The Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway is a roughly 50 mile trail stretching from the summit of Mt Sunapee to the summit of Mt Monadnock. I'm tackling this trail in small bits and pieces, although many do make it a multi-day thru hike. This was my 5th hike on the MSG and my adoration of the trail continues. It is impeccably maintained (in fact on my hike today, I passed a trail adopter making sure his section was clear) and very well marked. Today I started at Brown Road in Harrisville, where there was space for a few cars where the trail turned off the road and headed into the woods. Just as I was feeling a bit remote, a young family passed by that must live locally and were out for a stroll. That made me feel a bit better and I geared up and headed out. I was doing a 4 mile out and back section, with nothing really scenic along the way, just a pleasant walk in the woods. Within a half mile or so of starting I reached an area called Eliza Adams Gorge. There was some construction equipment parked and it looks like they must be doing some repair work on the Howe Reservoir Dam which is adjacent. Unfortunately at this time, the reservoir is practically dry and there was barely a trickle coming over the dam, thus the "Gorge" wasn't the spectacular sight I have seen in pictures on Google. Continuing on, I soon reached the Spiltoir Shelter. Amazingly, there was a large stockpile of water bottles, which the trail adopter I later passed said had been donated by the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway Trail Club due to the drought conditions right now and lack of water supply. Continuing on, the trail was a rolling up and down, but nothing too strenuous. The highlight was a town line sign for the Harrisville/Dublin town line! At about 1.5 miles from where I started, I crossed over Rt 101, which thankfully on my way out was relatively quiet so I didn't have to wait too long to cross. On my way back it was a bit busier, but I made sure to wait till it was completely clear before attempting to cross. On the other side was a pull off with room for parking if needed and a gate. A lot of this section was old road, so wide with relatively good footing. Somewhere around a mile from Rt 101, the trail actually veered off the old road and became an actual trail, descending down until it met with Old Marlborough Road in Dublin. Turning right here, it was roughly a 0.5 mile road walk (dirt road) before heading back into the woods and the final (for me) 1.1 miles to the Dublin Trailhead for Mt Monadnock. Once I reached that point, I turned around and retraced my steps to the car. Highlight of the return trip was passing 4 horses and their humans on the trail. I love seeing horses on the trail, they are so beautiful.. but I don't love what they leave behind, always right in the middle of the trail meaning I have to pay extra attention to where I'm stepping! Just as I arrived back at my car, a lady riding an E-Bike mountain bike headed into the woods.. just going to show this trail is a great resource for all sorts of activity!

sign on a tree where I parked off Brown Road

crossing Eliza Adams Gorge

Howe Reservoir Dam

Spiltoir Shelter

town line sign

crossing Rt 101

entering the trail at Rt 101

where the trail turns off the old road onto actual trail

Old Marlborough Road walk

re-entering the woods off Old Marlborough Road

Dublin trailhead

hiker register near Dublin Trailhead

entering trail heading north from Rt 101

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Mount Monadnock

There are 39 active trails on Mount Monadnock plus several abandoned. I've previously done 3 1/2. I've been eager to get back and do some more exploring on this beast of a mountain, but I've always found an excuse.. the weather wasn't right, I didn't have enough time, my fitness wasn't good enough.. well 2 out of 3 ain't bad.. the weather was perfect, and I had all the time.. so I headed back over to the State Park headquarters with my reserved parking spot and a plan. I arrived around 830am to plenty of cars already (not surprisingly), geared up and headed out for the Parker Trail. Immediately I missed the entrance, but luckily a kind ranger was parking his car and pointed me in the right direction. I was only off by a few hundred feet. Parker Trail was a nice gentle start, skirting around the Poole Reservoir and following along a slope at relatively easy grades for about a mile and a half. I followed all the way to the Halfway House Toll Road and then backtracked to the intersection with Cliff Walk. This was where my ascending began, but honestly it wasn't as bad as I had thought. There were definitely some technical areas, but there was a lot of level areas too. Great to catch your breath! I knew there was a ladder on this trail, but I had been anticipating it being like some of the other "ladders" I have experienced, which are more like stairs.. this was an actual ladder! Just before the intersection with Hello Rock Trail, is a viewpoint named Hello Rock. The first real views of my day. I spent the rest of the day enjoying the same views from time to time just from slightly different angles!. I turned onto Hello Rock Trail and followed that back over to the Halfway House site. I saw the most people of the day in the brief moments I was on the Toll Road. I figured the summit was busy, but I had no intentions of going up that far, instead enjoyed the solitude of exploring the smaller trails that criss cross the slopes of Monadnock. From the Halfway House site, I took Do Drop Trail. There is no sign right at this intersection, but it creates a triangle point with Hello Rock Trail off the Toll Road. A few hundred yards in are signs for the Side Foot Trail and Do Drop Trail. I headed up Do Drop Trail. This trail is short at only 0.2 miles, but packs a mighty punch going up 300ft in those 0.2 miles. I rejoined Cliff Walk just above the view point named Thoreaus Seat. This spot took me by surprise as it was rather precipitous. A rather tall rock with narrow spine and decent drop off on either side. Not down a cliff drop, but you'd hurt yourself if you fell drop. Being vertically challenged, I had to pull out some old gymnastics moves to get myself up and over this rock, briefly stopping on top amid my fears of slipping to take a couple pictures. Just before this spot, Thoreau Trail branched off, only marked with a white arrow painted on the rock (as far as I saw). None of these small trails were blazed, but were mostly easy enough to follow with a well established footbed. Thoreau Trail descended gently back to Hello Rock Trail and a junction with Point Surprise Trail, which I took back up to Cliff Walk. Up and down was the name of the game. I was amazed at the variety in terrain, from technical rock puzzle, to mossy/ferny trail to lovely woods.. it kept the day interesting. Point Surprise Trail met up with Cliff Walk at another view point called.. you guessed it, Point Surprise. From here I descended back down Cliff Walk to where I had turned onto Hello Rock Trail, to fill in that piece, then ascended again to Point Surprise, this time continuing on Cliff Walk back to Thoreaus Seat and the junction with Lost Farm Trail. By now I was getting tired but was happy to be on the final stretch. Lost Farm Trail was a slightly gently descent back to Parker Trail. Although on tired legs, the sometimes neverending feeling of navigating rocks and roots wore thin. I started tripping on anything and everything, but thankfully never actually fell. Back on Parker, I was very grateful for the easy going back to the car. In total 6.7 miles and 6 1/2 trails checked off the Monadnock tab of the AMC South spreadsheet.

Strava Activity

As I got near the mountain it was shrouded in cloud!

Poole Reservoir

cool glacial erratic that seemingly stopped to avoid ruining the wall

Parker Trail off Halfway House Toll Road

Cliff Walk was marked in White Diamonds and White Cs

view from Hello Rock

straight up

variety of terrain

I see a frog

view from Point Surprise

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Fauver East Trail

Family commitments have been my priority this year.. but I do miss the woods. Knowing my fitness has suffered, I went out easy and finished up the 2 trails I needed at the Walter Newton Natural Area in Plymouth. Fauver East and Glove Hollow Trail. There is a small parking pullout on Texas Hill Rd now at the Fauver East trailhead which wasn’t there when I did Plymouth Mountain. Room for maybe 3 cars. Fauver East was pleasant. The view points referenced on the map are no more.. but the trail is maintained. There are a LOT of well established but unmarked (as far as I could tell) trails in this area. Much as we’re conditioned to want to explore all the trails, only 2 of the probably 10+ showed up on one of the digital maps I was using (and not shown at all on the paper map).. so I resisted, not wanting to get lost! I stuck with the blue blazed trail (which is also incorrectly marked on most digital map sites I have seen).. there is a loop option, I went up the shorter side and down the longer side. There are well established paths to the apparent summits of the 2 peaks mentioned on the paper map with a small cairn on both as well. I had read that Fauver East Trail dead-ended beyond the second knob summit. I followed the blue blazes, which did continue past the summit and looked like they might be leading to a restricted viewpoint, but as the greenery became more and more overgrown, I realized I hadn't seen a blaze in a while, so I turned back around figuring I had reached the end of the road. Glove Hollow Trail wanders alongside a brook that feeds Rainbow Falls. Very dry, very buggy, but a nice meander. Rainbow Falls right now is merely a trickle. Having seen Rainbow Falls completely frozen previously, it's probably best to visit in the Spring when the snow is melting!

Strava Activity