Mount Monadnock

 There are 39 active trails on Mount Monadnock plus several abandoned. I've previously done 3 1/2. I've been eager to get back and do some more exploring on this beast of a mountain, but I've always found an excuse.. the weather wasn't right, I didn't have enough time, my fitness wasn't good enough.. well 2 out of 3 ain't bad.. the weather was perfect, and I had all the time.. so I headed back over to the State Park headquarters with my reserved parking spot and a plan. I arrived around 830am to plenty of cars already (not surprisingly), geared up and headed out for the Parker Trail. Immediately I missed the entrance, but luckily a kind ranger was parking his car and pointed me in the right direction. I was only off by a few hundred feet. Parker Trail was a nice gentle start, skirting around the Poole Reservoir and following along a slope at relatively easy grades for about a mile and a half. I followed all the way to the Halfway House Toll Road and then backtracked to the intersection with Cliff Walk. This was where my ascending began, but honestly it wasn't as bad as I had thought. There were definitely some technical areas, but there was a lot of level areas too. Great to catch your breath! I knew there was a ladder on this trail, but I had been anticipating it being like some of the other "ladders" I have experienced, which are more like stairs.. this was an actual ladder! Just before the intersection with Hello Rock Trail, is a viewpoint named Hello Rock. The first real views of my day. I spent the rest of the day enjoying the same views from time to time just from slightly different angles!. I turned onto Hello Rock Trail and followed that back over to the Halfway House site. I saw the most people of the day in the brief moments I was on the Toll Road. I figured the summit was busy, but I had no intentions of going up that far, instead enjoyed the solitude of exploring the smaller trails that criss cross the slopes of Monadnock. From the Halfway House site, I took Do Drop Trail. There is no sign right at this intersection, but it creates a triangle point with Hello Rock Trail off the Toll Road. A few hundred yards in are signs for the Side Foot Trail and Do Drop Trail. I headed up Do Drop Trail. This trail is short at only 0.2 miles, but packs a mighty punch going up 300ft in those 0.2 miles. I rejoined Cliff Walk just above the view point named Thoreaus Seat. This spot took me by surprise as it was rather precipitous. A rather tall rock with narrow spine and decent drop off on either side. Not down a cliff drop, but you'd hurt yourself if you fell drop. Being vertically challenged, I had to pull out some old gymnastics moves to get myself up and over this rock, briefly stopping on top amid my fears of slipping to take a couple pictures. Just before this spot, Thoreau Trail branched off, only marked with a white arrow painted on the rock (as far as I saw). None of these small trails were blazed, but were mostly easy enough to follow with a well established footbed. Thoreau Trail descended gently back to Hello Rock Trail and a junction with Point Surprise Trail, which I took back up to Cliff Walk. Up and down was the name of the game. I was amazed at the variety in terrain, from technical rock puzzle, to mossy/ferny trail to lovely woods.. it kept the day interesting. Point Surprise Trail met up with Cliff Walk at another view point called.. you guessed it, Point Surprise. From here I descended back down Cliff Walk to where I had turned onto Hello Rock Trail, to fill in that piece, then ascended again to Point Surprise, this time continuing on Cliff Walk back to Thoreaus Seat and the junction with Lost Farm Trail. By now I was getting tired but was happy to be on the final stretch. Lost Farm Trail was a slightly gently descent back to Parker Trail. Although on tired legs, the sometimes neverending feeling of navigating rocks and roots wore thin. I started tripping on anything and everything, but thankfully never actually fell. Back on Parker, I was very grateful for the easy going back to the car. In total 6.7 miles and 6 1/2 trails checked off the Monadnock tab of the AMC South spreadsheet. 

Strava Activity

As I got near the mountain it was shrouded in cloud!

Poole Reservoir

cool glacial erratic that seemingly stopped to avoid ruining the wall

Parker Trail off Halfway House Toll Road

Cliff Walk was marked in White Diamonds and White Cs

view from Hello Rock

straight up

variety of terrain

I see a frog

view from Point Surprise

Fauver East Trail

 Family commitments have been my priority this year.. but I do miss the woods. Knowing my fitness has suffered, I went out easy and finished up the 2 trails I needed at the Walter Newton Natural Area in Plymouth. Fauver East and Glove Hollow Trail. There is a small parking pullout on Texas Hill Rd now at the Fauver East trailhead which wasn’t there when I did Plymouth Mountain. Room for maybe 3 cars. Fauver East was pleasant. The view points referenced on the map are no more.. but the trail is maintained. There are a LOT of well established but unmarked (as far as I could tell) trails in this area. Much as we’re conditioned to want to explore all the trails, only 2 of the probably 10+ showed up on one of the digital maps I was using (and not shown at all on the paper map).. so I resisted, not wanting to get lost! I stuck with the blue blazed trail (which is also incorrectly marked on most digital map sites I have seen).. there is a loop option, I went up the shorter side and down the longer side. There are well established paths to the apparent summits of the 2 peaks mentioned on the paper map with a small cairn on both as well. I had read that Fauver East Trail dead-ended beyond the second knob summit. I followed the blue blazes, which did continue past the summit and looked like they might be leading to a restricted viewpoint, but as the greenery became more and more overgrown, I realized I hadn't seen a blaze in a while, so I turned back around figuring I had reached the end of the road. Glove Hollow Trail wanders alongside a brook that feeds Rainbow Falls. Very dry, very buggy, but a nice meander. Rainbow Falls right now is merely a trickle. Having seen Rainbow Falls completely frozen previously, it's probably best to visit in the Spring when the snow is melting!

Strava Activity

Trailhead on Texas Hill Rd

Kiosk at the junction with Glove Hollow Trail

Heading up Fauver East from the kiosk

summit cairn on the "south peak"

dry vernal pool today

summit cairn on the "north peak"

at the point I turned around

last blaze I saw beyond the "north peak" summit

bridge to Rainbow Falls on Newton Trail

Rainbow Falls is a bit of a "waterfail" today

standing on top of the falls