles and started heading down. The middle spur that I had missed on the way up, is actually signed on the Ted's Trail sign with a sign saying Carolyn's Trail in 750ft. I headed over, also surprised to see this spur blazed (so all 3 were actually blazed, also in yellow like the main trails, so it could get confusing if you weren't familiar with the map!) I stayed on Carolyn's Trail the remainder of the way down and back to my car.

Strava Activity