You Are Here: Royce Trail

Still on a quest to avoid snow, I headed to Gap Mountain to do an out and back on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail and Royce Trail. I knew Gap Mountain had no Winter access, but I thought that was due to the parking not being plowed, turns out the parking is also gated. A moment of panic, and I headed to Donovan Trail, which was on my agenda today and just a short way down the road. The maps show a Parking symbol here too, so my route would be unchanged, just the start/end point would be different. Old Mill Road is hard packed dirt at first, but then turns into more of a Class VI road. I carefully made my way along, and reached what the digital map showed as the trailhead, only to find lots of No Parking signs here too. A little unsure what to do next, I continued a little further down the road and turned around. The spot I used to turn, I realized was completely off the road, there were no signs at all in this area about parking, so I decided to park here and hope for the best. The only signs were about Hunting/Shooting and were labelled Gap Mountain Forest, so I felt confident I wasn't impeding on private land. I geared up and headed back to the Donovan Trailhead. Cross a small open area and there is a sign dedicated to John Michael Donovan, for whom the trail is named. The trail was a 0.3 mile trail connecting up to the Gap Mountain Trail. Nothing of note to see, but nicely maintained with some stone steps at one point on one of the steeper sections. It was a gorgeous day out today and the sun was just starting to pop through the trees providing some magical light. At the intersection I joined the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail towards the Gap Mountain North parking area, which also coincides with the Wantastiquet-Monadnock Trail. The trail follows a stone wall for a short distance before turning left and crossing it, weaving through the woods, crossing a couple of old roads and over another stone wall before reaching the intersection for the short spur to the parking area. I hadn't expected to see anyone with the parking area closed, but I passed a couple heading up Gap Mountain. I figured they must have parked outside the gate. At the intersection I continued straight towards Route 124. This section was just under a mile and had a variety of terrain from lovely pine bed forest, several small stream crossings and some bouldery sections to scramble through. I found some mud in this area, but it could all be avoided. I reached Route 124 and carefully crossed over to join Royce Trail. This trail heads up the side of Monadnock, but has no parking area at the bottom. The trail started with a more technical rocky/mossy section but then opened up into wide open wander through the woods. With the leaves down, the sun was shining through the trees making everything so bright. The trail climbs gently then a little more moderately, but really didn't feel too bad at all considering where you are! I hadn't expected to see anyone on this trail either with no parking access, but 2 singles passed me on my way up, which took me completely by surprise! The trail got a little steeper and at roughly 1.2 miles from Rt 124 crossed over Cart Path. It was here I saw the first real ice of the day and even still it was in small patches and all avoidable. The next 0.3 miles was the steepest section of the day climbing up to reach the intersection with Monte Rosa Trail and White Arrow Trail. This was my turnaround point, but I could see looking up White Arrow Trail the ice became more prevalent. I retraced my steps and was surprised to see another couple heading up as I was descending. Way more people than I had expected! Although there was nothing scenic along this stretch, the bright open forest and shining sun, made the whole day so enjoyable! Back across Route 124, I returned to the spur to Gap Mountain North parking, and saw yet another couple! I was surprised to see when I popped out at the gate for the parking area there were 5 or 6 cars parking along the road. From here it was a short road walk back to where my car was parked.

Strava Activity