Columbus Day on Monadnock
Oct. 11th, 2006 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidMonday was Columbus Day*, my one free day for a month (also, my birthday; thanks to all who sent along felicitations), and the weather was perfect for a hike. I used to climb Monadnock every year, but it's been years since I last went. And I could tell, alas.
Bubblebabble and his dad joined me; it was good to have company. Unfortunately, we got there after the main parking area was full, so we were diverted to the auxiliary parking a mile and a half away, which meant more miles on the trail than I'd anticipated (which is to say, a later start and a longer route, so taking most of the daylight left).
We took the Birchtoft Trail to the Cascade Link, descending a little to get to the spring, then took the White Dot Trail to the summit. Coming down, we took the Pumpelly Trail to the Red Spot Trail, which became the Birchtoft Trail after the intersection with the Cascade Link. (There are many maps here (the official site is much less useful); I'm not sure just how many miles we hiked (6? 8?), though there were almost 2000 feet of absolute elevation gain... some of which we gained multiple times.)
It shouldn't've surprised me that absent any recent hiking, I was huffing and puffing a lot of the way up; somehow I thought all the (mostly-flat) walking would have helped, somehow. I hope to someday be in as good shape as Bubblebabble's dad, who biked to and from my house, floated up and down the mountain with ease, and did some impressive yoga stretches at the end of the hike. Me, not so much. As in, at all. Other than my huffing and puffing (not blowing the mountain down :-), it was wonderful.
I'd forgotten just how climbed the mountain is, especially White Dot: the rocks are smooth from all the climbing (read: more treacherous), as are all the useful trees to hold onto (someone mentioned the previous day's hikers numbered 2600). And there are some challenging climbs that are far closer to vertical than horizontal, sometimes big surfaces, sometimes large jumbles of rocks, huge boulders tumbling down a slope.
I don't remember climbing this late in the season before. There were more leaves on the trail (making footing a bit more precarious at times), and the blueberry bushes far past fruiting. There was also a lot of water. Usually I've climbed up just White Dot, so there's the spring at the bottom (with wonderfully cold water) and some little larger-than-puddle mini-pondlets higher up above the treeline. The Red Spot trail had a lot of water and wet rocks, and I now know why it's called the Cascade Link, with a stream cascading down near the trail. I managed to slip on a wet rock, landing with a thud just next to my tailbone. It hurt, and I think I'm getting an impressive black and blue mark, but otherwise I survived intact. (Modulo many aching muscles, that is.)
Some other things from the hike
From the drive (a new route for me, taking 119 from the Concord rotary of Rte. 2)
* Also, John Lennon's birthday, the Count from Sesame Street's birthday, and this year's World Overshoot Day. *sigh*
(See the scary statistics about the US part of this. 37% of the world's cars are in the US? Ugh.)
Bubblebabble and his dad joined me; it was good to have company. Unfortunately, we got there after the main parking area was full, so we were diverted to the auxiliary parking a mile and a half away, which meant more miles on the trail than I'd anticipated (which is to say, a later start and a longer route, so taking most of the daylight left).
We took the Birchtoft Trail to the Cascade Link, descending a little to get to the spring, then took the White Dot Trail to the summit. Coming down, we took the Pumpelly Trail to the Red Spot Trail, which became the Birchtoft Trail after the intersection with the Cascade Link. (There are many maps here (the official site is much less useful); I'm not sure just how many miles we hiked (6? 8?), though there were almost 2000 feet of absolute elevation gain... some of which we gained multiple times.)
It shouldn't've surprised me that absent any recent hiking, I was huffing and puffing a lot of the way up; somehow I thought all the (mostly-flat) walking would have helped, somehow. I hope to someday be in as good shape as Bubblebabble's dad, who biked to and from my house, floated up and down the mountain with ease, and did some impressive yoga stretches at the end of the hike. Me, not so much. As in, at all. Other than my huffing and puffing (not blowing the mountain down :-), it was wonderful.
I'd forgotten just how climbed the mountain is, especially White Dot: the rocks are smooth from all the climbing (read: more treacherous), as are all the useful trees to hold onto (someone mentioned the previous day's hikers numbered 2600). And there are some challenging climbs that are far closer to vertical than horizontal, sometimes big surfaces, sometimes large jumbles of rocks, huge boulders tumbling down a slope.
I don't remember climbing this late in the season before. There were more leaves on the trail (making footing a bit more precarious at times), and the blueberry bushes far past fruiting. There was also a lot of water. Usually I've climbed up just White Dot, so there's the spring at the bottom (with wonderfully cold water) and some little larger-than-puddle mini-pondlets higher up above the treeline. The Red Spot trail had a lot of water and wet rocks, and I now know why it's called the Cascade Link, with a stream cascading down near the trail. I managed to slip on a wet rock, landing with a thud just next to my tailbone. It hurt, and I think I'm getting an impressive black and blue mark, but otherwise I survived intact. (Modulo many aching muscles, that is.)
Some other things from the hike
- a short boardwalk near the lake (not at all squishy like the bog walk)
- lots of chipmunks, no squirrels
- interesting to see family dynamics around, mostly not good ones, alas (one excellent exception: the guy climbing with two kids who got into competitive resting, making sure they were all ok before continuing on)
- exhaustion, scary levels of it
- I'd forgotten how much old graffiti is carved into the summit, from the 1800s
- two interesting bugs at the summit (but few, if any, anywhere else that I saw)
- looking at all the layers of blue, mountains and skyline all around
- being on the summit below (four) flying hawks, but above a flying airplane
- edit (How could I have forgotten?) the guy running up the mountain /edit
From the drive (a new route for me, taking 119 from the Concord rotary of Rte. 2)
- lots of cows grazing (more mobile, less colorful than Boston cow sightings)
- art scarecrows lining the road in Jaffrey; of the ones I saw, my favorite was an upright cow, pink udder matched by the little pink tulle skirt
- best sign: "right turn for cooperage only"
- gorgeous cream-colored waning harvest moon on the drive back
* Also, John Lennon's birthday, the Count from Sesame Street's birthday, and this year's World Overshoot Day. *sigh*
(See the scary statistics about the US part of this. 37% of the world's cars are in the US? Ugh.)