Jackson Hill

 Weather has still been horrendous of late for the most part. Rain, rain, and more rain. We had a brief window on Sunday morning before more storms were forecast to come in, so Laura and I grabbed our packs and headed out. The plan was to hike a small section of the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway in Washington/Stoddard. We parked in the parking area for the picnic pavilion of the Seventh Day Adventist Church on King Street in Washington. The church graciously allows hikers to park here as the MSG follows King Street right past the church. We geared up and took some pictures of the church which is noted as one of the birthplaces of the Seventh Day Adventist religion, then headed out. We followed King Street, which was hard packed dirt road for just over half a mile with a gentle ascent. We were completely baffled at the number of cars passing us with out of state plates until we came upon a driveway for Montfort Retreat with signage for a camp. Must be a pretty special camp to have so many folks traveling so far! Beyond here, King Street turns into a Class VI unmaintained road, though there are still some camps beyond. The climb became a little more in earnest and in just under a mile from the start of the Class VI you reach the turn into the woods for the Barney Brook Trail, which the MSG follows. The trail descends for the first half mile or so, rather steeply near the bottom. As has been the case on all my MSG adventures, the trail is meticulously maintained and well marked. The only downfall to our entire day was the presence of way too many mosquitoes and ticks. At the bottom of the descent is a lovely pond, and then the climb begins up to Jackson Hill. Moderately to steeply for the first half mile, then it levels off a bit and is rolling through some gorgeous forest, before a final gentle climb to the Jackson Hill summit. A sign marks the border between Washington/Stoddard. About 1/10 mile before the summit, the trail takes a sharp left and intersects with an unmaintained trail that was previously the MSG route, which is marked with good signage. The summit is open with views of the surrounding area. There were beautiful wildflowers and we sat on a rock and enjoyed a lunchtime snack. Heading back down we opted to take the unmaintained "old" route for the MSG to create a lollipop. The trail started great but the further it went, the signs of abandonment became more obvious, though it was still very easy to follow. There were several really wet areas, and we wondered if that was what prompted the reroute. The descent seemed a lot more gradual on this side of the hill. At about 7/10 of a mile from the summit, we reached a pond and the trail shortly after joined up with a snowmobile corridor that descended more reaching Jefts Road (Class VI unmaintained) at about 1.6 miles from the summit. Taking a right on Jefts Road, we continued to descend before a roughly half mile moderate climb back up to rejoin King Street. Jefts Road passed through an area that was very open and had an almost savannah like feel. It was great having so many different types of terrain on this hike. We followed some gorgeous dragonflies and butterflies on this stretch and were completely surprised when a mini van came up behind us! Back on King Street, we retraced our steps back to the car. My adoration of the MSG continues!

Strava Activity

Seventh Day Adventist Church

Turning onto Barney Brook Trail from King St

Jackson Hill summit

reroute of MSG several years ago

Pillsbury State Park - Balance Rock Trail + Mad Road Trail

 I feel like it's been raining for years. More rain forecast this weekend, but after missing last weekend with family commitments, I needed to get out and reset. I decided to head to Pillsbury State Park where I had 2 smaller, separate hikes needed to complete all the trails. This way if the weather really went sideways, I wasn't going to be out for a long time and I could abandon the second if need be. I paid my entry fee, I think the Park Manager thought I was a bit loopy coming out in the rain and headed down to the Day Use Parking area at the playground in the middle of the campground. I was surprised to see as many campsites occupied as there were considering the weather forecast. Campers can be hardy people! I pre-covered my pack with the Osprey rain cover so it was ready if the heavens opened, put on some bug spray and headed out. Balance Rock Trail starts a short ways up the road from the parking area. I had a digital download of the trail, but it turns out the actual trail is slightly off from the digital version. I checked a couple other sites I use for digital maps, and they all were the same.. I mainly use the digital versions to see how close I am to my destination and motivation to keep moving. I always consult a paper map first. The trail is well marked with orange blazes and was easy to follow. The trail starts mellow at first, passing a fork to a couple campsites (sign marks the correct way) before gradually starting to climb. I found the trail in excellent condition with the exception of 1 really large blowdown in the first half. I climbed over on my way up, which took some careful maneuvering around limbs, but on my return I was able to go around much more easily. There were several more blowdowns after this but all were either easy duck under or step overs. This area definitely got hit this Winter as there were lots more blowdowns alongside the trail as evidence of that. As the trail gently climbed I had peeks through to the surrounding area thanks to some logging it looked like, but with the inclement weather, it was mostly socked in. It was very dark and damp. At about the 0.8 mile mark, the trail gets quite a bit steeper for a couple tenths before easing off and leveling out as you head out to the namesake of the trail. Don't stop when you get to the first large boulder on the trail (that had a small cairn on top) that appears to just be a restricted viewpoint, the actual "Balance Rock" is a little ways further on and marks the end of the trail. The rock and trail sit on the side of Bryant Mountain. There is an unmaintained trail that headed beyond the rock, and I have read of people going to bag the actual summit. The map was only showing it as a couple tenths from where the rock is, and I briefly considered it, even started down the herd path. I was surprised to encounter a gentleman geocaching! Then the skies opened and it started raining, so I changed my mind. Put on my windbreaker/raincoat and headed back down. I was surprised to see 2 other groups as I descended! There was even a rumble of thunder as I neared the bottom!

Strava Activity

Day Use Parking at Pillsbury State Park

start of the trail off the road

fork to campsites marked with a sign

blowdown along the trail

all the rain really had the greens popping

viewpoint socked in today

Balance Rock

another balancing rock!

Back at my car, I drove back out to Route 31 and down about a mile to the gated Mad Road Trail. I hda checked with the Park Manager if it was OK to park here and she said as long as the gate was not blocked at all, then yes it was fine. This is just a snowmobile trail and I needed the 2 mile section to Ridge Trail, the remaining mile I had done on a previous hike in which I looped around and up Ridge Trail. The trail was a little overgrown in places, as to be expected for a snowmobile trail off season, but also had a lot more clear sections than I anticipated which was a nice surprise. It was a bit of a rollercoaster with ups and downs, but rather uneventful with nothing to see except a couple peeks at ponds on either side near the beginning and my turnaround point. It rained most of my way out and thundered a few times for good measure. Once that stopped, the mosquitoes came out in force. I was swarmed and fully expected to be eaten alive (I seem to have escaped with only 1 bite which is amazing considering how many and how large they were!). I looked into the woods at around the 1 mile mark as I know there are fire tower remains up on what is sometimes called Bacon Pond Hill, but I was way too tired to consider a bushwhack regardless of how short this one would have been. Once I reached the Ridge Trail intersection, I about faced and returned to the car. This completes my quest to hike all the trails at Pillsbury State Park!

Strava Activity

Gate on Route 31

more vibrant greens

my turnaround point at Ridge Trail

thankfully no sightings of Bullwinkle today

Crotched Mountain - Bennington Trail

 Another later day hike. I had no intentions of hiking today when I woke up, but a change in weather forecast for tomorrow had me out the door with last minute plans. I headed for Crotched Mountain to finish the trails I needed. I parked on Old Mountain Road in an area that would fit 2 cars at the Bennington Trail head. Per the guidebook, this is an unmaintained trail, however it seems that efforts are being made to revive the trail as it was most definitely in good shape (besides 1 large blowdown) and even had what appeared to be freshly painted blazes. The trail starts on what looks to be an old road, judging by the tire tracks in the mud, and heads up almost immediately. Moderately at first, then really steeply. A combination of rocky Class VI type terrain and smoother pine needles, it was damp the entire way for me today after some recent rains. I had to pay particular care on the rocks and roots as everything was pretty slippery. Thankfully no mishaps! There is a sharp right hand turn about halfway up (which those freshly painted blazes alerted me to, if not paying attention you could easily go straight and not realize). Shortly after this was where I encountered the one large blowdown, at a left hand turn and then the really steep part! The sign at the base said 0.8 miles to the intersection, but my watch recorded closer to 1.0 mile. The intersection isn't marked, so I had to rely on my digital download to ensure I was heading in the right direction, although up was a good indicator as well ;) Easy to follow the blue blazes thankfully as there were lots of trails joining from all directions. More climbing and several more switchbacks, I made it to the summit. There are no views from the actual summit, but artefacts of the old fire tower remain and there is an active communications tower visible as well (or in my case, barely visible as by now I was deep in a cloud!) The blue blazes continued, but not in the direction I needed, so I followed a herd path marked with a few cairns that climbed down some rocks and met up with Shannon Trail at the vista point and picnic table. Again I was in a cloud and had a complete whiteout. I'd been up here a couple years ago and had seen the lovely views then. I picked up Upper Link Trail which descended, mostly at moderate grades for about half a mile to the intersection with Summit East Trail and Summit West Trail. I continued on Summit East Trail, which climbed really steeply up to a viewpoint (I imagine it's lovely!) and then continued a rolling up and down over several knobs and subpeaks for just over a mile. The woods were lovely, had I not been socked in, there would have been a few viewpoints along the way. It was much more technical than I had anticipated, the ups were up and the downs were down. There were rocks, roots and some really great cruisy pine needle sections as well. The trail takes a sharp right hand turn and descends passing by a very impressive rock slide before actually joining the bottom of the rock slide for a super gnarly, pretty steep tenth of a mile before flattening out and meeting Old Mountain Road. I turned right onto Old Mountain Road. Having done the other side on a hike a few months ago, I was thinking this might be a nice respite from the Summit East Trail and knowing I had a big climb ahead.. while much of it was a nice cruisy old road walk, there were some real rocky/wet Class VI type terrain that I had to pay particular attention too so I wouldn't slip and fall. I joined Summit West Trail for a brief moment, before turning onto Lower Link Trail. Having done this on my first visit to the area, I knew it was a climb. It cooked me last time, and cooked me again today.. though I was mentally prepared for it this time which made a huge difference. The trail is in great condition, but is a moderately steep 0.6 mile climb. Once up the trail levels off and soon ends at Shannon Trail. I took a right here and was rewarded with a super flat, gorgeous wander through the woods for 0.5 miles before another short climb to the Bennington Trail intersection. About a tenth of a mile brought me back to where I had come up earlier and I retraced my steps back to the car. 

Strava Activity

Strava Activity Part 2

Trail head on Old Mountain Road

summit in the clouds

old fire tower remains

ordinarily a lovely viewpoint

pictures don't do justice - straight up

another vista

trail joined the bottom of this impressive rock slide