Today's weather was absolutely perfect hiking weather. Temps in the 70s with no humidity and a perfect breeze. There were a few bugs, only enough to complain about, not enough to actually take action. The biggest downfall was the haze, we suspect from California/Canadian wildfires, which unfortunately has become the norm each Summer. Laura and I set out early for Monadnock State Park in an effort to beat the majority of the crowds. We hit the trail around 730am and it was already starting to pick up. I had planned on doing this hike several weeks ago, but the weather had deterred me then. I had been very anxious at that time and done all my research then. This time I made somewhat last minute plans based on the forecast and just went out and did it. I think that helped as I hadn't taken any time to stress over what this hike may be like. We started at Headquarters on White Dot Trail and at roughly 0.8 miles turned onto Cascade Link. This trail, the past 2 times I have been on it, is somewhat wet and muddy with gorgeous cascades along much of the way. Today it was bone dry. There were a couple patches of residual mud, but the cascades were nada. Not even a trickle. Good and bad. The cascades are super pretty, but dry rocks/roots made for quicker walking. We passed the junctions for Harling Trail, Birchtoft Trail and Red Spot Trail, which was as far as I'd been on Cascade Link previously and continued another 0.2 miles to Spellman Trail. Known as the steepest trail on Monadnock, this was where my anxiety had been. It is only 0.6 miles long, but is pretty much a vertical scramble up the side of the mountain. The trail starts with boulders and eventually transitions to a more ledge type surface, with a little pine needle path in between. I honestly don't mind a good boulder scramble, even if it's steep, as long as there are plenty of things to hold on to along the way.. which in this case there were. Even on the ledge portions, there were still plenty of large rocks and trees to assist with pulling yourself up. It's definitely steep, really steep, but there wasn't really anything hairy about it. I had it hyped up in my head as way scarier. One spot I had read about was crossing the top of a waterfall, which was early on in the trail and due to the dry conditions today, was a mere trickle. I could see how that might be a bit sketchy if the water was really flowing as it's a straight drop down on one side, but today was no issue. I really loved Spellman Trail. We stopped for a snack break about halfway up, which was a perfect refuel. The views started as we neared Pumpelly Trail, but with today's haze there was really nothing to see. Once at Pumpelly Trail, we turned right heading back towards Dublin Pond and followed for just under a mile to the top end of Cascade Link. Pumpelly has a lot of up and down, but along this section we had views over to the summit and beyond for most of the way. We found a little side path to a rock with a perfect outlook and stopped for another extended snack break/rest. We took Cascade Link back down, which finished off that trail for me on my redlining quest. Cascade Link started off rather steeply with a couple of butt slide descents, but then mellowed out and honestly I think was one of the more gentle trails on the entire mountain that I've done to date. I loved it. Spellman and Cascade Link are definitely top contenders for my favorite trails on this mountain by far. We followed Cascade Link back to White Dot and down to the car. I highly, highly recommend this route for anyone wanting to explore Monadnock beyond the summit. You will see enough people, particularly on Pumpelly Trail, but you avoid the hordes of people on White Dot for the most part and get just as fantastic views. I now have 15 trails left on my Southern AMC Trail Guide redlining quest!
Strava Activity
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| normally a decent water crossing |
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| crossing the mostly dry waterfall on Spellman |
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