Mt. Monadnock--Dancers

This weekend we decided to take the Sidefoot Trail from the Halfway House. It had been a couple of years since I last followed that route and there were a few things that were immediately apparent: The trail itself has been cleared somewhat. A few trees that had been along the trail were obviously cut, as we could see their stumps still in the trail. The blazes were relatively freshly painted, bright, clean white. And the trail seemed to have experienced extensive erosion in several places.  I didn't think we had had rains much heavier than anything we'd seen in other years, but perhaps the rains hit at just the right time to do the most damage. 

Despite the erosion, the trail was quite climbable and remains a good alternative to the White Arrow Trail. We could hear people along the White Arrow, although even with the decidious foliage barely starting to come out we never postively saw anyone. I thought I spotted a quick glimpse of movement at one point, but it was gone too quickly to be sure.

We had a rare encounter with a group of a dozen people traversing the Amphitheater Trail as we reached the top of the Sidefoot Trail.  While they graciously offered to let us pass, we were actually planning a break just before joining the White Arrow Trail, so we declined.

Sunday was a mostly cloudy day by the time we got to the mountain. At the top of the Sidefoot Trail, we could see a shower developing under the clouds well south of us and west of Mt. Wachusett. Frances asked how I knew it was rain rather than just a shadow from the cloud and I explained that looking through rain means that objects behind the rain become much less distinct than would be the case with a shadow. I took a couple of photos while we caught our breath and then we were back on the trail.

We took an obscure, unmapped route from the White Arrow Trail across to the White Dot Trail. Surprisingly this route was also recently maintained, and I was happy to see that a tree I frequently bumped my head on had been cut down. At the White Dot Trail, we turned and finished the climb to the summit.

As we approached the summit, we saw that Dianne Eno's Fusion Danceworks group was rehearsing for their May 21 performance. Monadnock legend Larry Davis was watching the rehearsal as we reached them. Our time to get here: One hour and thirty-five minutes. The lack of conditioning was definitely showing--last time I did this route it took about 1:20. And a few years back it was 0:50. Ok, so maybe it's age as much as conditioning!

We watched the dancers, took a couple of hundred photos (click the photos in this article to enlarge them), had lunch, visited the summit marker to look around.  The weather was holding, fortunately, Everyone was watching the shower to the south. It had grown considerably heavier and maybe a little larger, but really hadn't moved very much so we didn't think it was a threat. We did have some very light sprinkles on the mountain, but they were barely noticeable. There didn't appear to be any other showers close enough to be a concern. Below us, the landscape was dappled with sun and shadow from the breaks in the clouds.

Photographing the dancers was a challenge.  The clouds were very interesting, occasionally dark and threatening, sometimes breaking with a little blue between. But to get the clouds meant underexposing the dancers. To get the dancers meant overexposing and wiping out the clouds. A graduated filter wasn't the best answer as the dancers frequently were high in the sky on the various elevations of the rock. The other issue was that the clouds were dark and no sun ever hit the dancers while I was taking the photos. The exposures were a bit long, which meant that the dancers' motions sometimes just blurred into oblivion against the brighter sky. And, of course, overcast means low contrast and dull colors. Watch this space to see if I was able to get useful results.

The hike down the mountain was uneventful. Again, maybe a sprinkle or two, but I probably shouldn't even mention them. For me, the most notable part was the burning of the souls of my feet. I had adjusted my new boots so that I wasn't slipping inside as we hiked down, but I may need to make them a bit tighter or add a second pair of socks to reduce the friction.  We'll see what works, as I expect to be back to Monadnock next weekend, as well.

Happy hiking! And visit Hiking Trails on Mt. Monadnock.

Chicago takes note

Just a quick note to point out that the Chicago Tribune recognized New England's children friendly mountains.  Check out the article on Mini-Mountains here.

Monadnock--The Marlboro Trail

On Saturday, we got a late start but managed to get to Mt. Monadnock's Marlboro Trail head in New Hampshire at about 2:00 PM.  The day had been pretty variable--beautfully clear in the morning, then increasing clouds. It was supposed to clear again, but it looked a bit threatening as we started the hike.

This was my first time on the Marlboro Trail in perhaps four years. A couple of years of various physical issues interfered drastically with the weekly hikes I used to make. But Saturday was going to be the first time for the year, and maybe we'd be able to do some fairly frequent hikes later on.

I should have re-read my own description of the trail. The foot of the trail was steeper than I had recalled it. Not terribly steep, mind you, but certainly it went up a lot more than I thought it would. And depsite the hiking I've been doing on Mt. Wachusett, I was still struggling here.  (My friends Richard and Beverly had commiserated with me a couple of hours early about how much slower we had gotten in the past few years.)

The weather cleared as we continued up the trail, which on the lower slopes had a number of soggy and muddy areas. There were a few small sets of stairs here and there that Jim had managed to install. Generally, the trail was in good shape. Cairns were common even at the lower elevations, although the painted square trail blaze wasn't the capital M I expected until we got up to the first rocky clearing. 

We stopped to rest there--the other two seemed to be more tired than me at that point, although I was breathing hard when I caught up to them there.  We looked around a bit and enjoyed the views. Gary wanted to see Mt. Wachusett, but we couldn't quite pick it out from this spot. (On the way down, we saw that it was just at the shoulder of the mountain to the south.)

We continued up, taking a few minutes at the junction with the Marian Trail, just a little more than half way to the top.  We were all starting to get pretty beat by this point, but oped to continue up a little farther.

After leaving the deciduous trees behind, we were in all evergreen forest. A steep part was ahead of us, and lots of evergreens. The other two were looking like they had had enough, even though they said they'd go all the way if I did. Check the time: An hour and a half to this point,with at least half an hour to go--and probably more like 45 minutes. And then back down.  We decided not to push it, so we caught our breath, and a few photos, and turned around.  Half an hour later we were in the car and heading home, with a commitment to climb Mt. Wachusett again midweek, and to come back to Monadnock on the next weekend to head for the top.

The view to the northwest from the Marlboro Trail.

See the information about the trails on Mt. Monadnock.