Keene [Mount Monadnock]

Mount Monadnock is one of the most hiked mountains in the world. This, in spite of its 3,165 feet of granite. It has attained almost cult status and several people hike it daily or weekly. It is not an easy hike requiring quite a bit of scrambling over borders and up rock faces. Not so bad on the way up, more challenging on the way down.

This morning I was on the trail at 7 AM sharp. The day was not going to be any less hot and humid than it has been and I wanted to get an early start. For most my hike I was the only one on the trail. The first part of this trail is forest floor with a nice shady canopy. As expected it was quite muddy from yesterday’s rain, and I had to ford some large puddles. It got rocky pretty quickly, then about half way up it turned into shear granite. I had been warned about this. Granite is much slipperier than sandstone and the standing and cascading water exacerbated the issue. I’m a slow hiker anyway and I was being particularly careful on this rather treacherous trail.

Partway up, a gentleman passed me at a good clip. Shortly after I saw that he was coming back down. I asked him if that meant the summit was close, but no he had pulled a muscle. I was happy to continue at my very measured pace. As I neared the summit, two women caught up to me. Kim, Kathy and I summited almost together - they had pulled a few feed ahead as they were far better hikers than me. As we were the only people on the summit for at least a few minutes (a family arrived shortly thereafter), we got to chatting and took some selfies together. Kim and Kathy are from Massachusetts, so we had a lot to discuss.

Unfortunately, the promised views did not materialize because of the persistent fog. But even the summit itself is quite beautiful and the standing pools of water created mini-lakes than enhanced the features. I spent about an hour on the summit before heading down. Even being very careful, I slipped a few times. But I did make it down without any major incidents and only slightly worse for wear. I had a nice chat with Wyatt in the camp store where I dropped in to present my day pass, and purchase a cold drink and a shot glass to commemorate the experience.

I felt I deserved some sort of reward for completing this rather difficult (at least for me) hike, so I walked down the block to Luca’s Mediterranean Cafe. As usual, I sat at the bar and Lauren took very good care of me. The small plates and my well-deserved glass of wine were excellent. I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Tomorrow I will drive East to Portsmouth to explore the NH coastline.