You Are Here: Crotched Mountain

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