July 31, 2004

Mt Monadnock VT

We spent the weekend at Camp Charlie - a close friends yearly family get together in Colebrook NH. When looking for a neaby hike we could do on Saturday we saw that Mt Monadnock was only a few miles away. To get there - Follow Rte 3 north to Colebrook NH - go past the intersection with Rte 26 and take your next left onto Bridge Street. Cross the river and take a left onto Rte 102. Take your first left into the gravel pit. Follow the road to the left and park just before the sign - "vehicles are not allowed beyond this point". Head up the road on foot and turn left at hte trailhead sign - start following the trail and then head too the right corner where you will see blue surveyours tape marking the start of the trail.

This is the profile of our hike from our GPS. It was a steady grade with two stream crossings, one of which had a bridge.

The trail starts by following the road past the gravel pit.

Thie gravel pit is in operation.

Turn left at the trail sign, then head to the back right corner towards the summit of the mountain.

The first part of the trail is through the woods which is well parked with yellow trail markers, then after a stream crossing you come to a fire road - head up the road until it turns to a narrow path where you pick up the trail markers again after crossing the stream at a bridge.

Spencer waiting for the group to catch up.

Kerry and Kinsale taking a breather with Spencer. You can see the fire road is starting to get narrower.

Here comes the rest of the gang up the fire road.

Although the trail has some rocky sections, it is not too difficult a hike. Round trip it took our group 4 1/2 hours including a few stops and 30 minutes at the summit.

Geri taking a short break.

The boys waiting as usual :>.

We saw ots of red berries such as these, as well as a large cluster of raspberries!

Just before the summit you pass through an area of scrub pines.

The view of the tower as you approach the summit.

Some of us climbed the tower - this is the view.

As you can see behind Victoria, some of the boards are missing so caution is required. The first 1dozen steps are missing so you need to use the step supports on each side.