You Are Here: 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.

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