December 29, 2021
There will be multiple sections to this post. Instead of making separate entries for Monadnock, I’ll just keep adding to this one each time I visit. (Edit March 30, 2022 – I started a new post for the remaining six visits – see March 29, 2022 post).
According to (my own) rules, I will hike all maintained trails in a given landmark. Since this particular landmark includes the entire mountain, that means I will hike all the maintained trails on Monadnock.
I first visited this mountain with my daughters almost ten years ago; we did a White Dot-Cascades Link-Spellman-Pumpelly loop. The link to that trip report is here, and the photo below shows our route in yellow highlighter.
Today (December 29, 2021), I visited and stuck to the lower trails, as I am four months out from major abdominal surgery (removal of a honeydew melon-sized noncancerous tumor along with my uterus – the incision was vertical from my pelvis to just beneath my belly button). I am recovering well, but am still being careful not to go too hard too quickly. Pre-surgery, I could handle 26 mile traverses up and over multiple high mountains in extreme weather during all seasons. I’ll get to that point again, likely within a couple of months. For today though, the 5.5-ish miles with about 1000 feet of elevation gain was fine. Felt good, actually, like I could do a lot more. Soon, I will.
My route: Pond Loop-Ravine Trail (out and back)-Birchtoft-Cascade Link-Harling-Birchtoft-Pond Loop. This is marked in red below.
The snow barely covered the trails, so microspikes were sufficient. I saw no one at all which, for the third most climbed mountain in the world, was wonderful. Normally this place is supposedly a zoo, so if you want solitude, hike midweek during winter. I parked in the winter lot, where you do not need to pay November – March. It’s good to leave money anyway though, as your donation supports the state park.
The views were snow, trees, bridges, stone walls, and roads. A lovely walk in the winter woods. Always good to be out and about in nature.
