You Are Here: Monadnock Sunapee Greenway

For the first time in a long while I was able to hike with both my besties. We set out for a car spot traverse of a section of the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway between Route 9 and Pitcher Mountain in Stoddard. We spotted a car at Pitcher Mountain and headed to the MSG parking area off Route 9. It was a lot of uphill in this direction, but it worked out for the best. We immediately met with a very slight trail reroute due to the recent rains. The trail goes under Route 9 through a culvert, which was flooded out and signs redirected you to carefully cross Route 9 on top. The trail then follows up Nye Road, which becomes gravel, passes a beautiful house on the left and follows onto a snowmobile trail/Class VI road. For just under 3 miles the trail climbs then descends the slopes of what some maps call Dakin Hill and Melville Hill. It was very rocky and at the time we hiked, very, very eroded from all the rain. It was also very wet and muddy in places. This slowed us right down as we had to carefully find good footing. Thankfully there were some short dry places interspersed with the wet and rocky, but overall that section was very rough going. The trail was following Center Pond Road and at the bottom of the descent at just under the 3 mile mark from Route 9, it met with the drivable portion of Center Pond Road which was hard packed dirt. We took the 0.2 mile left onto Protection Road to the Crider Forest shelter, which is on private land. The shelter is in great shape with some flat areas for tents as well. We had a snack and headed back to Center Pond Road, passing some camps as well as Center Pond. I was amazed at how few bugs were out, so even though it was very hot, it was so much more tolerable without the bugs swarming like the last few weekends. Along Center Pond Road, a private residence has a tiny chapel that you can visit with 2 pews and some Gideons Bibles. Often times they have water available for hikers as well. We paid our respects before continuing on Center Pond Road which headed up a decently steep hill for just under half a mile. Hard packed dirt made the going easier. At a sharp right hand turn in the road there are signs for a trail relocation which happened several years ago. The trail now continues down Center Pond Road about half a mile and swings left at a cairn into the Andorra Forest. This was the type of terrain I had come to know and love along the MSG. The trail climbed quite moderately for about half a mile up to the wooded summit of Parker Hill. Heading down the backside of Parker Hill, the trail takes a sharp right and rejoins the original trail from before the relocation and then starts climbing again towards Pitcher Mountain. We passed a beautiful area called Robinson Brook Cascades with several small waterfalls, as well as an original settler cellar hole before the last stretch passed through some blueberry bushes which we snacked on along the way. The trail reaches Rt 123 which we crossed and arrived at our car spot at Pitcher Mountain trailhead. About 8.5 miles and 1500ft of elevation gain on the day.

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