You Are Here: 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!

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